Brassed Off opens at Leeds Playhouse with real
SkimNews Take
Embedding recent Conservative PMs into a 1996 mining drama collapses two decades of political distance, framing industrial decline as an unbroken arc rather than settled history.
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- Leeds Playhouse stages its first-ever production of Paul Allen's "Brassed Off," the Yorkshire mining-and-brass-band play adapted from Mark Herman's 1996 film, directed by Amy Leach and running until 11 July.
- Amy Leach updates the political landscape beyond Thatcher, incorporating speeches and projected images of Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak to argue that "ordinary working people" remain at the bottom of the slag heap.
- Katie Scott's set design features a multilevel steel staircase descending toward enormous pit wheels, with opening choreography evoking the Iwo Jima flag-raising as miners hew coal.
- Horbury Victoria and Wakefield Metropolitan brass bands supply musician-actors who swell the cast, drawing emotional reactions — including tears — from local audience members.
- David Birrell anchors the cast as gruff band leader Danny, alongside Danielle Henry as terrified Sandra and Andy Cryer as Jim, who weeps at the brass-accompanied denouement.
Why it matters: By splicing images of Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak into a story originally framed against Thatcher, Amy Leach reframes the 1996 mining tale as an ongoing political betrayal — and the tearful Yorkshire response suggests the Playhouse's first staging landed as current commentary, not nostalgia.
