Book and Lyrics by Joe McNeice
Music by Matthew Spalding
BARN THEATRE, OXTED (2018) • THEATRE@41, YORK (2019)
WRITER
Set in a humdrum care home threatened with closure by greedy property developers, a group of elderly residents hatch a plan to carry out a diamond heist to save themselves from eviction.
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Twilight Robbery began life as a writing assignment during my university degree. It did well, so Matthew Spalding and I decided to musicalise the script and put it on stage. We really enjoyed our first writing collaboration and learned an awful lot from the process. The two workshop productions were met with hugely positive responses and Matthew and I have gone on to write countless songs together since. It would be nice to see this one come back in some form.
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The York production was produced by Nik Briggs for York Stage Musicals Ltd.
PRODUCTION PHOTOS
"The response to Twilight Robbery has been so positive that York Stage Musicals' artistic director, Nik Briggs, now hopes to present a brand new musical each year alongside the plethora of better known works.
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McNeice, book and lyrics, and Spalding, music, are ostensibly tackling the UK’s age crisis head on by spotlighting social issues such as the loneliness epidemic faced by many of the UK’s elderly. They certainly do this, but they do so in such an uplifting way, not least because they focus on a motivated group of old people that refuses to let age of self-doubt stop them from achieving new goals.
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In particular, McNeice shows a gift for both physical comedy and the humorous to and fro of quick-moving dialogue.
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Twilight Robbery is a very promising start, a musical with a heart, lively songs and funny lines aplenty. If you missed the May run, rest assured we'll be hearing more from Messrs McNeice and Spalding."
FULL ARTICLE AT
