Holding Fire!

Holding Fire! is set against a backdrop that includes a massacre, murder and civil unrest in 19th century England. Jack Shepherd’s play charts the intersecting stories of Lizzie Bains (Louise Callaghan), a flower seller from the London slums and the Chartist movement. The former believed that she had been given a chance to get out from under the poverty and debauchery that has infected her world from a very early age, the latter believed the time was right to bring about radical change in the lives of all the working classes.

Lizzie accepts the offer of a job as a scullery maid, in the Great House of a rich Northern Family. Under the guidance from the local minister, she begins to work her way up the ladder and establishes a place for herself within the household. At the house she meets and eventually falls in love with Will (Craig Gazey), the boot black who is involved in the Chartist movement. Lizzie is reluctant to take on board their message however, preferring to keep her head down and out of trouble, fearing that involvement in such a contentious cause could jeopardise the position she has garnered for herself. Misfortune strikes the couple, when in a fit of jealousy, Will murders the minister who has also fallen in love with Lizzie. So begins another chapter which leads the pair into an accidental but important role within the Chartist movement across the country. Meanwhile the movement itself is reaching a point of divergence, on one side is William Lovatt (Peter Hamilton Dyer), and others like him, who try to steer a political path towards change, on the other, characters such as Fergus O’Conner (Jonathon Moore) wish to chart a more radical and violent one.

Historical figures including Friedrich Engels (Nicholas Shaw) and American Ira Aldridge (Christopher Obi), both of whom have utter or penned volumes on the condition of the English working classes at that time in history and the inclusion of historical events help us to contextualise the period in which this play is set.

There may be a temptation at times to compare or contrast the conditions and the mood of the times with that which we experience today. It is through knowledge of these movements that we may gain an understanding of the sacrifices that were made by some people in order that we may ‘enjoy’ the systems of democracy that we have inherited. Indeed within the setting of the Globe, and the manner in which Shepherd and director Mark Rosenblatt, place the players and the action amongst the audience, there is a level of engagement that brings the experience and thus the times even closer.

Although some scenes and characters seem superfluous, and didn’t add to the overall progression of either storyline. this did not spoil the overall impression or enjoyment of the piece. Holding Fire! continues until October 5th .