Mixed Up North

Are mixed-race relationships superior? Does social work in a depressed town like Burnley make a difference - or is it just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic? And, if you put a song and dance at the end, does journalism become theatre? These are just some of the questions raised by Robin Soans's new play, in which members of a multicultural youth club debate social issues and tell us about their tough lives. At its best, the piece - created after months of research in Lancashire - feels like the people of Burnley communicating with us directly. We learn that the 2001 race riots have been rebranded as 'disturbances', and that concern for the town's reputation is impeding action on its problems. And 'problems,' as youth worker Aneesa tells us, 'are our biggest industry.' Later, Aneesa tells us about her arranged marriage in Pakistan; and we hear from a young white woman whose sister was 'groomed' for sex by a Bangladeshi businessman. Amid these grim tales, the ensemble cast's backchat and braggadocio are fun and convincing.

But Soans creates an icky fictional context for it - which is that we, the audience, are guests at a rehearsal of the youth club's forthcoming show. Fine, in principle - but it makes these arguments and intimate revelations ring highly unlikely. What we end up with, in Max Stafford-Clark's production, is half credible dramatic reality, half special report in a broadsheet manhandled onto the stage. Soans stuffs his script with wide-ranging information and opinion, but doesn't take a stand one way or another. You won't get drama, then, but a journalistic exposé brought to spirited life.