Narc. Magazine Online
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Neil Ainger witness Sunderland’s passionate salute to individuality, creativity and community
Images: Company in NT Public Acts production of Public Record at The Fire Station in Sunderland © Luke Waddington
“This is our Public Record. And it’s going to last forever!”
A joint production between Sunderland Culture, Sunderland Empire and the National Theatre’s Public Acts programme and featuring a cast of over 100 musicians and dancers, Public Record is a musical theatre ode to Sunderland, performed by and centred around people who call the city their home. The house band, consisting of Ross Millard from Mackem musical icons The Futureheads, David and Peter Brewis of Mercury-nominated Field Music, and accomplished keyboardist Sarah Hayes, are joined by professional dancers as well as Sunderland-based community street dance group Dance Jam. The central concept of Public Record is that of a community coming together to record an album about the city; paying tribute to its past while refusing to remain stuck in it, and looking forward to it’s future with optimism and hope.
We hear from the huge and diverse cast personally; from old age pensioners to days-old newborn babies (yes, really), from people who descend from families that have lived in the city for centuries, to Sunderland’s Nigerian community who have called the city home for only a short time – we hear exactly what it is that Sunderland means to each of them.
There is a heart-warming tribute to the late, great Faye Fantarrow by participants of the music mentorship programme The Young Musicians Project; a rousing rendition of Elvis’ Can’t Help Falling In Love by Mackem folk singer Dave Murray, reminiscing of Sunderland nightlife of old as well as appreciating the nightlife and the culture of now; and Barry Hyde, the Futureheads’ frontman, dancing in a sparkly, sequinned jacket.
Public Record is essentially a love story to a city. A city once overlooked and left abandoned, that is now flourishing and leaving so many of its residents wanting to shout their love for it as well as their excitement and hope for its future from the rooftops. It is a celebration. It is a documentation. It is a permanent and public record of a moment in time. It is a poem, a painting, a work of art immortalising a particular place and time. It is a passionate salute to a city by the sea that is embracing its creativity and its artistry and, most importantly, its community.
As someone who also calls the city home, I was left struggling to contain my emotion throughout while taking home with me a warm feeling of beaming pride; pride in my city and pride in every single person involved in putting together such a unique and beautiful production.
