Review: Bomber's Moon, Lakeside Djanogly Theatre

Bomber’s Moon is the long awaited return of award wining writer Billy Ivory and his Southwell Trilogy to the Lakeside Djanogly Theatre after the triumph of The Retirement of Tom Stevens in 2006. Under the direction of Matt Aston, who also directed the first installment, Bomber’s Moon is a two-hander which tells the story of Jimmy, an octogenarian RAF veteran of the Second World War, who is taken painfully back to his days as a Lancaster Bomber tail gunner by the atmospheric shadows of his retirement home ceiling fan. As Jimmy relives the missions he flew over Germany, we also see the scars from another conflict, those left on his carer David, struggling with an emotional breakdown and the loss of those close to him. Both performers play their parts beautifully and the piece contains a third returning presence with David and the actor playing him, Tim Dantay, both appearing in Tom Stevens.

The play is wickedly funny and the scenes in which David and Jimmy interact in the retirement home are written with destructive force; the piece is compelling watching, the audience hanging on each revelatory word as the two men spiral downwards. Criticisms are limited but the staging of Jimmy’s flashbacks and becoming his younger self in some instances broke the close connection between him and David. However, in the second act, when Jimmy’s old comrade Frank joins him, again played by the chameleonic Dantay, there is more of a tenderness to the action which mirrors David’s affections toward Jimmy in the present.

Designers Laura McEwen and James Farncombe have created a stellar set with clever nods to Jimmy’s past, especially the port-hole door window and fuselage walls, whilst their sepia lighting and the shadows from the overhead fan take the audience back to the forties seamlessly. Equally Damian Coldwell’s sound design beautifully re-creates the terror of the raid and peacefulness of a safe return home.

This is a play deeply rooted in the East Midlands, to quote Jimmy “dug from the soil round ‘ere”, and is rich with local jokes and references. This doesn’t restrict the piece though as Ivory’s text speaks broadly about what it is to grow older, to lose and to love, in short, what it is to be human.

Bomber’s Moon: ****
Image courtesy of Alan Fletcher.