"The Palace Of Varieties" by Kevin Fegan

Derby Theatre.

"The Palace Of Varieties" or "The Life & Times Of Dennis Skinner" tells the story of Bolsover MP Dennis Skinner, from his childhood days through his political career up to the present day. And a fascinating journey we travel in this ninety-minute non-stop time tunnel.

I've never been politically inclined but I am the son of a miner so can associate with parts of this play and his fight for the miners and the common man. We see the Thatcher/Skinner race through the eyes of a car race and the parliamentary houses akin to a working men's club, complete with entertainment manager as speaker and singing and comedy turns. We also see Dennis Skinner's love for music and nature, and I learned something about bluebells that I did not know before!

We see the passion that Skinner had for representing the miners, as a miner, plus his political passions and his family life including the sad loss of his parents, the people he influenced, friends and a glimpse inside his personal life.

As a non-political person, this was all new to me and I found the whole story fascinating, I found the man fascinating and his stoicism completely admirable.

The play also is satirical and raised many laughs, not chuckles, but proper laughs throughout.

The set is actually on the Derby Theatre stage, screened off from the normal auditorium with seating for 120 at each performance and set up in the style of a cross between the House of Commons and a working man's club, complete with pool table, working bar and jukebox, with an after-show karaoke for the audience to partake. The "stage" being between the two sets of raised seating on either side.

This works particularly well as an intimate setting for the play. It would not have had the same reaction if the whole auditorium were opened up.

The cast of three work extremely hard with Jack Brown and Lisa Allen playing several character roles throughout with Gareth Williams, who you may remember from playing "Scrooge" at Derby Theatre a couple of years ago. I first saw Gareth nearly forty years ago at the Nottingham Theatre Royal as part of the accapella hit group, The Flying Pickets. Both Jack and Lisa run through a series of characters, of variable ages, as well as accents, while Gareth concentrates on being Skinner.

I mentioned the set, which was designed by Jen McGinley, and took us from the working men's club, to the House of Commons to down the mines and the hospital where Dennis found himself in his later years. The mine scenes were particularly well done with the assistance of the lighting design, by Benny Goodman. Daniel Ellis also created atmosphere with his imaginative sound design.

Kevin Fegan, the writer of this wonderful piece of theatre, highlighted the man behind the politician and miner and drew out his love of nature, music and his natural comedy. He showed that he had no fear in calling out other politicians if he thought them to be wrong and not doing things to benefit the constituents and voters, giving a voice to the man in the street.

Going in to this play with absolutely no expectations of what I was to see, I was very pleasantly surprised, and now feel that I know Mr Skinner personally, and like him as a man, and a politician, which is so much more than I can say for any politician today.

"The Palace Of Varieties" is at Derby Theatre until Saturday 5 February and whether you have any political leanings or just love a great piece of theatre, this is one not to be missed.