It has been 31 years since its inception, but Beautiful Thing continues to be a nostalgic love-letter to the queer community. This week, Disley Productions’ iteration is at the Storyhouse, Chester and it will leave you laughing, crying and in need of a warm hug.

With direction from Phil Edwards, Beautiful Thing is set in a council block of flats in working class Thameshead, Southeast London, where we are introduced to some of the residents of three neighbouring flats. Our protagonists are Jamie (Jack Marsh) and Ste (Jake Cross), two 15-year-olds struggling with their living situations and inner turmoil of their sexualities. Jamie lives with his mum, Sandra (Catherine Bryant) who lives for her career as a bar worker and struggles to maintain a relationship- her current flame being artsy Tony (Dan Costello). Ste lives with his alcoholic dad and drug-dealing brother- neither of whom we see in the play, but their presence is alluded to throughout. The final flat is housed by Mama Cass obsessed, Leah (Abi Hoarty) who has been excluded from school and spends her days singing to herself to pass the time.  

Each member of the cast brings a multitude of talents to their respective roles. Marsh brings the naivety of Jamie and heartfelt emotion needed when addressing his sexuality. Cross conveys Ste’s strength to conceal his struggles throughout and brings a natural energy to the role.

As Sandra, Bryant will have you laughing out loud with her well scripted one-liners from playwright, Jonathan Harvey, as well as her hilarious scenes with Costello who wrings every ounce of character out of his neo-hippie Tony . Neither actor lose their way, even when, at times, having their lines trodden on by other performers.

Hoarty comes into her own during Act 2 when hallucinating that she is, in fact, Mama Cass, and her accent could be mistaken as real it was so authentic.

Sound and lighting design from Ryan Bird was flawless and transitioned the scenes fluidly and expertly- the musical mix in particular.

Set design from Phil Cross (constructed by Mark Disley), was purposeful and reminiscent of the 1996 screen adaptation. Right down to the minor details of broken door numbers and dated deckchairs, it transported the audience to the era depicted.

First night jitters can be blamed for the stepping over of lines, though the pacing of certain scenes could be slowed to enable the actors to concentrate on their accents to improve the naturalism of the piece. The script also struggled to convey the slow-burning nature of the ‘more than friends’ relationship developing between Jamie and Ste. Early signs of romance feel somewhat diluted, and there were perhaps missed opportunities for fizzes of chemistry to emerge as their love for each other slowly manifests. It should, though, be appreciated that this would be significantly easier to portray on screen and some smaller details could be lost on stage.

Overall, this is a well-rounded production of Beautiful Thing and if you have never seen it before, I implore you to buy a very reasonably priced ticket and go fall in love with the 1990s equivalent of Charlie and Nick, those who know, know…

Beautiful Thing runs at the Storyhouse until Saturday 14th September. Further information and booking can be found here.

Gifted tickets in exchange for an honest review.

Photography by Mark Carline.