Review: A Class Feeling: This Is Makina at Customs House
A Class Feeling: This is Makina
Customs House, South Shields – 20th September 2024
Invited| Review by Stephen Stokoe
Photo Credit: Benjamin Michael Smith
It has been one of those weeks where anything and everything can and does happen. I have been all over the place, meeting all kinds of people and watching some superb theatre. Tonight was no exception as I returned, for the first time in quite a long while to The Customs House in South Shields for Christina Berriman Dawson’s A Class Feeling: This is Makina. I had no idea what to expect.
The place was bouncing even before the audience arrived to the heady beats and stomach throbbing bass of Makina – a sub-genre of hardcore techno music performed by MC Flecky and MC Tolman.
Described by one of the cast as ‘…a love letter to the North East…’ I could not have really put it better myself because that is exactly what it is but there’s more. We are first introduced to the characters towards the end of the MCs’ performance as they dance to the sounds prevalent in north east clubs around the region. We are introduced to Justin (Ben Gettins) who is a typical South Shields lad riddled with insecurities about his own life but also scarred by the sudden loss of his mother some years earlier. He now lives with his absent father and his new girlfriend, Jam (Kylie Ann Ford.)
Justin’s best friend Woody (Andrew Finnigan) is a positive influence on Justin even if he, himself, is prone to making daft decisions. He is a college student training to become a paramedic. The cast is completed by ne’er-do-well bully Adele (Emily Dowson) who is not nearly as hard as she thinks she is but is happy to flex her muscles behind the infamous trackie bottoms of her hard as nails brother.
The main part of the story is around Justin’s mental anguish at the loss of his mother and trying to find some sort of closure by finally disposing of her ashes in his happy place (which he calls ‘The Nice Place’ down by the South Shields’ seafront. It is in the quality of Berriman’s writing that we can fill in a lot of the previous decade of angst through the lens of this brief window into Justin’s life. There is heartache, loss, poverty, class divides and angst throughout this piece but presented in a realistic and down to earth way that I think anyone could relate to each of the characters no matter where in the north east (and beyond) you may have been born.
Gettins performance as Justin is outstanding. He has a natural warmth anyway as I have encountered in several other performances by this very talented local performer and paired with Finnegan, they exude a friendship that is as heart-warming as it is comical as they figuratively bounce off each other. Ford gives an assured performance as the matriarch, Jam (real name Louise) and the audience really warms to her matter of fact slightly depressed and world weary attitude to life in general but also to her unwavering affection for her ‘step-son.’
All of the performances were very realistic but special praise goes to Emily Dowson in the role of Adele. You cannot help liking this rather rotten character and find yourself feeling rather sorry for her throughout the piece. I certainly recognised her as similar to a few characters from growing up in my industrial town back in the day.
This is a very interesting piece which combines some hard hitting topics. Were it to be filmed for television then I am sure there would be disclaimers galore and probably a helpline displayed at the end for ‘…anyone affected by the issues raised…’ As the aforementioned love letter to South Shields, it certainly achieves its objectives and it is well worth a watch. Bravo, bravo and again bravo to everyone involved.