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Young Reviewer: She’s Leaving Home

It’s been little over a week since we closed the last front door for She’s Leaving Home on our intimate living room tour of Liverpool 8. And to round things up we have one more glowing review to share (we couldn’t help ourselves). Read what local young reviewer Devon Forrester-Jones had to say below…


She’s Leaving Home is a wonderfully down-to-earth piece of theatre performed in a living room in a house in Liverpool 8 as part of Liverpool’s Sergeant Pepper’s at 50 festival. It was a remarkably intimate experience that really captured the humanity of dealing with home, women’s relationships to domestic responsibilities and the uncertainty which faces today’s youth.

Local actress Brodie Arthur plays Kelsea, a young woman whose natural maternal drive leads her adopting the role of Mother. Her Mum isn’t always emotionally available due to bouts of depression and long shifts at work. Kelsea’s own plans are constantly made impossible due to her commitment to her brothers, earning a living and keeping the home. As she grows older, it becomes clear that this is not sustainable, and this builds to an emotional climax…

The performance was remarkable: Brodie’s natural manner was more than delivering lines, it felt like her really telling her story. As Brodie is from Liverpool, her use of local dialect and slang made her truly convincing. Her command of the space was entirely natural and at points there was little to distinguish the experience from being at a friend’s house.

Between scenes time is shown to pass with circus-styled puppetry by Zoe Hunter and live cello music by Semay Wu. These surreal moments create a tangible feeling of the anxiety around growing up, around wanting to leave the home but also of needing the comfort of the familiar, and the guilt associated with leaving responsibilities. These moments involved the audience deeply.

The intimacy of the performance and the clever use of the space made the performance a very pointed piece – the emotions evoked were felt by every one of us, and brought a few to tears. Slamming tea cups in anger, shouting up the stairs to siblings, hearing taxis pull up outside – these were all details that complimented and enforced its setting in an ordinary living room.

Production was managed by 20 Stories High Theatre, an award-winning company based, Liverpool that is now in its 10th year. She’s Leaving Home began with a workshop with local young people using The Beatles’ song to ask questions about their relationship to home. The plot was generated from their stories. Brodie was trained by 20StoriesHigh, showing their commitment and loyalty to developing opportunities and skills for local youths, especially those from minority backgrounds, something which is desperately lacking in a current cultural climate of austerity.

She’s Leaving Home was a remarkable piece of work designed to settle you into a familiar setting where memories bubble up of your own similar experiences, making it relatable to all. It also shows the life of young people, who struggle to balance low-paying jobs, domestic life, and their own goals. This play captures how difficult it can be in working class backgrounds, and especially for young women, to gain independence, as chores and looking after the family are shared duties. But the play offers a resolution, where Kelsey chooses to leave that environment and become independent. That is something many young people today dream of – being able to afford to leave the family home and build their own, especially for those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Despite this, She’s Leaving Home offers hope to those who might not see a way out. It does this with sharp wit, clever staging and excellent delivery. I’d give it 4 stars out of 5.


This review was written by Devon Forrester-Jones, a writer and artist based in Liverpool, who has an interest in culture and its relationship to everyday life.

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