London Road by SEDOS @ Bridewell Theatre, St.Paul's.

London Road tells the story of the atrocious serial murder killings of five women in Ipswich in 2006, which was well documented on national and even international news reportages. London Road is a typical residential British street that was subject to media frenzy and big brother intrusion following one of the biggest crime plots since Jack the Ripper savaged the Yorkshire community. The production documented the pre and post lives of one of Britain's most famed streets, including the trial and condemning of the guilty party, Steve Wright, the occupant of number 79.

SEDOS presented a dark plot with light and musical harmony that far outweighed my expectations with a talented cast and crew, given the major technicalities of the production which included live reporting and video camera devices on stage. London Road began with an introduction to community life, in village council meeting setting in a church hall with your archetypal 'do gooders' and noisy neighbour brigade. The production had a raw quality about it, and each and every character was natural and overtly appealing to the audience with their real approach. Vocally, the actors didn't have superb singing voices, but the action and realness of London Road almost made one forget it was a musical production as the action and stage settings detracted from the vocals of the cast.

What was so refreshing about London Road was that the actors presented real characters that one meets everyday in British society, and there was no overacting as everyone naturally fitted their parts. Each character was an accurate cross-section of society, from retired couples, to middle aged couples and then young teenagers who all portrayed varying attitudes of fear to indifference on the events. Despite the tragedy of the London Road events, the musical and indeed these 'everyday people' manage to build a community and still trust each of their neighbours implicitly as one got the impression at the various Christmas parties and garden fetes, that nothing had really changed following the sombre events of 2006. The lightheartedness of the Christmas party and garden fetes were a celebration of continuing life, and even the audience felt part of these events. I am sure each of the audience members could relate to each of the characters in this play as we are all interconnected with these people through voluntary work, careers or even leisure activities.

The visuality of the production was the key highlight for me as a viewer, in the fact that minimal stage changes were needed in order to represent the location of the setting. In essence, the back wall projection of the residential street pretty much remained as the back drop throughout. One could be transported from a neighbour's living room to a café, and then to a village hall meeting. All of the scene changes were rhythmically timed and prompt scene changes occurred, which all naturally followed on from one another in a logical sequence. Particularly strong scenes that included noticeable mood changes on stage included the police taping of the street, where one could really get a sense of how these people's lives were disrupted from everyday routine activity. Emotionally, one could physically sense the claustrophobia of living in the nanny state at this point. Visually, this scene was the most powerful and had the most effect on the audience who felt as if the community was trapped and could not escape the horrific tale. The news reporting and the trial scenes were also visually enthralling as they were well conveyed and all contributed to the build up of the guilty sentencing climax. Overall, both act 1 and 2 were as equally strong and effective at keeping the audience concentration as all was focused on the 'who dunnit' clause.

London Road is playing at the Bridewell until 6 August.

http://www.sedos.co.uk/2016/londonroad.htm