The Last Ship from Broadway to Newcastle: A feminist political musical for the Brexit era | Intellect Skip to content
1981
Volume 12, Issue 3
  • ISSN: 1750-3159
  • E-ISSN: 1750-3167

Abstract

Sting’s musical, premiered on Broadway in 2014. Four years later, following a series of workshops at Northern Stage, the musical embarked on its UK tour featuring a number of revisions to its narrative and structure. What emerges from the revised production is a narrative, which places women at the centre through affording them agency and allowing them to occupy powerful, liminal spaces. Whilst remains a tale for the working classes, its UK revisions do well to reposition the central role of the women in this community. Through removing principal characters, which previously served to reinforce a patriarchal hierarchy, the fictional women of Wallsend now drive the plot, allowing for to communicate a morality tale, which echoes the ideologies of a feminist, post-Brexit era.

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2018-12-01
2024-04-24
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References

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  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): feminist; liminal; musical; Northern Stage; political; sting; working class
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