Literacy, lockdown and the love of music - new play in Hove

Goodbye Jolene by Siobhán Nicholas is a play with songs, featuring country music alongside 16th-century choral compositions.

The play, which will be performed by Brighton-based company Take the Space, will tour to theatres around the south-east.

Siobhán said: “It’s about a woman who finds inspiration, courage and strength through music. Care worker Niamh quits her job after Covid, determined to change her life. Her secret is she struggles with dyslexia – but after being invited to sing at Blackpool Country Music Festival she has to confront her demons, once and for all. Norman the choirmaster, played by Chris Barnes, offers to coach her. They are very different people, from different backgrounds – but an alliance emerges.”

Siobhán, who is based in Brighton, was inspired by her Auntie Mary, who suffered from dementia but who could still communicate through music: “In the care home my lovely vibrant aunt became someone who wasn’t able to communicate with the outside world but one day when I started to sing, she remembered my name.

“I took out my mobile phone and started singing along to one of her favourite country songs. To my delight, she started smiling. Not only that but suddenly she seemed to recognise me and when a nurse gently asked her who I was, clear as a bell, she answered ‘Siobhán’.

“It reminded me of the healing power of music and how music stirs memory and I knew I had to write a play around that idea.”

Sadly, Mary was one of the thousands of people in the UK who died in care homes during the Covid lockdowns.

Siobhán, the child of Irish immigrants who settled in Kilburn, also wanted to honour her mother, a teacher who taught many adults and children to read and who inspired in her daughter a love of words and writing.

“Through my mother, a determined teacher, I discovered the joy of reading which soon became a superpower for a small, lonely child with thick glasses, an odd accent, in the wrong uniform at a new school.”

The music in Goodbye Jolene is a combination of country music and 16th-century early music by English composers William Byrd and Thomas Tallis. Early music has long been a passion of Chris Barnes, who takes the role of Norman, the middle-class choir master who becomes a mentor to Niamh. Chris, who was a Westminster chorister as a child and studied music at Durham University, has also written original music for the production.

Siobhán said: “Too many people in the UK believe that classical music is above and beyond them – too highbrow and so we’d really love our audiences to leave the theatre having enjoyed all the music in the play.”

The Old Market in Hove on July 6 at 7.30pm. Tickets theoldmarket.com.