With Nobbs On

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Albert Nobbs @ Oldham Coliseum

BROAD northern comedy has long been a speciality of the house and they don’t come much broader or more northern than this.

Which isn’t a criticism, because writer/drama lecturer Gordon Steel’s script is often a very funny but surprisingly subtle bittersweet affair with some depth, and director Kevin Shaw and his excellent cast serve it with skill and integrity.

Albert has just retired after 50 long working years, and another 40 of marriage, and he’s driving wife Connie (Sue Wallace) to distraction.

But his world is suddenly blown apart when Connie is killed in a road accident, only to reappear from the other side of the Tarmac, to urge Albert to take stock and move on.

Crudites

There are irritating crudities in the piece – mature characters like these speaking quite so foul-mouthed just sounds embarrassingly wrong – and a superfluous character and minor other sundry bits and pieces need cutting and then the piece really, really would soar.

But we loved it anyway. And that’s very largely thanks to Kenneth Alan Taylor – twice this theatre’s saviour back in the closure-threatened bad old days.

Returning from semi-retirement, he gives the performance of his lifetime as Albert.

He of the doleful countenance offers a helping of exquisitely cured ham with a sense of comic timing that’s as sharp as mustard. It’s a tour de force in the very best Coliseum tradition.

Albert Nobbs is at Oldham Coliseum until Saturday, July 15. £7 - £17.50. Call 0161 624 2829.