The excellent Middle Ground Theatre Company add to their long list of theatrical triumphs with this excellent revival of Billy Liar.
Keith Waterhouse’s sharply observed social comedy found success as both a play and a film starring Tom Courtney as the undertaker’s clerk who tries to daydream his way out of drudgery.
Nathan Hannan is superb as the fantasist of the title. His constant lies and complicated love-life threaten to bring reality crashing into his make believe world.
Director Michael Lunney’s adaptation manages to evoke the stifling boredom and suffocating parental expectations visited on him in a drab post-war northern town.
Helen Fraser and Dicken Ashworth shine as Billy’s parents while Lauren Drummond excels as the prim Barbara.
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