FringeReview UK 2025
Natasha Cottriall (God Save My) Northern Soul
Toby Parsons Productions in association with Park Theatre
Genre: Comedy, Contemporary, Costume, Feminist Theatre, Fringe Theatre, Mainstream Theatre, New Writing, Short Plays, Solo Play, Theatre
Venue: Park Theatre 90, Finsbury Park
Festival: FringeReview UK
Low Down
Actor Natasha Cottriall writes and stars in her own 60-minute one-woman play (God Save My) Northern Soul directed by Hannah Tyrrell-Pinder. It runs in tandem with Benny Ainsworth’s Vermin at Park Theatre’s 90 till September 16.
Time will deepen the shadows and writer/actor Natasha Cottriall shows this in the very last moment.
Photo Credit: Mark Senior
Review
When your mum’s been dying on you without warning, aged a youthful 50, what can 19-year-old Nicole do? That is, with the funeral, the car, the sandwich business her mother’s just started up with a flourish, with staff? And all the bills Nicole’s never seen, let alone made sense of? Better pay off grief first. And the little matter of losing your virginity.
Oh and finding your father and coping with your Catholic Grandmother. And being one of only ten “really really from” biracial or Black people in Wigan? Actor Natasha Cottriall writes and stars in her own 60-minute one-woman play (God Save My) Northern Soul directed by Hannah Tyrrell-Pinder. It runs in tandem with Benny Ainsworth’s Vermin at Park Theatre’s 90 till September 16.
Cottriall has made an impression at the Globe (Henry VIII and Charlie Josephine’s I, Joan, both 2022) and in Lucy Kirkwood’s The Welkin at the National in 2020, amongst other appearances. This is her first play. Cottriall’s an engaging writer, and performer. Though portrayed as a ‘dark comedy’ there’s little dark about it, and considering the play Northern Soul is coupled with, it’s best to see this as a coming-of-age piece with a bit of grieving attached.
Cottriall’s work is about coping, rather than grieving, and Nicole’s exuberant persona, humour, and warmth leave less to explore the nature of grief save how to cope with the adrenalin kick of everything thrown at you. And that’s often how it is: the practical takes over, and here there’s no time for anything else. Teaming up with her saviour, mature student (“hates that term”) college friend Sally, chain-smoking to paradise, Nicole hits the dance floor a couple of times, makes up a foursome; and despite what we hear earlier, well does she emerge as “adult” (Nicole’s term for sexual experience) at the end? In anyone else’s judgement the answer’s an emphatic yes.
Informing people includes tracing Nicole’s Caribbean father, last heard of in Leeds. And maxing out your card, frantically signalling to Sally to rescue her with the funeral baked vegan meats at the cash till. Cottriall’s excellent at inhabiting the gallimaufry of voices around Nicole: Sally’s blowtorch way with the blank-faced cashier: “Her mother’s just died… show some respect” as she pays the bill, and the quartet of voices on the dance floor. And almost-fit Steve she’s paired with, obsessed with his garlic bread. There’s a story there. Cottriall’s fine too with the slightly occluded Catholic grandmother, who somehow allows herself to be led int a vegan café “Are they satanists?” Just falafel-munching pagans of course.
The hour passes swiftly, with few moments of varying repose, which is understandable. For a one-person show, more naturally a fringe work, it’s a well-supported production. There’s Alex Marker’s busy cube of a kitchen set, varied by Chris James’ often disco or clubbing sounds and Richard Williamson’s discreet lighting: usually hinting not blazing. Cottriall flips in and out of costumes and hair-ties too. Everything’s fined down to Park 90’s corner studio stage, with the L-shaped audience not too close.
Deeper notes might have been explored, though as a writer Cottriall keeps the drama in a straight-ahead narrational fashion. There’s little time for eddies of grief either to punctuate or subtly shape the plot. Time will deepen the shadows of this appealing debut; and Cottriall – clearly a gifted writer – shows this in the very last moment, which is unexpected. That moment alone suggests where Cottriall might go next. See it alongside the very different Vermin.
Stage Manager on Book Erin Blake, Producer Toby Parsons, Production Co-ordinator Zoey Mishchiy, PR Alison Duguid PR, Marketing Support Cup of Ambition, Production Photographer Mark Senior Rehearsal Photographer Oscar Jack.
