If you follow me on social media, you will have heard me talk about the sad demise of Nuffield Southampton Theatres (NST) at the hands of coronavirus. 

I even wrote an essay about what it meant to me, just before it closed down for good.

While the space NST called home in the city will hopefully become a new theatrical space – meaning all is not completely lost – I will miss the spirit and storytelling of NST deeply.

Fortunately, there is still plenty going on in the city, and NST’s creative heart has continued beating within its young people.

NST Young Company has continued to conjure up new worlds and stories in both the absence of their theatrical home, and the challenging environment of lockdown. They’ve recently released their original audio play, The Noise We Make – a production originally intended for the stage, but was subsequently adapted for a pandemic-hit world.

I recently reviewed this production for Broadway World UK – take a look, and make sure you give it a listen.

Here’s an extract of my review:

“As we mourn the loss of a local theatre, and wait patiently to see what will take NST’s place, the furnace in the belly of the organisation is still alight and burning through the creativity of the people who made up The Youth Theatre community. NST Young Company has taken the lemons they’ve been given, and created lemonade, not letting their theatre’s closure stand in their way.”

Read my review of The Noise We Make on Broadway World UK

Header image: Rebecca Legg/NST Young Company

 

Read more of my theatre reviews and blog posts

• 10 things from September 2022
• Returning to the theatre with no restrictions | Blood Brothers – Mayflower Theatre, Southampton
• Theatre Review | Sunset Boulevard In Concert – At Home – Curve Leicester
• What’s it like going back to the theatre after lockdown? Musical Movies at Mayflower Theatre, Southampton
• Theatre Review | The Noise We Make – NST Young Company