Standing at Sky’s Edge, Sheffield’s Park Hill – the musical

With its 1970s Walter Gropius-inspired design, complete with paneled concrete interiors, Covent Garden’s Gillian Lynne Theater is a fitting venue for Standing at the edge of the sky.

The musical, now in its third incarnation after premiering at the Sheffield Crucible in 2019 before gaining wider attention and acclaim at the National Theatre, focuses on another piece of post-war architecture – the ‘man-made monolith’ of the Park Hill estate in Sheffield. , and the lives of residents from different eras, which cleverly overlap during the show.

As you sit down, you’re faced with much of the property recreated on stage – a single apartment atop one of the famous sky streets overlooking the city centre. Above you is the estate’s famous ‘I LOVE YOU WILL U MARRY ME’ bridge graffiti, while nearby a large digital clock flashes from the ceiling, showing the years we’re witnessing, such as the birth of the estate in 1960, UK Thatcherite 1989 and the impact of more recent gentrification/regeneration led by Urban Splash, Hawkins\Brown, Studio Egret West et al (2015), disrupting the idea of ​​Park Hill as a working class community.

It’s immediately apparent that the show is not just a ‘love letter to Sheffield’, but a musical about architecture and what architecture feels like to ordinary people, especially when it’s centered around the concept of home.

The scenes all take place in the same sparsely decorated apartment. The 1960s couple excitedly discuss the feats of engineering involved in a waste chute in each flat, while the single woman occupying the same space in 2015 – an Ottolenghi recipe-loving émigré from London – gives up on the idea of ​​living even in an “apartment”. , preferring the estate agent’s “split duplex” instead. The darkest moment seems to be the part in the middle – the family arriving as refugees fleeing civil war in Liberia in the 80s, only to find a Park Hill defined by crime, racism, litter on the streets and accusations of being “scroungers “. ‘.

Although the narrative arc of the various families is not always easy to follow, especially in the second act, these characters – wracked by hope and despair – seem very real. What’s also satisfying is the ambiguity in how the different generations living in the apartment pass each other on stage like ghosts. Time-separated, they can’t really see or hear each other, but there are occasional interactions, such as when the 21st-century residents give a jar of Henderson’s Relish (pronounced “Endersons” in the North, of course) to their counterparts in the 1980s.

What is ultimately most thrilling about this show is how the story, by writer Chris Bush; a joyful, poignant and, above all, political story about everyday life, intertwines with the soaring music of Sheffield songwriter and composer Richard Hawley to create something bigger. Sometimes diverse choirs appear on stage and along the recreated balcony of Park Hill. At times, the chaotic scenes on stage – with litter being thrown from above and street fights accompanied by flashing lights and sirens – are reminiscent of the noise of Jez Butterworth Jerusalem. When the full cast twirls their shopping bags as they belt out The streets are oursit feels more like a classic Broadway musical.

There are not many theater productions about architecture, but Standing at the edge of the sky it’s one and a great one. Catch it before it ends on August 3rd.