Run Stanley Run is the debut offering from Rowan Padmore, an Oxford-based performer and Offbeat Supported Artist. Set in her hometown of Morecombe, Run Stanley Run looks back at a faded seaside town and the people who live there. However, in an age of looking at the past through rose-tinted spectacles, Padmore doesn’t show us Morecombe through a nostalgic lens – instead she shows us a family, broken, and trying to find a way to struggle through. Using a minimal set and lighting, Padmore embodies Morecombe’s inhabitants – Sally, a dreamer who hides from reality with wine and weed; Albert, an ageing barfly who insists he’s not long for this world; his granddaughter Mandy, a teenager fending off the unwelcome advances of her creepy uncle Rick; and Mandy’s brother Stanley, who just wants to run and run, away from everything. Pervading the play is the fact that Mandy and Stanley’s mother is missing, and that despite their individual strengths, neither child is able to cope with this profound loss. With a beautifully-crafted script, which has a touch of Luke Wright about some of the poetry, Padmore has written a short play that speaks deeply to the themes of loss, loneliness, and societal decline.   ★★★★☆

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