Masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (8 October 2016)

ARE you going to get busy living or get busy dying?
Stephen King's powerful message of hope is not lost in the stage version of his inspiring story, The Shawshank Redemption, at The Lowry in Salford Quays.
Adapted by stand-up comedians Owen O'Neill and Dave Johns, the stage was transformed into 'Shawshank Penitentiary' as part of the play's first UK tour.
It had a lot to live up to – Frank Darabont's 1994 movie of King's short story, starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, often tops lists of the best films ever made.
But the excellent cast, led by EastEnders' Paul Nicholls, and director David Esbjornson brought existence behind the claustrophobic bars of a maximum security facility to life in front of the audience's eyes.
The Shawshank Redemption tells the story of banker Andy Dufresne (Nicholls) who is serving two consecutive life sentences for the murder of his wife and her lover – a crime he did not commit.
Ellis 'Red' Redding (Ben Onwukwe) becomes his only friend and it is Red who narrates the story of how Andy changes the lives of all those around him by never giving up.
Credit also goes to the stage designers – the grim prison sets helped put across the life of fear, constriction and routine where the dehumanizing behavior of the guards is often worse than that of the inmates.
In this way, the limits of turning Shawshank into a play worked in the production's favor.
Nicholls and Onwukwe are excellent as Andy and Red and their friendship is the thread that connects the story.
Jack Ellis is chilling as the cruel, corrupt Warden Stammas and Andrew Boyer will break your heart as elderly prisoner Brooksie.
The only disappointment was the ending which lacked impact. What happens to Andy at the end of his story is so powerful in the film version but – probably due to technical reasons – it is glossed over here.
The play, set between 1947 and 1966 and peppered with music from the era, will make you ponder on the meaning of rehabilitation, the flaws of the justice system and the nature of power in all its forms.
It is a study of human nature and friendship while its message of the importance of hope over fear is just as relevant now as when the story was written 34 years ago.