Northern Broadsides' production Quality Street returns to theatres around Yorkshire

For many reasons, the title will be familiar to audiences, chief among those reasons being boxes of confectionery. Quality Street, the chocolates made in Halifax, actually took their name from the JM Barrie Regency romantic comedy. JM Barrie would go on to become more famous as the author of Peter Pan, which came three years after he wrote Quality Street, but the name of his early play lives on thanks to being adopted by the Halifax chocolate factory.

The play tells the story of Phoebe Throssel who runs a school for unruly children on Quality Street. Ten years after a tearful goodbye, her old flame returns from fighting Napoleon. But the look of disappointment on Captain Valentine’s face when he greets an older, less glamorous Phoebe spurs the determined heroine to action, becoming the wild and sparkling Miss Livvy, a younger alter-ego who soon beguiles the clueless Captain. As their romance is rekindled, Phoebe must juggle both personas while trying to avoid scandalising the town with her deception, or wrecking her future with the man she loves.

“It’s a really well-crafted play from one of the world’s most accomplished storytellers,” says Sansom. “And although it was a huge hit in 1902 and again in the 1930s in both the West End and on Broadway, it has largely been forgotten. He wrote it a couple of years before Peter Pan, and it’s partly responsible for turning him into a superstar playwright sometime before Peter and Wendy took to the skies. It’s set in a quaint Regency town at the time of the Napoleonic Wars, and introduced us to Phoebe Throssel, a charming and rebellious young woman who refuses to accept society’s conventions, and sets about taking revenge on Valentine Brown. Of course, it all works out in the end, and Phoebe and Valentine learn more about each other and themselves.”

Sansom is all too aware that many eyes were on him, with people in the industry wondering in which direction he would take Northern Broadsides, the company built to present Shakespeare in a Northern voice. So this first production from Broadsides under him, was always going to be something of a statement.

“I first picked up the play because of a local connection – the chocolates have been made in Halifax since 1936,” he says. “We worked with five retired workers from the factory and they shared such wonderful stories into working there and how it changed over the years. We decided to work in their unique perspective on the play and include them as characters. Their actual words wrap round the action and provide a Gogglebox-like commentary to the period drama. When we return home to Halifax in July, we will be joined once more by all of the women who helped us make it, sharing their pride in the part the factory plays in the town’s heritage.”

It is not, however, all about Halifax and the standing of Broadsides and its position in the industry and town. Staging Quality Street is also much more simple than that. “It’s really one of the original rom-coms; I’d be surprised if Richard Curtis wasn’t aware of it before Notting Hill. But it’s also got that delicious Regency flavour and a good dash of Broadside’s witty and accessible approach to classic texts,” says Sansom.

Northern Broadsides’ Quality Street is at Leeds Playhouse, May 10-13, then touring to York Theatre Royal, May 16-20, Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, May 25-27, Hull Truck, May 31-June 2, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, June 6-10, Victoria Theatre, Halifax, July 4-7.