Javaad Alipoor transports Elmet to a disused depot

Elmet, a new city of culture commission by the Javaad Alipoor Company, presents a very different kind of family story in a disused storage depot converted into a pop-up hub for events and exhibitions. The city centre setting makes an interesting juxtaposition with the nature-steeped story told in Fiona Mozley’s 2017 novel, rooted in the historical-mythical land of Elmet (celebrated by poet Ted Hughes and photographer Fay Godwin? in their joint 1994 publication of the same name), of which Bradford and environs are said once to have been a part.

Described by one reviewer as “contemporary noir”, the novel centres on a bare knuckle fighter and his two children, Cathy (Jennifer Jackson) and Danny (LJ Parkinson); the story is told from Danny’s point of view, as a teenager living through traumatic events and as an adult looking back on them. This stage adaptation by Alipoor (who also directs) comes across as part Victorian melodrama (the family are menaced by a wicked landowner and his predatory son) and part Grand Guignol (sensationalist and gory), with consciousness-raising elements, explicating the misogynistic violence in the novel and introducing an appalling, real-life example of objectification of a woman’s body.

Deploying stage storytelling techniques (such as direct address to audience and indirect representation of character via objects and voice), familiar from the work of Shared Experience, Complicité, 7:84, Townsend Productions, and others,Alipoor delivers some stunning scenes, but threads them along a sagging storyline. Original live music from folk group the Unthanks is imaginatively integrated; it thrillingly heightens atmosphere but at times, dictates pace to the detriment of the dynamics of the action. If dramatic drive is lacking, energy and commitment are nonetheless evident throughout, not least in performances from the five-strong ensemble, with special mention to Parkinson and Jackson.

Elmet is at Loading Bay, Bradford, until 2 November

Photograph by Lee Baxter