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SIMON PARSONS recommends a new play on the stand-off in Southampton between locals and government during WWII
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The Shadow Factory
NST City
Southampton
IT WOULD be difficult to conceive of a more resonant production to open Southampton’s new 450-seat theatre than The Shadow Factory.
The Battle of Britain may be the context for this premiere of Howard Brenton’s play but the subject matter is the battle between locals in the city and the wartime government’s authoritarian approach to its people and their property.
After the 1940 bombing of the nearby Spitfire factory, homes and businesses were requisitioned under the Emergency Powers Act, to enable production to continue in a “shadow factory.”
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