As these events start catching up with him, he finds himself telling bigger lies to cover his tracks. Finally, when his life is a total mess, and nobody believes a word he says, an opportunity to just run away and leave it all behind presents itself. Billy has a difficult decision to make. This play was first performed in 1960 and takes place in Stadhoughton, an industrial town in the North of England, at that time. It can now be seen as a piece of social history, a time post-war but before the breakthrough of rock and roll, The Beatles, and before the swinging sixties really started to swing. Forty-six years ago political correctness was unheard of and the play contains many references to views widely held by many people across society. These also set the play firmly in its time. Written by Leeds born Keith Waterhouse and his friend Willis Hall, there is nowhere better for this play to be performed than in Leeds itself and certainly the Leeds Arts Centre Amateur Dramatic Society have done the writers justice in their terrific performance of this great work. Outstanding amongst the actors is Martin Cusworth as Billy Fisher, the lead role. His acting is excellent, portraying the young man who lives the majority of the time on his fantasies. He is extremely well supported by Martin Key as his father Geoffrey, with a stereotypical gruff Yorkshire father attitude of the 60s. I was also impressed with Margaret Savage as Alice Fisher, Billy’s mother and Joyce King as Florence Boothroyd, Alice's mother. One of the funniest performances came from Pip Tibbetts as Barbara, one of Billy's fiancées (yes, he has two, plus another girlfriend as well). How anyone could eat so many oranges during a two-hour show I wondered in disbelief! There were good supporting performances from Zoë Freedman as Rita, the other fiancée, Charlotte Wylie as Liz, the third of Billy’s female suitors, and Stephen Mosley as Arthur, Billy’s work colleague. I thought that the set, designed by Martyn Drake, the stage manager for Leeds Arts Centre, was excellent, allowing the audience to see action behind the Fisher’s living room by having two doorways without doors in them and also a staircase at the rear leading to the upstairs of the property. Furnishings and props had been well chosen to portray a living room of the 1960s. The play was very well directed by Rich Francis and I particularly liked the use of music from the 60s prior to the play starting and also at the breaks between the three acts. This was an excellent portrayal of a classic play. The play was on at the Carriageworks from 21-24 June 2006. | 
