Battle Review – Britpop and 90s nostalgia clash in comedy Blur v Oasis | stage

AThey clearly sat down a lot in 1995. They relaxed at Alexandra Palace for the Brit Awards when Damon Albarn was gallant in victory. They backed up the tables in the members’ area as Blur crashed an Oasis concert to celebrate Some Might Say reaching number one. They had deck chairs for interviews with Liam Gallagher, bar stools for falling hard-drinking pop stars, and plush sofas for Albarn and Justin Freshman to spend their money on. There might have been more, but much of Fly Davis’ set was obscured from my side of the stage.

Lots of chairs but little drama. John Niven’s play hits the last great moment of cultural tension in pop music. The singles were released in the same week, and Oasis and Blur entered the ring, one representing the working class of the North and the other the bourgeoisie of the South. Together they were the ones waving Britpop flags. In opposition, they symbolized a divided nation. Which song reached No. 1 – Oasis’s Roll With It or Blur’s Country House – would set the mood for the country.

These ideas are covered by Niven’s funny script, but the novelist-turned-playwright gives us squabbles rather than drama, as pop stars sit where you need them to stand on their feet. Bookish Graham Coxon (Will Taylor) complains about the arrogant Albarn (Oscar Lloyd); Liam (George Asher) quarrels with sullen Noel (Paddy Stafford); One band quarrels over the other.

The battle takes us from the studio where Oasis recorded Roll With It to the interview when Noel Gallagher tells The Observer’s Miranda Sawyer that he wishes Blur’s singer-bassist “could get AIDS and die”. While Oasis focuses on cigarettes and alcohol, Blur members argue about the sexual politics behind the Country House video.

The show feeds the audience’s appetite for nostalgia with roll calls of period references – Shed Seven, Chris Evans, Keith Allen – and Beavis and Butt-Head-style caricatures covering heavy scene changes. But Matthew Dunster’s production remains firmly restrained, until the Tarantino finale, as shocking as it is absurd, creates the illusion of dramatic momentum.