Theatre Review: Trouble, Struggle, Bubble and Squeak at Lakeside Arts

Victoria Melody is known for creating productions by embedding herself amongst niche groups like pigeon fanciers or beauty queens. Her show Trouble, Struggle, Bubble and Squeak, which came to Nottingham Lakeside on Thursday night, was something different. What started with an excursion into the world of civil war re-enactment, quickly became a celebration of working-class community action and the people who make that happen.

Dressed in historically accurate attire, (looking a little bit like an elf) she told us, that civil war re-enactment was her way of dealing with divorce. A line both funny and self-effacing, and typical of the gold seam running through this show. In case your history is a bit shaky, Nottingham is where the King raised the flag to start the civil war in 1642, but you can be forgiven for not knowing this, as Melody herself accidently joined the wrong side, throwing in her hat with the musketeers when her intent had been to support the Diggers, the left-wing group of the time, organised by Gerrard Winstaled, who led a group of dissidents advocating social equality through the taking of common land for people to grow food on. It is here, where the people come in.

At the same time as wandering round fields dressed as a musketeer boy, Melody took up the role as artist in residence on a housing estate in Whitehawk, just outside of Brighton and found herself blown away by the community activism she found there. We hear of Brian the fruit and veg man who feeds over 400 people a day during the pandemic, Dave the naturalist who with the help of The Whitehawk Soldier Beetle, secures open access to green space, Jay Kensett, tragically murdered at 16 , after which a youth centre was set up on the estate and Lacey the centre’s manager, who makes sure that things happen. 

Unable to idly sit back, Melody brings these worlds together with the staging of a re-enactment in Whitehaven, where this time history was rewritten by the local community, who take on the mantle of the 17th Century Diggers, to reclaim the unused land surrounding their estate, to grow food for the people who live there. Winstanley would have been proud.  

Directed by the left-wing comedian Mark Thomas, there was a simple sophistication to this one woman show. Using a combination of comedy, storytelling and knitted vegetables, Victoria Melody treated us to a tale that was both tender and galvanising.  The estate and people she talked of, reminded me of the communities who surround our own city, whose spirit and humour are rarely seen on stage. This was no romantic telling of working-class life, but more a call to arms, recognising the possible that can be done and the fun to be had, when we come together to claim what is ours. 

Trouble, Struggle, Bubble and Squeak performed at Lakeside Arts on 13 November 2025.