January 18th, 2026

"a moving tribute to the power of storytelling"
- Manchester Theatre Awards on 'ROVE'

If nothing else The Lowry’s policy of developing projects is offering variety. After the high-tech and immersive Light we go right back to basics with Rove - a meditation on the power and limitations of storytelling.
The folk tradition accounts for the situation where an adult unconsciously copies a tune heard in infancy. For poet J Fergus Evans the reverse is true – as a child he is mortified to realise he does not recognise the folk tune The Gypsy Rover which his mother claims to have sung to him as a lullaby. Evans sees stories as a vital part of family life. A shameful or traumatic event may, by mutual consent, be concealed by one generation, but, he argues, the next will notice the absence of a story and make up one to fill the gap. Evans goes on to offer a number of tall tales about his family – his grandmother danced in a dress made of raven feathers – that may or may not be true.

The play is structured around Evans’s re-working of folk tales about the Gypsy Rover, recounted in his engrossing lyrical phrases. The aspirations of immigrants to the United States and the lure of showbiz result in the stories occasionally reaching a different conclusion from the traditional outcome. Evans even gently nudges the legend to suggest that his family may be the descendents of the Rover.
Evans’s stories alternate with the actual folk songs about the Rover, performed in traditional style with musician Rhiannon Armstrong. Armstrong’s contribution ensures Rove is a full theatrical experience and does not slip into a monologue. She joins in with Evans’s discussion on how family names are developed by mentioning that her family are anxious to clarify her name was inspired by the Welsh queen, not the Fleetwood Mac song.

As the play concludes, Evans’s approach becomes less playful and more personal – embarrassingly so at one point. Evans has built the show around how stories are a vital part of family life. He then has to tackle whether their significance remains, without future generations of his family to whom stories can be told. He becomes a lonely figure, contemplating a future without children. One wonders if the audience are acting as a proxy family for Evans – a means of ensuring that, even without descendants, his stories will not be lost.

Rove, a moving tribute to the power of storytelling, is always involving, even if occasionally discomforting.