Review: Golden Time (and Other Behavioural Management Strategies) (HOME Manchester)

Review by Eleanor Rose Clarke 

⭐️⭐️⭐️ 

Kate Ireland’s hit one-woman play Golden Time (and Other Behavioural Management Strategies) arrives in Manchester from the Edinburgh Fringe, welcoming audiences into an intimate space where we are encouraged to question how we spend our time. Leaving the theatre, I certainly felt a little lighter in my time being well spent, connecting to those around me and inspired by this story of remembering one’s inner child. Golden Time is a play that connects all those who have ever questioned the rules, independent thinkers and creatives. Now, are we listening, class? Miss Ireland’s lesson is about to begin, and we only have an hour. 

Golden Time debuted at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2025, followed by a London transfer to Camden Roundhouse. Performed by its writer Kate Ireland, the show is presented by Blether, Ireland’s own collective, holding its first event in 2022 with a focus on art and expression through language and performance. Ireland is a Glaswegian artist, writer and performer, based in Manchester, and an advocate of encouraging individuality and expression in both children and adults, which was evident when watching this piece. The show combines autobiographical storytelling, spoken-word poetry and audience discussion, telling the story of Ireland’s experience working in a primary school, with the focus on what many of us remember as Golden Time, a weekly rewards system enforced by teachers across the country. 

There is an informality to Ireland’s performance as she initially places herself as the class teacher, welcoming her pupils with enthusiasm and care. I didn’t expect this tone to begin with, the lack of structured prose and a more conversational opening, but it was actually extremely successful, as it allowed Ireland to break the ice with the audience. Physically looking around at my peers, becoming acquainted with my fellow pupils, established a sense of togetherness, so when Ireland embarked into the poetic sections of the piece, there was an ease in letting myself get lost, as the strangers around me felt more like classmates. 

Ireland is dynamic and vibrant, as she takes us with her through this story, using varied movement and breaking the fourth wall. Her performance as the overbearing yet always-smiling Mrs Shepherd gets the biggest laugh out of the audience, certainly reminding me of teachers I’ve come across. The depiction of ‘you’, a child in the class who is constantly misunderstood by her teachers, but who Ireland connects with, is heartfelt and moving, and was certainly felt deeply by many of those around the room. Ireland is the heart of this piece, as she reaches out and takes the hand of audience members by asking them to share, retelling what doesn’t only feel like her story, but our story, with empathy and honesty.

With constant reminders that we only have an hour, seemingly reminiscent of a lesson, there is a consciousness of time throughout the show. The theme of time shows up through many elements of the script, and this is what makes Ireland’s writing so successful. As the show plays out, Ireland switches roles effortlessly, positioning herself as teacher, artist and child, demonstrating an overlapping in time as these roles that she’s taken at different points in her life, converge at once.

This switching also makes up the production and structure of the show. Both Lighting Design, by Maddie Maycock, and Sound Design, by Sofia Armella and Jake Parry, are driven by the emotive progression of the piece, flowing between being controlled and focused, before losing control when Ireland reaches a point of confusion or distress. 

There are sections of the play where Ireland is addressing the audience directly, sections where she recites spoken-word, and sections where the production utilises written language and audio-visual material. Emily Bold’s creative captions, displayed behind Ireland throughout, do not only make the performance more accessible but also allow us to connect with the words visually and as Ireland has written them, deepening the way we receive the material. The space lends itself well to this production with a large projector displaying across the back wall and a chalkboard floor, allowing for language to be physically placed in Ireland’s surroundings. 

This show relies on shared experience and the audience’s laughter and cheering throughout proved this a wide appeal. But even if you didn’t go to school in the UK or haven’t come across the phrase Golden Time, there is a universal understanding of this idea of rewarding ourselves after being productive. Not allowing ourselves joy until we have achieved something, deeming us worth something. Ultimately, the piece questions what it means to be productive and whether modern society, through systems implemented within us from as early as primary school, has skewed our understanding of enjoyment, suggesting that we can only earn it.

Golden Time critiques our hyper-productive society, daring to question the expectations we are faced with in primary school and showing that teaching methods don’t always create a safe and encouraging environment. At the start of the play, Ireland describes her revisit to the phrase Golden Time as encountering an old friend, being reminded of a past life, and this nostalgia and familiarity flows throughout the show, connecting the audience to Ireland herself, but also to each other, as though we are all old friends, reminiscing on the time where we were all pupils in the same class.

Golden Time (and Other Behavioural Management Strategies) is at HOME Manchester until 28^th February. Tickets from https://homemcr.org/whats-on/golden-time-and-other-behavioural-management-strategies-tt2c