24:7 Goldfish 21/7/12

Show 2 today, after stroll in the warm summer weather (at last) back to New Century House was Goldfish, written by Lisa Whiteside, Directed by Darren R L Gordon and presented by Baby Giant Productions in association with Pure Management and Passion Academy.

This centred on the lives of three children in a problem estate, their interactions with each other, their youth worker Lou (Lisa Whiteside) and police officer Nick (Luke Walker).

It is an energetic and disturbing play with some excellent performances, especially those of the actors portraying the children who are at the core of the events. Leanne (Keeley Fitzgerald) is a chaotic and angry child, suffering abuse at home and emulating the inappropriate ‘grown up’ behaviour that she witnesses all too often. The actress does an excellent job of portraying the vulnerabilities of the eleven year old,  hidden behind the bullying and mouthy persona. Leanne attends the estate’s youth centre with Abby (Zoe Iqbal), a child with ADHD, living with a junkie mother, often having responsibility for her five siblings, and being farmed out by her father to her uncle a ‘reformed’ paedophile. This was an incredibly energetic performance, almost in constant motion, words tumbling out of her at an incredible pace and responding touchingly to even the slightest kindness. Cody (Ciaran Clancy) is the outsider, from a broken home, but going to a good school, wanting to be included and attend the centre and take part in their activities, but not being allowed because he is not classed as a ‘problem child’, which leads him to get in with the wrong crowd in order to protect himself and belong. Again, this was a great performance of a complex character.

The show was an interesting construction, not wholly linear, which confused me a little at the start, but allows an interesting reveal later in the play. It does have some touching comic elements, such as Abby’s delight that none of her siblings has to share a Dad. It also employs some clever scenes such as rapid switching of characters on stage to portray events in the home lives of the characters, there is a particularly impressive example of this when they are focussing on the conflicts and complexities of Cody’s life.

However, unlike Loaded, playing next door and focussing on a similar social group, there is no real glimmer of hope for any these characters, even the boy from the good side is dragged down by his circumstances, and with the sheer amount of issues that are addressed, including drugs, violence, child abuse, illness, funding cuts, neglect and rape, although you do have great sympathy and some affection for the characters, it does feel desperately bleak by the final scene. Powerful stuff, excellently staged and performed, but somewhat depressing!

24:7 My Arms, 21/7/12

Today’s first 24:7 experience saw me in a ‘new to me’ venue, Three Minute Theatre in the Affleck’s Palace building. It’s a quirky little place with tons of character, although being in the heart of a bustling place with no real sound proofing does have its disadvantages if you are towards the rear of the audience seating area, especially when a child outside has a fifteen minute meltdown which was somewhat distracting. Also distracting was the toy clown staring at me from a shelf, I’ve never really trusted clowns, and this one had sunglasses on so it was clearly up to no good!

My Arms by James Leach, directed by Adam Quayle and presented by Talking Props Theatre in association with Box of Tricks, is a two hander between husband and wife Colin (Josh Morgan) and Helen (Roberta Kerr) where the action unfolds over four scenes told in reverse order. The structure is quite compelling, it is clear when we first meet them that they are estranged and dealing with the aftermath of something that has had devastating consequences, but it only gradually unfolds what that was and the impact that it has had on their lives, their relationship, and the lives of those around them. 

The balance in their relationship has shifted too, at the start we see that Helen, whilst still caring for her husband, and therefore finding it hard to broach why she needs to talk to him, is now ready to break away and move on, whereas he appears to harbour a hope that now he has paid his debt and got his life back on track there is a way he can get back what he has lost. Yet in the earlier in time scenes we see how much Helen loves her husband and is desperate for him to express how he feels for her. It is really interesting to see how this balance shifts influenced by events and their fall out. 

Both actors give excellently judged and compelling performances that feel very real, as their characters struggle to cope with their situations and emotions. Powerful stuff and an engaging construct. I’m tempted to see it again (hopefully without screaming child accompaniment, and I’m not sitting near the evil clown again!)

24:7 Loaded - 20/7/12

Show 2 in my 24:7 marathon was Loaded, written by Jo Kirtley Pritchard, directed by Martin Jameson and presented by Working Progress Theatre Company. I follow Jo on twitter, so it has been really interesting seeing the progress of this play from excited tweet to say her play had been accepted, through development, rewrites, rehearsals and now seeing it ‘in the flesh’ as it were.

It tells the story of feisty Manchester teen Chantelle, excluded from her school and referred to an education unit as her ‘last chance’, her funny but tough as nails youth worker Ella, Dylan her gang member boyfriend, and her stepdad Larry.

This is an energetic and well-staged play, with some excellent performances from its cast. Dolly Rose Campbell as Chantelle gave a ‘glittering’ portrayal of a very complex character. She was in turns challenging, funny and heartbreaking and there was a real natural energy in her performance. Helen Macfarlane, as youth worker Ella was another nicely judged performance, showing the necessarily spiky side of her character along with great humour and a genuine affection for Chantelle’s welfare, ultimately leading to dramatic results.

Rob Ward, as Dylan was very believable, portraying a tough gang member, in love with Chantelle, and trying to create his version of a great future for them. Darren Connolly as stepdad Larry gave a well-judged performance, his earlier behaviour giving no clue to later turns of events, making them all the more powerful.

The staging of the play was great, very slick scene changes with one cleverly being merged into the next keeping up the pace of the piece, with excellent music complementing the mood and energy of the performance.

I was a bit confused (and slightly angry!) regarding some of the audience member’s amused reactions to two particularly powerful scenes that I thought were excellently portrayed and very unsettling. I found those scenes strong and affecting, and not for the faint hearted.

If I had one slight quibble I did feel that the play would have benefited from being longer as the unfolding complexities of Chantelle’s relationship with her stepdad felt a little rushed and could have been explored further.

Jo has worked with the kind of kids she writes about, and it shows, the subjects are treated with respect, warmth and realism. It really makes you challenge your own thoughts and prejudices about the type of people she is portraying. This is the first play she has had professionally produced, and I don’t think on this evidence it will be the last.

24:7 Stars Are Fire

Stars are Fire was the opener for my festival experience this year. Written by Francesca Whaite, directed by Liz Postlethwaite and a Monkeywood presentation, it told the tale of Carly and her Dad Neil, who after his wife dies, decides to relocate them both from Manchester back to his roots in Northumberland for a ‘fresh start’.

Bit of a strange play for me to get my thoughts down on paper this one, as I found that it was only after the whole of the play that I truly appreciated that had come before, if that makes any sense? Both Carly and her father are suffering, and that manifests itself in anger and animosity towards each other as neither are initially capable of reaching out for the comfort they so desperately need. Into this mix, comes Neil’s cousin Lou, awkward and introverted. Lou lost his mother ten years before and reaches out in his own clumsy way to Carly, who also helps him to begin to move out of the safe ordered and limited world he has created to cope with his own loss.

Early on, the play has a lot of long uncomfortable silences between father and daughter, which were even more uncomfortable in the intimate setting of the Pioneer stage. Whilst excellently played by Emma Clarke as Carly and Steven Hillman as Neil, I initially wasn’t sure about these scenes, especially as what has caused this silent war isn’t really obvious at the start, but in the context of the play as a whole they were really quite affecting and realistic. Richie Gibson’s portrayal of the awkward Lou was good, wanting to reach out, but not really knowing how to connect with Carly.

The ending was nicely done, not everything is neatly resolved, which would have been unrealistic, but you have hope that all three characters have started on the journey of healing.

There are minor elements of the pacing of the play that I felt could have been tightened up, but some of this may have been because it was the first performance, I did notice it seemed to overrun a little and therefore have the disadvantage of noise from the audience in the other stage leaving and milling around outside. There are also quite a lot of scene changes in the earlier stages of the play achieved through moving the minimal stage props. Whilst they were effective, and well complimented by the music, if there was a way of reducing the length of these somehow I think it would benefit  the piece, as there is a danger of losing the audience’s attention and the tension of the earlier stages.

All in all though, a tender and thought provoking opener to ‘my’ 24:7 experience.

24:7 Theatre Festival, and so it begins...

Tonight saw the start of my 24:7 Theatre festival experience for 2012. This is the third year I have attended. In 2010 I managed to go to 5 productions, last year I managed 8 of 13, this year, I’m planning to see and blog all 10, plus a couple of extras. If I manage it I’ll be very proud of my little self! For anyone who doesn’t know what 24:7 is about, the website has lots of information, but in brief it’s a theatre festival that encourages new writing in the form of a series of one hour plays, hosted in central Manchester and it is well worth checking out.

Tonight’s venue for both plays was The Pioneer stage at New Century House, a venue that has been used before. However, this year they have reconfigured the layout to put the audience on three sides of the performance stage on tiered seating. This is a great move, creating a very intimate theatre experience, and eliminating some of the issues with sight lines that I felt this low ceilinged venue has suffered from in the past.

So on with the blogs……