Low Down
In Company has created the first Off Cuts festival currently playing at the Old Red Lion. The idea behind this short play festival is to help as many new and undiscovered talents as possible. From 527 play submissions, 900 actor applications a large number of directors In Company have created Off Cuts We at FringeReview will be trying to review as many of the short plays as possible. Unfortunately we missed Group One but London Editor Skye Crawford attended Group 2 and here are her short reviews of the plays she saw.
Review
As these pieces are 15 minutes long and classified as shorts the reviews will be capsulated and only 100 words long, just to give you a taster of what went on.
Juicy Cherry
Written by Tracy Whitwell Juicy Cherry is set in a living room. When stopped from going to the pub with the lads hubbie decides he wants to paint the walls Juicy Cherry and African Pomegranate. We see a man trying to break out from the beige his life has become which includes his very dull wife. Played by Whitwell herself and Ben Enwright this little gem feels like it could have a lot more to it in a longer version. It certainly left me wanting to know more! 4 stars
Fish and Chips Twice
Keith is on a cliff edge. Rachel walks by and somehow manages to negotiate him away from the edge and his suicide attempt. He misses his wife as she has recently passed away and this was their place. Formulaeic and predictable there was a warmth about the piece, but it is not anything out of the box. The performers make the most of their roles and the direction is strong but the writing itself lacks the energy and spark of the other pieces on the evening. 3 stars
Mr Jolly
Mr Jolly written by Michael Stewart explores a day in the life of a lonely gardener and his self erected scarecrow who turns out to be more company than he could have ever expected which means his abrupt departure is more than hard to digest. Unfortunately on the night this piece was done the director and performer were indisposed so it was done as a staged reading. In fact although the piece is written very well and was one of the most cohesive of the evening and also one of the funniest, it works better as a piece of writing as it does a one man monologue. I guess you could make it work on stage, but I am not sure how it would be staged. I really enjoyed using my imagination to plot out what actually happened, but Mr Jolly would work just as well as a short story. 3 stars
No Idea
Out of sight the hit of the night, No Idea took the challenge of a short play festival completely to heart and as a result presented the clear winner of the evening. No Idea centres around a man trying to get an idea for a short play for a festival. He runs into a guy with an ideas trolley in the West End only to discover the man’s father gave Ben Elton his idea for Popcorn for a small fee, and that a whole generation of ideas men like him basically gave all the most prominent writers their ideas. He gives the young playwright an idea, but the writer actually comes up with an idea of his own inspired by the process that occurs in the back alley. Tom Ellen’s No Idea is genius in its concept and the execution of the play is also right on the money. The props were well thought out and beautifully constructed, and included a cleverly constructed trolley of ideas which was a work of art in itself. The staging was clever and well directed by Juliane von Silvers and performers Mark Parsons and Matt Jamie thoroughly eclipsed all the other performers on the evening using comic timing and physicality to bring a wonderful short play to life. They further accentuated their skills by ad-libbing some hilarious extra content when an audience member walked on the stage by accident when coming back from the loo. 5 stars
Momentum
An enjoyable and never dull 15 minutes exploring the concept of a one night stand from the perspective of a girl and a guy. Why do we think so differently about the same event? Well stage and excellently realised and brought to life with great direction from Lawrence Carmichael and performances from all four actors, Duncan Pearse, Clare Buckingham, Kerry Wotton and Adam Milford. They work together commanding the small Old Red Lion space with their complicated choreographed relationship dance. It would be interesting to see this piece stand alone and definitely wetted the appetite for more from this ensemble. 4 stars
Lights Out
A little repetitive and not so very original Lights Out again follows a clear formula which goes on for slightly too long. The performers are very competent and certainly capture the characters, a husband and wife whose relationship is clearly on the down and out but their reserve means that they extract themselves from it in the most polite way possible. The woman has clearly cheated on the husband but goes about telling him in the most round-about way. The man clearly needs to get out of the destructive relationship he is in but is finding it difficult to let go. Stephen Glover does his best with the material he has and as a result the piece is clear and well directed. The script needs to be a little more snappy, but otherwise it is an interesting take on the idea of the affair that is too close to home for comfort. 3 stars
Reviewed by Skye Crawford 4th October 2009 Website : |
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