Catherine Bennett resumes the weekly look at the performing arts world, with the sad end of Jerusalem, the luck of a cabbie, and French revolt. Do you hear the people sing?
Adam Alcock reviews Nigel Kennedy playing Vivaldi's Four Seasons and his own Four Elements at York Opera House.
Catherine Bennett highlights the trends in the performing arts world today.
Jonathan Cridford reviews 'Ghosts', one of the Freshers' plays for this year.
At this past Monday’s Open Drama Night, Fall Into Place Theatre Company (a coalition of third year Writing, Directing and Performance students) presented a trio of plays, all sharing the common theme of ‘Outcasts’.
The Peace Wall (written by Alice Johnston) is set in present day Northern Ireland, where the wounds left by the Troubles still run deep even as a new generation attempts to move beyond the prejudices and bloodshed of the past. Two men, formerly on different sides of the sectarian violence, find themselves sharing a hospital ward. They are separated only by a thin curtain and ultimately united by infirmity as each fights their final battle against cancer. Their children meet in the ward and, as often seems to be the case with those born on opposite sides of the fence in fiction, fall in love. The two fathers wrestle with the reality of this relationship and whether or not they can give up the violence and divisions of the past for the sake of their children. The play is ultimately about the redemptive power of love and the ongoing healing process in contemporary Northern Ireland, but the emotive force of the script was somewhat let down by a predictable plot.
The second play, Homesick (written by Ellen Stevens), is a glimpse into two lives, a chance meeting between two lonely people. Owen (Tom Crowley) picks up a hitchhiker, Stewart (Joe Popplewell), and they sit over a plate of chips in a service station. Stewart, a man collapsing inwards, is on the verge of ending it all, while Owen bubbles and chats merrily away, all the while betraying his desperation for human contact. Both characters are stranded between different places in their lives, trapped in an emotional limbo as well as the more literal one that is the service station. Ultimately, neither finds resolution or even a kindred spirit, but the snapshot presented was (perhaps owing to Owen’s quirky charm, brought to life with panache by Tom Crowley) eccentric and entirely in keeping with the between-places nature of the play.
Target (written by Sarah Goodyear), takes place on the London underground. A girl is harassed by a harmless drunk and a man in traditional Muslim dress enters a carriage carrying a large, suspicious bag. When questioned, he refuses to reveal what he keeps in it. The play examines paranoia and the rise of Islamophobia in those living under the shadow of the War on Terror, and how prejudice only widens divides and leads to more brutality. Brendon, portrayed with some skill and excellent comic timing by Ross Meikle, is the distillation of an irritating drunk, with little-to-no concept of social mores and personal space and his foot forever in his mouth. Sadly, his exaggerated and hyperbolic nature somewhat undermines the gems of genuine wit in the script. Of note was the use of sound effects, which were grew louder and louder in the climax of the play, heightening tension magnificently.
Though lacking the polish of a weekend production, the trio of plays delved into issues not normally tackled in the Drama Barn with considerable confidence and courage.
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