This was Progress Theatre’s 8th but my 1st
Annual Writefest. Each summer a competition is held for writers to submit short
plays from which eight winners are chosen. These winning plays are then
assigned a director and developed into a performance. It is difficult to say on
what criteria the plays were judged based on the performances but the programme
delivered a nice balance between serious, contemplative pieces and
light-hearted comedy. Rather than seamlessly move between pieces with musical
interludes to set the change in tone, the Producers decided to use a compere,
Jon Speed, to introduce each piece. Having stated at the start that the show
was about the plays not him I was rather worried when he read a monologue
several minutes long after the first play. However, his monologues did became
shorter and pithier as the evening progressed so I was inclined to forgive him
this initial lapse.
The opening play, “Three Little Words” was a comical take on
the superhero, alter-ego and regular human love triangle. Anjali Singh gave a
spirited performance as the “earth-woman” suspiciously frequently in peril. She
also had to work hardest not only as the character the audience needs to relate
to but as the feed for most of the gags for the other characters, for example
setting up the evil masterminds as being short sighted in their desire to rule
the world by blowing it up. The villains, when they inevitably arrived, were
quite panto but Emma Kellow did a good job of portraying an inept but
enthusiastic female side kick. The main twist in the tale was not unfortunately
a surprise which may have been why an extra twist was needed for a strong
ending.
The next piece was “The Incident” by Liz Carroll. A young
woman (played convincingly and naturally by Ellen Fernley) lays bare her life
to the audience as a monologue scripted as a one-sided conversation with a coma
patient. The choices she has made and the background to how she came to be at
the old ladies bedside is slowly revealed with skill and subtlety. There is a
tantalising description of characters not seen which makes you want to see them
but most striking for me was the way a strong relationship formed between the
two women despite one being unconscious. I was even taken by surprise by the
ending, perhaps that is my cynical nature but I rather think it was the joint
talent of the writer and actress. This monologue piece had that quality I think
all short stories or plays should have, of leaving the audience wanting to know
more.
“The Invisible Guest” was the next play. It begins with a
man in a suit on a bench holding a balloon. A woman walks on stage looking for
a seat and asks if she can join him on the bench. She is curious about the
balloon and starts to ask him about it, apologetically at first as though she
really doesn’t want to bother him but can’t help herself. Patricia Spence
played the woman with ease and made the transition from awkward enquiry to
comfortable open conversation very naturally. However, perhaps it was partly the
limitation of his lines to short direct answers, I found the man rather
confusing. I wasn’t sure if he was a threat, a figment of her imagination, a
harmless loner. He unfortunately leant more towards threatening for me. This of
course changed when he began to talk about his own experiences and his reasons
for the balloon and interacting with the woman became clear. The message was
laid on a little thick in his speech for my taste but the general concept of the
piece was a good one.
Last up in the first act was “Déjà vu” by Kathy Reid. This
was a lovely little sketch with a lot of clever word-play. The scene is set
with two middle-aged women at their regular bar partaking of their regular routine
but their conversation soon becomes irregular as they begin to discuss the
possible implications of multiverse theory. I liked this piece a lot; it was
smart, funny and well executed by both actresses.
Opening the second act was “So Quick” by David Lea. This was
the only piece which I would say was truly a complete short play with a complex
storyline, well developed characters and a satisfyingly rounded narrative. Two
people are introduced at a party with the ominous knowledge that their hostess
thinks they have a lot in common. They are both at that stage in their life
when they don’t want to waste time and we are drawn in as they begin to work
out exactly what they do have in common. Thrown in between the discoveries of compatibility
are flash backs to a year earlier in the man’s (played by John Goodman) life. John
brings a natural charm to the part which immediately brings the audience into
his confidence. There were some lovely visuals in the flashback scenes, most
notably when John is fumbling to get change out of his pocket to pay the
car-park ticket machine and a huge shadow is thrown across the back wall. How
many of us have had that feeling of someone looming over our shoulder in a
queue? The only thing which, for me, didn’t work well was the choice of
painting the Doctor’s face white in the flashbacks. This technique worked for
the other transient characters of the flashbacks, highlighting them as fleeting
memories. However, in the case of the Doctor it was distracting. Perhaps it was
because she wasn’t wearing a white/grey, washed out wig as the others seemed to be or
the lighting wasn’t quite right, either way it didn’t really fit. Overall though a very
enjoyable and thoughtful piece.
“Our Father” was rather the opposite. I found this piece
quite juvenile and I was left wondering on what criteria the play was chosen by
the judges other than it might be controversial. The three characters are God,
an Angel and Jesus. There was no subtlety and nothing new about the piece as
God and the angel have a good laugh at all the silly people getting the bible
wrong and not seeing it as the allegory it clearly is. God bless the silly
American’s and their beliefs. God save the audience from having the message that
“you have to let your children make their own mistakes even though you, of
course, know exactly how they should behave and react in any given situation
because all parents are omniscient” spelt out to them. Despite a valiant effort
by Ellen Fernley as the Angel this piece did offend me but I doubt very much it
was in the way the writer had hoped.
The next piece
brought the evening back on track for me. “Jessica” by Glynn Oram opens with a
woman slumped on the floor and two bystanders, a young woman and a policeman.
At first everything seems normal, they are trying to help her but there is a
language issue and the woman has lost her bag so they cannot identify her.
Slowly the sinister truth is revealed that this is not (yet) our world but a
different reality where to be a stranger is a crime. Well performed by all the
cast this short scene again left me wanting to know more. What happens to the
characters afterwards, how do they deal with the inhumanity of the lives they
are forced to lead? “Jessica” worked as a stand-alone scene but I think there
is potential for more from this writer on this theme.
The final play, “Separation” by Paul Houghton was, I
suspect, a bit of a risk. Fortunately, it paid off and ends the show on a high.
Again this is more of a sketch than a true short play but it was very well received.
Two men meet in a bar for a pint and a chat. I’m not going to say anymore
because it would spoil the surprise, all I will say is that it was excellently
performed by Michael Beakhouse and Angus Draycott and leaves you with something
to think about beneath the humour.
So, all in all my first Writefest was an enjoyable evening
with a great variety of stories and characters. I hope that this is not the end
of the road for some of these pieces but rather that the writers can now look
at their work again having seen how these directors, actors and above all
audiences reacted to them.
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