Progress Theatre's 9th Annual Writefest, Progress Theatre, Reading 15th October 2014

Progress Theatre’s 9th Annual Writefest showcasing the 7 winning submissions (of more than 50) of short plays. The programme again delivered a smorgasbord of plays exploring many contemporary themes. The compere, Anna Jennings, moved the proceedings forward introducing each of the plays with a touch of comedy. Here are my thoughts on this year’s offerings in order of viewing.

Revenge is a Dish Best Taken with Honey

Short and sweet. There were no surprises in the short and sweet piece by William Irvine but it had some great characterisations that were funny and well observed. It would have been improved in my opinion if “Clinton” had directed his examples of naughty one-liners at the audience rather than at his long suffering teacher and if these had become more outrageous, quick-fire and frenetic.

The Deep Blue

This wasn't really a satisfying short play for two reasons. The first was a feeling of vagueness about the whole piece emphasised by the audience having to guess what “mental illness” was being portrayed when it rather seemed to me that none of the actors themselves knew. I must admit I first thought this was a piece about a man who could see ghosts, then thought the child/man “Jonathan” might be autistic before actually reading the program and realising it was some mysterious mental health problem probably related to depression given the title. I would have preferred it if “Jonathan” had made the curdling screams rather than a recording, to better connect the past with the present. Secondly, the piece did not have a story arc that I could make sense of and felt more like a scene taken from a longer piece. It was therefore difficult to empathise with any of the characters and the “it was just a dream” or in this case “figments of his imagination” ending was disappointing.

Yawn

I rather enjoyed this short, funny and truthful piece about two new fathers taking a moment to rest whilst walking their babies in the park. Whilst I guessed the ending from the second line in, I was not expecting the twists in the middle. I especially liked the moments when the two men unconsciously resembled babies themselves with large yawns and stretching. My only real criticism was that the repetition on comic effects (i.e. the 1^st Dad has a silly lullaby and then the 2^nd Dad also has one) sometimes stretched the humour & made the play longer than it needed to be but I suspect that this is a personal judgement (not least because of the laughter of fellow audience members around me).

No. 11

I really, really liked this. A very intense staging of a dark, strange yet compelling short play. The characterisation of “Gregor” was brilliant. I don’t want to say any more in-case it spoils the surprise for future audience members!

The Flood

Unfortunately, after a promising start, this piece left me unmoved. There were a few too many “Stage-School” techniques getting in the way of the storytelling for my taste. I think this would have been a much more powerful piece if the lighting effects and line repetition were all stripped away (with the exception of the spotlight on “Maureen” which was necessary). I didn't feel the menacing threat of the flood which was a shame because I thought it was a great metaphor for the overwhelming sense of loss “Rachel” was battling with throughout the piece. Otherwise a good story and solid performances.

Now

A thoughtful and interesting short play about the choices people make when they think they have no other viable options. I enjoyed the characters, performances and the story but was left feeling that I had seen an abridged version which had missed out some key scenes which would have given me more empathy and insight into the two men reaching out to the audience to be understood. This would be my pick to be developed further into a longer play.

Don’t Leave Me Alone

This was a play of two halves. In the first half we had some amusing banter between two male friends, one of whom seemed to have a serious social anxiety disorder. In the second half the “normal” guy’s girlfriend arrives and is left alone with the friend who turns out to have more social skills than he was letting on. The characters were good, the comedy was good and the story was good, but…I think there was a lack of believability in the second half which was due to the overly quirky character of the friend. I did believe him when he said nothing of much importance and no real romantic relationships had happened to him in the last 5 years. I didn’t believe him when he said he was in love. Despite that this was an enjoyable play and I liked the ending a lot.