Reviews

The challenge here was that this was a youth production in a new venture for many of the young cast on their road to a theatre involvement. The story basically follows the life of George Bailey who does so much in the small town of his childhood. It is set in the depression years through to after the war and we follow his fall and eventual rise in a way that gives hope to all. This is achieved by a cast of twelve who read the many characters through microphones and cover about thirty roles. This was a challenge which was well met for the most part.

Just under a sunny, ‘normal’ surface lurk horrors large and small, past, present and future.  Three middle-aged women, seemingly old friends and comfortable together, have afternoon tea in a sunny back garden.  A fourth woman is passing and sees them through a hole in the fence.  They ask her to join them.  The three are identified by their first names – Lena (Marta Kaczmarek), Sally (Caroline Lee) and Vi (Margaret Mills) – but the newcomer is Mrs Jarrett (Julie Forsyth) and she never quite fits in or keeps up… The play begins, however, wit

Samah Sabawi employs humour and irony to tackle a highly sensitive topic and effectively infiltrates the essential humanity of the story. The play takes place in a war-stricken state somewhere in the Middle-East and portrays the lives of the local people who are forced to confront life and death decisions on a daily basis.

Lynn Preston has dug deep and gone to dark places in the long gestation of her play.  Working for a time with the very experienced Sue Ingleton, she has made a text that is dense and allusive, filled with vivid images, and strongly suggestive while avoiding banal specifics.  It is remarkable how much story and emotion she packs into her sixty or seventy minutes.  This is poetic non-naturalistic theatre realised with intense performances and skilled, risk-taking direction by Dirk Hoult, his sound designer Gemma Notarpietro and intricate lighting from Jason Crick.