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Review of Flash Festival: Theoria Theatre - Just A Second at the Looking Glass Theatre

Just A Second from Theoria Theatre has my award for the most beautiful play of the week. Tenderly performed, wonderfully written and just quite enchanting.

Our two performers Antonia Underwood and Jessica Kay compliment each well with Jessica the almost constantly abrasive one while Antonia despite being a touch grumpy, the gentle one. This is for me Antonia's show, not to discredit Jessica, but that solid performance of Dor, 'The Time Keeper' of Mitch Alborn's novel, of which this is based, is so wonderfully complete that I cannot ignore it. There was also for me that wonderful softening of the voice and manner in the flashback scenes which you felt were still definitely the same character, but also of a distant much happier time. Antonia and Jessica however work wonderfully together as a pair of actors, complimenting each others performances excellently. They are an almost perfect partnership of opposites in this production.

The set is simple but as delightful as the story, with Old Father Time Dor often at play with his sands of time, with an area of sand cast simply across the floor. We then have a table and two chairs and hanging above a broken clock, finally rather wonderfully a string of lights heralding the entrance to the cave. The cave of which Dor is supposedly banished.

I know nothing of the source material, however much like a great deal of shows this week interest has been piqued to learn more. The Flash Festivals lasting legacy of any attending is that it spurs this in the mind and for me Just A Second is up there with the best of them in creating intrigue. This is a short, simple, but so delightfully wonderful play presented with the utmost care.


The Flash Festival 2015 is all over! It ran between 18th-23rd May, 2015 at four venues across the town. Details can be found at http://ftfevents.wix.com/flashtheatre2015, while tickets cannot now be booked via the Royal & Derngate. Details at: http://www.royalandderngate.co.uk/whatson/2015-2016/Other/FlashFestival15

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