A Small Mind At The Theatre

The cover note for the script of Oladipo Agboluaje's Immune describes it as "a challenging science fiction play with a large cast", and the word challenging in this case is not a lie. This is a fast paced, multi-cast changing script which leaves little room for error for its young cast in the performance. If the script isn't enough to handle for the young performers, director Christopher Elmer-Gorry and designer Carl Davies have made the situation even more complex for the actors with the set and stage work. Having to manhandle great panels on wheels and a huge cube, which also splits in two occasionally, during scene changes requires skill, coordination and cooperation of a high level. As if all this is not enough, the actual story is epic enough for the relatively small stage of the Royal. Attempting to form an apocalyptic world (albeit only happening in Plymouth) offers challenges in itself, but Agboluaje's script does that in a sort of apocalypse in the teac...

There was a moment at the end of DNA when the lights came up that I feared there would be deceased individuals surrounding me in the audience. Such was the abrupt and terrifying arrival with a strike of sound at the beginning of the play, that I surely did think someone with a dicky ticker must have succumbed. However what was greeted with general hysterics at their shock, seemed to have not made a corpse of any of the patrons. It was a striking beginning to a tough, but also very funny play from Dennis Kelly (writer of Channel 4's excellent thriller Utopia ). Telling the tale of the a group of youngsters who have killed a boy named Adam and attempt to cover up the fact. Originally written for National Theatres Connections Festival in 2007, this is a short and sharp edgy play lasting an absorbing fifty minutes or so. Having seen four of this years Connections plays earlier this year, I could certainly see the feel of this being such a play from that festival, made more so of the ...