A Small Mind At The Theatre

A. A. Milne is mentioned in the publicity for NonSens!cal Theatre's 100, Acre Wood, however those looking for a little Winnie-the-Pooh style fun would be suitably shocked by the behavior of this band of four characters and their flat antics. I am oddly not familiar with Milne sufficiently to take the individual traits of the characters, however the play distinguishes them superbly enough in any case. We have from the outset the apparent outsider, Eddie (Jared Gregory). Sitting alone on a chair, constantly twitchy, who we later learn has been sectioned following the death of his father. His one reminder of him, his harmonica. The others writhe and share an uncomfortable bed upon our arrival into the theatre. We have Rachel (Danni-Louise Ryan), sufferer of the most horrendous OCD, which in this very untidy flat is constantly under attack. There's William (Kieran Hansell), a sufferer of an obsession with food, whose constant companion (and lover?) a squeeze bottle of honey. Fina...

Last month I was present for Orientation, very possibly the best ever University of Northampton BA Actors performance I have seen. Therefore the second groups ingeniously titled An Evil Gathering Of Infidels had much to live up to. Now lets get it straight from the outset, for me this wasn't quite as good as Orientation. However it was up there with the best of them and was perhaps such a different beast of a show that it is probably unfair in any case doing the comparison. First of all it is very much less character driven, as although there are several strong and defined characters in the play, actually only ten of the twenty-one performers even have character names. Those other eleven either have single unnamed roles or move between a number or groups of characters, and sometimes rather magnificently portraying doors (holding doorknobs in their outstretched arms). Lead character (for the first half at least) is Charlie Clee (last seen pursued by a bear) as Daniil Kharms, a writ...