A Small Mind At The Theatre

Alongside the University of Northampton BA Actors Flash Festival, the Connections festival at Royal & Derngate is now my joint favourite week of theatre each year. This is my fourth year at the festival and each time I have tried my very best (and succeeded) in seeing more and more of those on offer (four in 2014, ten in 2015 and twelve last year). This year I cracked sixteen shows, including the most interesting, a chance to see two of the plays by three different groups. I was able to see nine of this year's ten plays (a single nagging one, Musical Differences by Robin French was missing from the R&D line-up), and most I either enjoyed or finally understood their merits or reasons for inclusion. The writing of sixteen reviews is a little bit of an daunting prospect, however, I will do my best to review each of the plays and those I saw more than once, and pick around the comparisons. Extremism by Anders Lustgarten Performed by Bedford College Extremism was perfo...

The National Theatre Connections festival has become one of my favourite theatre events of the year and as each year has passed I have attempted to get to see more each time. 2014 I saw just the four, last year it was upped to ten, this year I had the pleasure of seeing twelve shows in four days. I pretty much loved everyone (with a couple of glaring exceptions). Last year a last minute decision saw me see one play a second time by a different group, and it was interesting to see the subtle differences in the pieces while maintaining exactly the same play. This year I was able to increase this and see four plays twice, and the difference on two of them was quite amazing and made this years festival a quite stunning eye opening theatre experience of a new kind. In order to get a grip over attempting to review twelve separate plays, I have decided to review the plays in the order I saw them, except the plays I saw performed twice. For those I will attempt to compare and contrast, and a...

There is something quite magical about youth theatre other grown-up productions don't exhibit. A vibrant energy exudes from the actors, be it because they either have something to prove (to themselves or others), or perhaps more simply just a feeling of youthful ambition. I think it is almost certain that they are free to enjoy the situation more, as at this time this is for the fun of it with no monetary reward. This doesn't detract from the quality of the situation as this group appears to work tirelessly well together, with no obvious frictions that their musician characters depict in this play). The Musicians by Patrick Marber ( Closer and Dealer's Choice ) is like all Connections plays a relatively short forty to fifty minute play specifically written for youth groups to perform. Originally written in 2004, this is part of the 2016 celebration of past material written for the yearly festival. It tells the story of a group of young musicians who find themselves at a c...

Over the last couple of years the National Theatre Connections plays have become quite a favourite of mine. They are short snappy forty to fifty minute plays by often well known writers and are designed purely to be performed by youth theatres. This year locally there are to be 21 youth theatre performances of the twelve plays for 2016. The location venue for this batch will Royal & Derngate at the end of April and just into May and I myself shall do my very best to see as many as possible. However on Saturday I had the pleasure of seeing the very first preview of Gargantua by Carl Grose by the Looking Glass Theatre in their wonderful performance venue of St Peters Church. Last year I happened to see another piece by Grose entitled Stay Brave, Brian Gravy, which was a tremendously challenging piece for the even younger performers. This was to be quite a bit different. The performance itself was very much in its early days with an acknowledged number of issues (not least som...

Day three for me was actually day four for the shows at Royal & Derngate, but shockingly I was unable to attend on that true third day. However my own third day contained a trio of performances from the good to the very good, to the excellent. Not in that order this time. * "Remote" by Stef Smith and performed by the Mark Rutherford School was an interesting play that for me took a little time to get going. For the first fifteen minutes or so, I really wasn't entirely sure where the play was going. It had however been very interesting seeing the sight of one of the cast climbing over the seats of the Royal! It was a daring idea that partly worked as a depiction of the character of Antler climbing up a tree. Where she stopped at the back of the theatre was where she stayed and delivered her lines throughout the whole performance. The story itself consisted of a random collection of characters all weaving slowly into a story of protest, love and protection of...

After a slightly mixed first day of productions of the 2015 Connections plays, the second contained two absolutely glorious ones. * "Drama, Baby" by Jamie Brittain and performed by Barnwell School was an absolute delight from start to finish. Funny, fresh and superbly performed by the young cast, led by a hysterical star turn by the young chap who played Neil (devoid of a programme again, so sadly no names). While I try not to single out a single person in these shows, he made it quite impossible not to in his performance of the socially awkward and occasionally offensive individual. A slightly abhorrent character that you could not help love because of his performance. However there were many other lovely individual performances from the large cast and all got their moments of glory. The play itself starts at the final rehearsals of two Theatre Studies groups, and proceeds via a collection of relatively shorts scenes to their final results, and culminates in a reapi...

I really enjoyed the Connections shows at Royal & Derngate during 2014 therefore it had been one of my most anticipated weeks for 2015. Even better than 2014 also was the fact that I was going to have the opportunity to see nine of the ten plays included (poor old Follow, Follow, the unwanted child). On my first day I was to see the first three of them and they were a glorious mix of the good, the bad and the hilarious (performed in that order). * The good was "Hospital Food" written by Eugene O'Hare and performed by Northampton High School. This was a powerful tale of a group of youngsters in a cancer unit and their Fight Club inspired "Retreat". This place allowed them to speak freely and was in the tradition a place where whats said in the Retreat stays in the Retreat. It was their place away from parents, doctors, nurses and, well all adults really. The main story revolved around the planned escape of Gus (Fiona Percival) from the hospital to go see...

The National Theatres Connections series of plays had been one of my highlights of my trips to R&D during 2014. Their short and snappy single act style kept them all interesting and never overstaying their welcome. So I was more than ready for my first encounter with one of this years Connections plays ahead of the main week of performances at R&D later in the year. Hacktivists is written by Ben Ockrent, whose slightly wacky but socially relevant play Breeders I had seen at St James Theatre last year. Hacktivists is less surreal, but does have a fair selection of what some people would call odd. Myself of the other hand would very much be home with them. So we are presented with thirteen nerdy "friends" who meet to hack, very much in what is termed the white hat variety. This being for good, as we join them they appear to have done very little more than hacked and created some LED light device. Crashing in to spoil the party however comes Beth (Emma-Ann Cranston)...