A Small Mind At The Theatre

I first got the opportunity to see these now third year actors at the Holy Sepulchre in March 2014 and even at that time, as first years, their heavily choreographed movement work and delivery of the words of John Donne showed huge potential. Fast forward to June this year and the levels of skill were developing at an exponential rate as before my eyes they made my nemesis Shakespeare very, very watchable with their Winter's Tale and Merry Wives performances. Now a full twenty months after I first saw them they have presented perhaps the very best of the Northampton University shows I have seen to date and there have been many exceptional ones believe me. What Orientation did for me that was a delight that I have not always seen from the University productions is that as a concept it kept it simple. We are in a highly competitive office with a group of workers, basically amounting to a dysfunctional family, who find themselves not only snowbound in the office but also in som...

No Longer Mine was my first solo performance that I was to see at the Flash festival and Lucy House's Sole House production was a very powerful and interesting performance. Subject matter was once again tough, this time mental illness and its effect on family and carers. In a powerful performance in a very compact corner of the Looking Glass Theatre, Lucy played three distinct characters, two daughters and their mother. The older daughter, the sufferer of the illness. This was one of the simpler tech plays as this was to be the most purely acted play I had seen to this point with none of the dynamic physical movement heavily at play elsewhere or the glossy video and sound work (no bad thing as it was a nice change to get back to just solid acting performance). The set was simple and clear, with three distinct areas in use, a table, a sofa and the place where we began, just an area of floor, where Lucy just sits. Through a collection of just very simple costume changes Lucy ...