A Small Mind At The Theatre

Lydia By Any Other Name is a sweet gentle little play written and directed Weekes Baptiste. Unpretentious and friendly are two words I would describe it as. It suited that it was receiving its, pause for dramatic effect, World Premiere at the quaint little Looking Glass Theatre. The play tells the story of a bizarre happening reintroducing two former child stars back to one another and the rather coincidental existence of two Lydia's. Combining live action with archive footage of 8mm film recorded over 25 years is an effective but different approach to one I have seen previously. The play itself had managed to get over its own little drama just a week before with the lead dropping out, therefore parachuting into place at short notice (script in hand) was Georgina Pearson who given the time constraints gave a nice performance as Rosemary Cooper. Able to discard the script for the second act part. We had three Lydia's in the piece, with a bolshy turn from Eleanor Morrison...

The 2014 Flash Festival had been a wonder of many things including the diversity of ideas in the plays, the standard of the young actors and also the very first discovery of the Looking Glass Theatre. It was therefore a certainty that I would be back for more come 2015 and this time I would see all of the shows, somehow, with a bit of planning. This year there were a total of sixteen shows featuring thirty-nine student stars. There was also an increased diversity of ideas for the shows with children's shows, storytelling tales and six solo shows. We still had the large groups including two busy ones with five members. There was indeed huge variety. The event itself organised by Evoke Events was a huge success, although I think it was a heavy learning curve by those involved, everything generally went smoothly. The Looking Glass was always the hub of events complete with balloons, however the other shows at the three locations did feel a little cut-off. The NN Contempory the lea...

The Early Show had been quite special, however the Late Show was to offer even more and this time with truly added audience participation and experience. The dust cloths of the haunted cafe had been discarded and delicate white tablecloths, candles and a flower in a vase were in its place. We were at a quality cafe and ready for a bit of cabaret style entertainment. Jessica (a superb Lauren Moody) is busy cleaning up the cafe when her boyfriend (we shall see about that) Daniel (Ryan McLean) turns up ready to take her to a party. Well not just a party, but also Edinburgh, because special things await him there so Lauren must come too. In between my making Daniel sound a bit selfish, we also have a tale to be told to Lauren through our wonderful time travelling cafe. Switching through the decades we are treated to 20s, 40s, 60s and 80s ensembles. Each of these has a group leader; Anne (Francesca Chaisson), Rosie (Mia Rista), Rosa (Michaela Blackburn) and Sarah (Amara Browning); and e...

I officially love leaning on a table while watching a play being performed. That is my conclusion of spending Sunday afternoon watching two youth theatre shows. It helped of course that the shows in particular were of the most glorious and inventive variety, the first of which was performed by the specific Youth Theatre group (the younger stars in this case) and featured more than a hint of the Scooby Doo about it. Deprived of a dog, we had a band of five led by Shannon "Shamrock" played by Crystal Reilly with more than a hint of nastiness about her. Well a lot of nasty to be honest and her whipping boy mostly was poor old Cameron played with wonderful charm by Alfie Sanders. This being a musical we were of course treated to a lot of wonderful little numbers, all excellently performed. The best of which had to be the solo ghostly performance of My House. This was the most wonderful of pieces delivered gorgeously by the young star whose name alas eludes me. Just perfect th...

One hundred and twenty eight hours after I sat down to watch the first Flash Festival 2015 performance, I was seated at the Looking Glass Theatre to watch the sixteenth and final one. Snuff Me from One 'N' Half was extremely anticipated for a number of reasons. including tremendous word of mouth from those that had seen it and from my own opinion that it featured Sam Billy Behan, who had been remarkable in previous appearances in Macbeth and A Clockwork Orange. His performance partner was the equally impressive Ben Stacey, who as Dim in Clockwork was quite brilliant. This play could not fail, indeed I would not allow it! Of course it didn't. It was a tour de force in the complete sense with scenes of raw emotion, physically stunning moments, truly earthy language and a puppet show. I did absolutely not see that one coming. Those puppets had a vulgar turn of language, but the material they had was tough and emotional stuff. Snuff Me explores the trauma that members of ...

Stay from Leanne Dallman and Lydia Rose Blagg opens with a vast whoosh of activity that on the face of it looks chaotic and disorganised. However no number of strategically placed cards such as the opening few minutes used could ever be disorganised. This has obviously been planned to perfection as one incorrectly picked up card could be most embarrassing. It is an opening of such high energy second only to The Zugzwangs that leaves the audience tired never mind the performers. This play is all about people who are hybristophiliacs. No me neither. Like I say Flash has offered much education through its shows. A hybristophiliac as I now know is in the most basic sense a woman turned on by violence perpetrated by another. The way Stay explores this is through woman and their emotional connection and sometimes even marriage to men on death row, via the unusually amusing Conjugal Connections website. This is depicted in fifties style pre-recorded adverts with glorious voice overs. Thro...

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 ...