24:7 Festival - Various Venues
by
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The 24:7 Festival featuring
plays by new writers is going with a swing
until Sunday, 27th July. This year there
are 16 plays on offer at the Midland Hotel,
Pure at the Printworks, and Zavvi. I spent
a day watching four of them and, I have
to say, I was very impressed.
The first, Lands End by Richard Medway was
full of imaginative and descriptive ideas.
Athough some questions such as the reason
why babies appear on islands that have been
saved from the floods caused by melting
icecaps, are not answered, the play never
fails to intrigue.
A government agent is sent to investigate
one of these children who lives with strange
parents in what is left of Cornwall. David,
though only four years old, has the body
of a 16-year-old and is a genius.
The agent becomes aware of the family’s
true agenda. I won’t reveal the ending but
, throughout, you wonder if he has been
too late to stop their evil plans. Adam
Beresford conveys a child’s mind in a teenage
body well.
The newsreader’s voice which announces doom-filled
global warming tragedies on the radio, is
actually the voice of Ashley Byrne, who
has presented the news on commercial and
local radio stations for 12 years.
Mark Whiteley’s ‘Grass’ is about petty-criminals
who grass on a big crook. Caught in the
middle is the innocent, Sadie, who sells
gas. You find yourself sympathising with
the two characters whom the sadistic Mully
(Andonis Anthony) tries to torture into
withholding evidence about him.
The writer pinpoints class differences almost
as a sideline. For the audience are more
concerned about the huge, menacing Mully
who can wreak fear into anyone whatever
their class. The scene where one of the
renegades. Barry, has his head kicked in
is too realistic for comfort.
There is a clever conclusion where the audience
believe the play has ended happily. Just
as they are relaxing Mully appears once
again – but what happens is a secret. Those
who visited last year’s festival will have
loved The Judgment of Mr Jenkins and which
is now going on tour. The writer, Ross Andrews
has this year submitted ContreCoup. It is
a dark comedy about unconditional love when
a husband has to care for his brain-damaged
wife after a road accident.
It has Ross’s professional touch as we follow
the frustrated Richard (Ian Curley) battling
with exhaustion and the temptation of a
glamorous neighbour. Hazel Earle as the
dribbling, incoherent, wheel-chair bound
Sarah does well to maintain her blank stare
throughout the performance.
I liked the use of film to indicate suburbia
and the park where Richard goes running
with his neighbour. Unfortunately, it was
very difficult to hear the actors and this
spoilt what was otherwise a first class
production.
Probably one of the most difficult plays
to perform successfully was written and
directed by Ian Townsend, who also played
Mr Fringe, a mad and very gay funeral director
who counted bodies like other people count
money. His farce, Granny must Die, was a
comic cut caper about a dreadful old woman
on whom the devil bestowed eternal life.
Her mad family, who couldn’t stand the sight
of her, kept murdering her only for her
to bounce back to life.
All the cast grasped the exaggerated style
required to put across these larger-than-life
characters and kept the pace moving. I particularly
liked Karl Lucas as the hissing devil and
melodramatic exorcising bishop, Hayley Fairclough
as the dim-witted Catherine and Carla Stokes
as Granny. But the greatest praise goes
to the writer, Ian Townsend, who, I believe,
could be the next Ray Cooney.
Tickets from 0161 236 7110 |
