CONNECTIONS
First of all, before even talking about any of the nine plays that make up this programme, praise must be given to Brighton Little Theatre and the team involved in the creation. An excellent initiative yes, but so well curated and managed, there was a tightness to the staging, excellent use of the space on a simple set with a few props, but above all a seamless flow from one short play to the next. First class!
Connections we are told in the programme is about how we all strive for connection, for validation and to be seen, and the collection opens with Womb With A View by Nettie Sheridan and directed by Steven Adams and Will Rosander. Katie Ford is a foetus and certainly one with a view. She’s a feisty foetus for sure, one challenged by pickles and spice but more by the constant attention of friends to the bump. It says as much about motherhood as it does about baby and using humour well is both funny as well as insightful.
Half A Glass follows and takes us from cradle to grave. Jo Gatford has written and directed a poignant tale of loss that is beautifully delivered by Denise Tyler. Capturing so many of the mixed emotions that we feel when dealing with death it is both funny and provoking and moves forward with pace and yet a quiet stillness.
Susanne Crosby has written and directed The Picture. It is a delightful slice of period manners, so excellently scripted and formed but taken to real heights by a stunning performance from Evie McGuire. Her delivery of the clipped and mannered language of middle England in post war Britain is simply perfect and, for a young woman, shows real talent, keen observation and no doubt proper research. Celia Johnson would be smiling for sure.
Mastication, written by Tess Gill and directed by Steven Adams and Will Rosander once again, is a tense drama, filled with comedy, but equally scary as the central character reveals how the behaviour of a work colleague gradually drives her off the rails. Philip Bremner’s therapist is the irritatingly quiet portrayal of what I imagine a therapist might be. Georgia Stephanou’s protagonist is boxed away in a corner and displays in exaggerated manner the irritations that lie behind the story, a device that adds much humour to the whole and is clearly meant to be how the minor irritations are escalated in the mind of the central character. And what a character and what a performance. Patti Griffiths is so totally believable, a “nice” lady driven to the brink by tiny incidents, most of which are well intentioned. It could have been played as comedy, it is very funny, but she plays it straight and allows the humour to emerge from the script.
Simon Jenner’s White Thing is a tragedy, short but poignant as a bereaved mother reveals how the tragedy that has fallen to her unfolds into a string of injustices and further tragedies. It digs into legislation, immigration status and guilt and has the makings of a very thought provoking larger work for sure.
Leaks opens with several minutes of simple silent comedy worthy of a Chaplin or a Keaton but rapidly turns into an intense dialogue between two people where the humour disappears but the mopping continues. I liked how it sets off and starts to develop but wanted and hope for much more. Faith McNeill writes and directs well and Saskia Monteiro and Lewis Todhunter are very believable so please, let’s have more.
Sam Nixon as Susan is the highlight of the whole collection in a play that in its short duration is so well titled, it is Perfect! Susan is posh, confident and utterly delightful in her privileged existence, all John Lewis floral, cashmere blend clad comfort. Or is she, as that cashmere unravels the frailty of parenthood is exposed. Writing and playing the part here works so so well and Susanne Crosby’s direction is discreet and sensitive. Most definitely a high point in the whole and the play that lives on a day later in my mind.
Snakes // Ladders by Ethan Taylor and directed by Leigh Ward is a dark murderous tale of avarice and revenge against a privileged upper class in a world, maybe future, but not too far from the present. Two sisters, cleaners, contrive to make a socially upward move on the back of a deceased client. One is naïve, the other corrupt, but their efforts are thwarted… so much potential in the bones of this story that in this short form have not the space to be developed, and I would certainly like to see more.
The whole is rounded out with Susanne Crosby’s graveside performance in Tidying Up by Tess Gill, again directed by Steven Adams and Will Rosander. We have been taken on a journey from womb to grave and Crosby’s delicate delivery is both revealing and moving and a fitting conclusion to an event where nine plays move swiftly and captivatingly forward. Some are clearly the seeds of larger future pieces and some so delightfully whole in their present form.
Andrew Kay
18 April
Brighton Little Theatre
Rating:
