4 STARS, July 13-21. Catherine Bardrick enjoys two exciting new plays as part of the Orange Tree Theatre's Directors' Festival showcasing the talents of emerging theatre directors
Robert Day
Georgie May Hughes in Katie Johnstone
Following the great success of last year, the Theatre Directors’ Festival makes a welcome return to the Orange Tree Theatre this week with three new professional productions of sharp, contemporary plays all directed by the second cohort of graduates from the Orange Tree’s joint MA in Theatre Directing with St Mary’s University – a unique course in the UK due to it being predominantly housed within a producing theatre. Audiences are in for a treat when they come to watch Luke Barnes’ Katie Johnstone directed by Samson Hawkins, Ella Hickson’s Precious Little Talent directed by Dominique Chapman, and Nina Segal’s In the Night Time (Before the Sun Rises) directed by Evangeline Cullingworth.
What’s not to like about a play which manages to mix urban foxes, Arctic Monkeys and extreme gardening? The eponymous Katie Johnstone is a fiery and feisty dream-fuelled heroine desperate to escape a dead-end job in Tesco by starting a business to make millions (as well as writing poems just like Alex Turner). The play is a glorious celebration of youthful idealism and passionate resistance, albeit expressed in the fruitiest of language, and director Hawkins elicits a highly engaging and charismatic performance from lead actress Georgia May Hughes who dominates the space with her high-octane energy, and is admirably supported by Kristin Atherton in the rest of the female roles and Reuben Johnson in all of the male roles (including fox).
Both the pace and transitions between scenes are controlled beautifully to highlight the contrast between the loud and noisy nightclub set pieces full of jerky, explosive dance moves and the powerfully intense encounters between human and fox characterised by the smooth fluidity of the choreography. Similarly, the fluctuations in mood and emotion are effectively rendered in the sharp switches between Katie’s loud, angry monologues shoved right in the audience’s face with quieter, more reflective and lyrical moments of contemplation and stillness. Indeed, such is the expertise of the directing, that the single flaw arises out of the script in terms of a rather disappointing denouement whereby the resolution is tantamount to an unconvincing and sudden sell out and collapse of all our heroine’s dreams.
Robert Day
Matt Jessup and Rebecca Collingwood in Precious Little Talent
Unrealised hopes and dreams as well as the contrast between British disillusioned cynicism and American optimistic idealism is also a theme weaving its way through Hickson’s Precious Little Talent which opens in New York, 2008 amidst the buzz of a newly elected President. What follows is a sparkling, fresh romantic comedy tempered by the pathos of tragedy, as English graduate Joey arrives in New York to visit her estranged father suffering from dementia, and gets caught up in a whirlwind, midnight run through the city with Sam a young and hopelessly idealistic American. Director Dominique Chapman again elicits fine performances from all three actors with both Matt Jessup and Rebecca Collingwood effortlessly charming and natural as the young couple and Simon Shepherd perhaps a little more forced and over-studied as the Professor rapidly deteriorating from dementia.
Again there is excellent attention to detail in terms of pace and timing as well as integration of music (Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata) and broadcasts (both the Queen and Obama) all resulting in some very entertaining scenes whether it is the evocation of that whirlwind subway ride, the manic dancing in the apartment, or the attempt to set up a Christmas Nativity scene (with giraffe, rhino and pink tree!) The balance between comic charm and poignant pathos is handled beautifully by the direction throughout striking exactly the right tone and note right up until the final moment – with the poignancy of that hopeful Obama broadcast becoming especially acute when heard in the current climate!
Both directors use the confined space and intimate atmosphere of the Orange Tree auditorium to full effect in terms of engaging and entertaining the audience. Both the plays and the talents of these emerging directors deserve a wider audience and a longer run beyond this one week of the Festival. Let’s hope there will be some well-deserved transfers!
Tickets: orangetreetheatre.co.uk
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