Review: Lightnin's night at the Thameside (From Thurrock Gazette)

Review: Lightnin's night at the Thameside

4:07pm Friday 8th June 2007

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ON his latest visit to the Thurrock Drama Festival, MICHAEL CASEY reviews the three one-hour players performed on Thursday evening.

The fifth night of the Thurrock Drama Festival saw three highly entertaining one act plays performing in front of the biggest audiences of the week so far.

The Common Denominator by the College Players

The first 45 minutes of the play was excellent.

Set around a ladies toilet and all the emotional chaos that reigns in there, we soon learned that some girls were linked by one cheating man.

All the actresses played the inebriated clubbers to perfection and set up the characters nicely.

The first group of tottering tottie was three middle aged disco divas who, squeezed into micro minis, tried to convince themselves that they were size zero stunners not size 16 has beens.

The interplay was brisk. One of the problems with disco music throbbing in the background is that it is sometimes difficult to hear the actors.

Three younger girls enter the fray and the word play again was very sharp.

There were two particular performances that merit special mention.

In the middle of the play, Joanne Acanpora appears with a searing monologue. She has just found out that she is pregnant. The usual rules apply: Caught in a trap, can't get out, not her husbands,younger man flattery etc. but Lisa drew the audience into the vortex of crucial decisions and dilemmas with real pathos.

A key moment was when she went over to the sink to cry. She held her head in her hands and remained silent for some time. It was a rare silent moment in a week of highly voluble drama and yet it was one of the most poignant moments in all the drama so far.

But the highlight of the play was the performance by Victoria Costa as a barely upright, drunken girl with a cut foot.

This was a natural physical comedienne. For some reason, although a very pretty girl she reminded me of Barbara Streisand impersonating Kenneth Williams (that's me off the guest list next time) but she stole the show as you found yourself watching her every move even when the dialogue had moved on.

Her delivery and timing was perfect. The coup de grace was when she tried on her friend's glasses and pulled her hair over her eyes. Fantastic.

The choreography was very good. So many high heeled female characters stomping around needs a lot of disciplined direction so real credit must go to writer and director Sue Welch.

One of the great sight gags of the week was the "childbirth" scene as the curtain opened to the sight of one girl's legs astride two paramedics as she tries to give birth in trying surroundings.

At this point the play was well set up. If it had gone on for another hour or more I am sure we would have seen the characters and the plot unfold but they only had five minutes left and so the narrator/attendant then delivered the meaning of the play "The Common Denominator" in the manner of a Thurrock Council press briefing.

The play deserved to go out with a comedic bang and not a bureaucratic whimper about the whole thing being about life Nevertheless, it made me laugh and I think Victoria Costa could be a star for the future.

Circus of Life by the Lightnin Drama Group

Having worked in Edinburgh for many years, you get used to seeing all sort of performances at the world largest arts festival.

What you always hope for is that show where you walk out and write: "You have got to see this!"

"Circus of Life" written and directed by Sue Ospreay and performed by the Lightnin Drama group was one of those plays. Any play, which in the span of less than an hour receives two spontaneous outbursts of applause and leaves its audience visibly moved has to have something special.

Indeed it was more than just the performance. You felt that this was a drama group that although have been in existence since 1980 are going places.

The central theme of the show is the bullying that afflicts Deb played by Vanessa Finn as she fights to find her place in a world where the death of her father hangs heavily on her psyche.

The basic metaphor is that life is a circus and all the acts within are roles we play in life.

From the very start as the "acts" enter the ring, the performance is tight and balanced. Clearly there has been a great deal of time spent on getting the minutiae of performance right.

Deb's bete noire is Bev played by Amie Habberley. She was a very convincing bully/gang ringleader. From when she uttered her first words of "eat dogs**t and die" you really felt you were in the presence of a very mean spirit indeed.

Fellow gang member Mary (Amy Elsley) was hilarious. She looked like something out of an old Bunty annual. Her attempt to stop a fight with the suggestion: "Let's Play Charades!" brought the house down.

Each scene was lit perfectly. The production was full of colour. The clowns as stage hands was a neat effect.

One of the standout scenes was at home when the many jobs of Debs mother played with wonderful weariness by Annie Elsley was illustrated by a series of boxes that she had to carry. She just about managed to carry ten but the final box with the words "school report" became the straw that broke.

The biggest laugh of the night came from the conversation between mum and her other daughter Michelle. There was a joke involving the words till and pill. It brought a rapturous round of applause.

The bullying becomes more intense. The torture she endures as Bev taunts her regarding the night her father died is very distressing. The climax is equally emotional. You could feel all the audience willing Deb to make the right decision.

After the warm applause dies down, the lights came up and you could see that the audience and rival companies were visibly moved, many to tears but what they had seen.

It was a privilege to see this performance. Professional, funny,warm-hearted, frightening, thought provoking and very well written. The DVD should be shown to every school.

Shut Up" by Thurrock Youth Theatre.

The last play of the evening was set around Dexter played by Mitchell Roast as he starts a new school after being excluded by his previous one.

Mitchell won't talk and this alieneates him from his parents and new school mates.

His dad is played by Lyndsay 0'Connor. She had a wonderful deadpan delivery of a father more interested in television than his own son.

Another outstanding performance was by Patrick Nicholson as Richie. As the urchin of the class he had a real swagger and crispness to his role as he set about needling Dexter.

Tatiana played by Sinead Bannister was excellent as class swot and world record prefect badge wearer.

There was a very interesting scene in the middle as he visits a series of therapists.

After a confident start the play started to drag. It began to come across as a bit of a school play and lacked any real cohesiveness and drive.The lack of props didn't help. The constant chair moving after each scene didn't compare well to the seamlessness of other performances.

The audience who had been so attentive on this marathon feat of theatre noticeably began to seat shuffle.

Dexter eventually speaks but only in terms of tv soundbites. Ironically it is when the documentary makers pitch the idea of a film and cash to his parents.

There are some fine actors in Thurrock Youth Theatre and I for one look forward to seeing more of their performances.

It can't have been easy following "Circus of Life" and maybe different groups are working with different budgets but I applaud their energy, dedication and appeal.

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