In a fully-accessible and fully-functional flat-pack touring theatre-in-the-round, an initiative by Paines Plough to bring theatre and communities together in a way that traditional non-movable buildings can't, this theatre feels a lot more like a small scale touting circus than a theatre - that is until you enter, sit down and become a part of this atmosphere. It may be compact and a little utilitarian, but the quality of the theatre produced here is second to none!
It is the fourth year that Paines Plaough's Roundabout has come to Salford, and this year they have pitched their 'big top' in Ordsall Park. It was the first time I had ever been both to Ordsall Park and The Roundabout. I was delighted by my experience.
There are three plays here as well as community activities, community theatre, music and dance. The three plays are all new, having been performed only once before at Edinburgh Fringe, and all three are one act plays by different writers but are performed by the same three actors / actresses and directed by the same person.
This evening it was Simon Longman's play, Island Town.
Island Town tells of a seemingly forgotten and run-down town, surrounded by fields, where the living inside the town in suffocating. Unemployment, lawlessness and poverty seem to be the watchwords of the place, but there is always the horizon, all those unobtainable places the other side of the fields, if one could only have the nerve to leave and find something better for themselves.
We see three teenagers, Kate, Sam and Pete. They are 15 and the world and their lives are ahead of them - or at least they should be. The reality however is very different indeed. One has a sadistic maniac brother whose violence and malevolence is felt throughout the play, another has an abusive dad, no mother, and she is in charge of her baby sister, despite being regularly beaten up by her father, and the third, perhaps the strongest of the three finds solace in drugs and cheap alcohol since she spends her time caring for her elderly father who needs constant support and painkillers. They are in a dead-end town, with zero hope of betterment, and the downward spiral of events take their toll.
It takes one of the three, Kate, to rally them together and, now she is old enough, we have moved on 3 years, she can drive and convinces them that the three of them should just get in the car and drive away from this hell-hole as fast as they can and leave it up to fate where they go - anywhere has to be better than where they are. She is high on drugs and drunk, but somehow that didn't seem to matter, and they all agreed.
This play is a tragedy, and so of course it doesn't end well. the acting is riveting and the chemistry between the three was electric. Katherine Pearce played Kate with earth and grit from the start and simply didn't let go. It was a truly compelling performance. Charlotte O'Leary and Jack Wilkinson played her two best friends, Sam and Pete, we watched them grow from 'innocent' children to adults, and understood their situation, and despite the lovely use of humour throughout [which is extremely important as every good tragedian knows] we were torn between liking them and hating them. We certainly understood them and felt sorry for them. We got the feeling though that it was Kate who was keeping the three of them together not just as a unit but as human beings too. Without her, what would Sam and Pete have been? This makes the denouement all the more tragic.
Directed by Stef O'Driscoll, this was a hugely sensitive and real piece of theatre. I was uncertain about the lack of props / mime in that many items were referenced / used, but never actually physically seen nor mimed, and this was a little weird for me. The strange lighting and sound along with the body contortions of the actors used between every frequent scene change was also a little strange. I understood this, but it seemed to be rather pre-emptive and so would have preferred a different way through the changes. However, that is just a personal opinion.
This was undoubtedly a very compelling and raw piece of theatre which worked excellently in the small round intimate space that the Roundabout afforded.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 6/9/18
No comments:
Post a Comment