Hope Youth Theatre is the junior division of celebrated local LGBTQ Hope Theatre Company whose production of Be More Martyn ran at Hope Mill Theatre to rave reviews last year and their new production of Jock Night comes to the same venue next month.
This film - a short, running at just less than 9 and a half minutes - appeared as a link on my Facebook feed. More out of curiosity than anything I clicked 'play', and I have to be honest, not expecting very much at all. However, after watching it, I was very pleasantly surprised. The young actors and actresses in this film are all from the Friday evening Over 11s group, although most can't be very much older than 11 unless I am a very bad judge of age! Further the film was even written by them too, and as such is huge credit to them, as the script is clear, precise, well judged and packs the punches in exactly the right places.
The story tells of a class of children at the same school whose teacher asks them to do a project by using their cameras on their mobiles. One young boy has only an out-dated mobile phone with no camera, and so is victimised and picked on by the rest of the children. He is ostracised and alienated - not a part of the 'clique' because of it. He then gets work as a paperboy and earns enough to buy himself the very latest i-phone, (a Mark 6) and suddenly becomes the envy of all the class, and finds he is now the most popular person in the school. That is until another child comes along with the even newer up-dated model, (yes, you've guessed... the Mark 7), and again he finds himself ignored.
It is a wonderful film with a clear message; that material wealth does not make friendship; however it also shows quite intelligibly exactly how children - and sometimes even adults - so often behave (soemtimes unintentionally) and therefore as such the film is a wake-up call to all, that 'keeping up with the Jones's' is not something to aspire to, and that friendship, cameraderie, and relationships are built on much more than simply material goods. And although the end is very 'cheesy' - it put a huge smile on my face!
Congratualtions to all the young actors involved in this film, and thank you for allowing me to be able to watch it. For anyone else curious out there then the link to the film is here - https://vimeo.com/326147315?ref=fb-share&1&fbclid=IwAR3pxGG7Di5hOez2vmQcLsu1fQCfEFLl-KZ3ZuyytcEc7axMirZ3ldqwfpw
For more information about Hope Theatre Company or Youth Company then their website is https://www.hopetheatrecompany.com/
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 24/3/19
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