Third year students on the Arden School's Acting degree course presented a double-bill of powerful dramas this afternoon. Their own Waterside Theatre had been completely converted from the usual end-on arena format to a much more intimate space.
The first of the two plays to be peformed was 'Girls Like That' by Evan Placey, and here we sat on three sides of a large rectangle. Square and rectangular boxes were the only set, and moved in and out as required, with much of the action taking place on boxes placed right next to the front row of seats. Directed by Rachel Austin, this was a deliberate attempt to involve us all and make us all complicit in the unfolding of events on stage. Ultimately, despite some superb acting from the students, the play, due mostly to the style of the writing and the set, felt like little more than a drama school exercise.
'Girls Like That' is an ensemble piece of theatre. It's written in such a way as to make the voices of many be the voice of one, where, instead perhaps of character names, the characters are more like numbers / voices. In trying to find how best to describe the play, I found an online description which is actually better than anything I had thus far managed to write, and so, with thanks to the Drama Online Library; "Evan Placey's Girls Like That is an ensemble play exploring the pressures on young people today in the wake of advancing technology.When a naked photograph of schoolgirl Scarlett goes viral, rumours spread across smartphones like wildfire and her reputation becomes toxic, threatening to shatter the fragile unity of the girls she has grown up with. But how long can Scarlett remain silent? And why isn't it the same for boys? Using music and dance sequences, and featuring shifts in time to explore the evolution of feminist consciousness, the play focuses on adolescent female friendship in the present day and its fragility in the face of societal and cultural pressures."
I think there were a few reasons why the play did not resonate with me - not least that I have never been an adolescant girl, and I have never found myself in any of the situations the play advances; but also that the play has a rather confusing non-linear timeline. Despite the cleverness of this device and finding at the end that all that happened previously were Scarlett's direct descendants was a neat way of wrapping the play and its premise together, I could still not find anything within the play which resonated on a personal level, and therefore found the production rather superficial. That is not to denigrate any of the performers in any way: their commitment to this piece was quite astounding, and they all gave uniformly powerful and sincere performances; each giving a different and identifiable character to the unified whole. From the sassy, full-on Libby Shaw to the quieter and more thoughtful Northern Irish Kelsea Knox, their performances were flawless.
After the interval and we returned to the space to find that the thrust configuration had now changed to an even more confining and intimate traverse space; meaning that there was now only audience on two opposite sides. For me this configuration is the hardest to act in, and although I have never directed a piece of theatre for this configuration, I would imagine it to be really rather difficult too. I therefore take my hat off to director James Mair who managed to make this a hugely visceral and unnerving experience. In Girls Like That it was only the girls; now it was the boys' turn to show us what they were made of.
The stage was realistically set to represent a young offenders' dorm with bunk beds, single beds, and all the accoutrement that go with this such as lockers, meal trays, towels, soap, etc. A deal of time had been given to trying to create the realism necessary in the setting to emphasis the conditions of the story.
Two casts, giving two performances each were used for this play, and this afternoon's cast was on its second. Written by Les Smith, this is a brutal and frank account based on real life. The year is 1989, and 7 youths are sharing this one dorm, with the usual dynamics accompanying such institutions. Enter a mentally challenged young man, Billy Jones, who by all accounts should have been segregated from the others and had a more careful and understanding handling from police and warders. However, this is the late '80s and things such as a kick in the ribs from the police as he is bungled into a van go unchallenged. Even the warder who leaves Billy with his dorm-mates knows only too well what fate awaits him, and sees nothing wrong in this nor shows any remorse by so doing. The 'leader' of the dorm is a racist thug named Strachey (Ryan Goll), who makes it his business to find out Jones' crime (sympathetically played by Philip Leary). Once he and the rest of the inmates learn what this is... namely that he tried to engage in sexual activity with a nine year old girl and then accidentally killed her... a kangaroo court is immediately convened.
All 9 actors showed great sensitivity playing these roles, and the characters that they proffered were rounded and believable. They worked together superbly and the tension/ friction between them was at times electric. Sensitvely handled by both cast and director, this play managed to eat inside you and affect your emotional responses to the play and tthe characters' situations. I had difficulty in standing and leaving the auditorium at the end I had been in an emotional boxing match, and lost.
There was only one thing which didn't work so well for me here and that was the loud noises accompanied by strobe lighting for the changing of each scene. It was too stylistic, too theatrical, and too 'obvious'.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 1/2/20
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