A new and forward-looking theatre company, the interestingly named Milhous Collective produced their inaugural theatre presentation this evening in the form of 4 short plays, written, directed and performed by local creatives. All four plays were linked by a common theme this evening, that of 'paranoia'.
For their first production, this was an epic and monumental undertaking, involving four writers, four directors and 14 actors, not to mention stage crew etc. However, the message this sent out was that this is a company that knows where they are going, and has the nowse (good old Northern word) to bring in and collaborate with many people to widen their nets in order to achieve their goals. It's a bold statement and one has high hopes for the company for their future development.
Understandably some of the performances this evening were a little rough around the edges, but this was Fringe Theatre at its most raw and as such the King's Arms in Salford is the ideal venue to host such productions, giving young and up-coming performers a platform to experiment and hone their craft. A lovely balance was struck too by inviting a few older and more experienced actors to join the company and add to the mix, which worked excellently.
The evening took us from the early 1970s and film censorship "A Sensorship Play" [by Jorge Walsh], through a psychological thriller-esque play about a wanted criminal befriending a lonely agoraphobic, "No Place Like Home" [by Luke Spiby], an abortive group therapy meeting, "It's Good To Talk" [by Luke Spiby, Jorge Walsh and the cast], to finish on the very serious and real subject of the Grenfell Tower fire in "The Twenty-Third Floor" [by Danielle Mayo]. A good mix of suspense, comedy and indeed true drama.
The plays were in their developmental stages and all four would have benefitted greatly from a dramaturge and some judicious editing, and some of the directing also needed fine-tuning - especially having the sound effects of a radio being manually tuned through the stations, whilst the actress sat there hands by her sides as being just one such example of a lack of attention to detail - but in the main, the plays were well acted and all the performers were fully committed to their roles, and the final protest sequence was very emotive. If I had to chose a favourite actor / actress from the showcase then my vote would be Joshua Young in the third piece of the evening. He displayed a lovely energy and connection to both the piece and the audience, and was highly engaging and watchable.
An impressive debut for The Milhous Collective and I look forward to seeing where they go in the future.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 29/2/20
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