The first year students on the Arden's Theatre And Peformance course gave a public showing of their latest devising, 'It's About Time'.
Filmed entirely whilst on lockdown and in isolation, these students made the best of what they had available and filmed from their own homes or nearby locations, and brought modern technology, especially Zoom, to bear to great effect and ability.
The premise of this 50 minute play was a virtual visit to a one-bedroom flat that had just become avilable in an exclusive and desirable converted mansion property. The estate agent, some of the mansion's residents, and several propsective buyers were all connected together for a virtual meeting and tour of the property. What could possibly go wrong?
The style of presentation put me in mind of the TV Comic Strip films of the 1990's. It just kept getting more and more offbeat and macabre as it went along, which also increased the comedic element too. Needless to say, but things were just not what they appeared, and everyone was quirkish or downright odd, with one or two being occult murderers too.... but I don't want to spoil the story!
Considering the circumstances under which this was written, directed and performed, the students did a marvellous job of bring about such an entertaining and original script. I have been led to believe that this script is going to be developed further and turned into a stage production for these students' final year at the school. I am now more than curious to see that end result.
The cast also managed nicely to include moments of cultural zeitgeist such as quite a good Boris Johnson impersonation, Donald Trump approved bleach, conspiracy theories, and 'lockdown meltdown syndrome'.
It would be extremely unfair of me to try and critique the acting or mise-en-scene. I was just jolly grateful to be able to watch some vibrant original new writing! The only theatre fixes we seem to be getting are videoed reruns of classics or films at the moment, so this was both very much alive and very refreshing! Huge congratulations to the whole team, and I look forward to being able to come back to The Waterside Theatre (hopefully) soon!
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 22/5/20
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