This is the fourth of Encompass Productions's forays into the world of online new wiritng. Having established themselves as an award-winning London-based theatre company championing and producing new writing, and proving to be highly successful and popular; they decided to move to the world of computers and continue doing what they do best online during the pandemic. It was a canny move and - if I may be indulgent and continue with their Star Wars puns - the 'fourth' was certainly with them here.
Their four shorts were perhaps the most challenging the company has produced online for various reasons, and as they are becoming a litle more au fait with the technologies involved, they are also beconing a litle more daring too. And for a company that isn't afraid of pushing boundaries, that can only be seen as a positive.
The first of the four pieces was by Scott Younger called 'Cold Call'. This is a monologue and directed by Liam Fleming and performed by Duncan Mason, this became a frantic OTT Rick Mayall-esque parady of Comic Strip proportion. A nice, if sadly somewhat predictable, ending, to a very theatrical performance.
Following this was a rather oblique-starting but rather poignant piece called 'Just A Game' by Katie Murphy. Directed by Jonathan Woodhouse, this two-hander between fellow gamers Monika Miles and Andrew Gichigi starts a little off beat as they seem to be the creators and only major players of an online game of their own invention, "The Guild", and having lost one of their top players (at first we are not sure whether that is virtually or actually, but that later is made clear) they talk of needing to recruit more players. The mood saddens as the talk moves to one of them wanting to quit the game too and go back to college; which promps them both to admit that the addictive and familiar nature of the game means that even though they only know each other through the game, they are the only real friends they have. It's a touchy-feeling bitter-sweet drama ahighlighting loneliness, which is nicely handled by all.
'Pay It Backward' by Donna Hoke was the event's wild card. Not as solid as the other writings and certainly a little more "out there" than the others, this piece takes us to a world where two people have set up their own company giving verbal praise to those who call in to say they have done a good deed. They are supposed to be anonymous and simply offer "credit" to people who have performed an act of kindness to someone after someone has done so to them. Their company therefore gives these people a metaphorical pat on the back. The first problem with this set up is the board at the rear of the desks with the initials RAK; a prior knowledge of what these initials mean is necessary in our primary understanding of this text. I had no idea, and so needed to look it up and then watch the sketch again - only a second time did it make sense. [Random Act Of Kindness]. The second problem is that although it was advertised as, and is clearly meant to be, a comedy, it simply wasn't funny. Josh Morter, Simon Pothecary, and Holli Dillon struggle with but do their best with trite diaolgue and silly stereotypes, but even the pay-off line at the end falls flat since it was a sensible, humane, correct thing to do, and just not funny! Odd.
Once again, the company have a knack of saving the best until last. No more so than here, with Alan Hall's most excellent script called, 'Crimson Eyes'. Here we return once again to the monologue, and a very serious and truthfully handled piece about homelessness, performed with great sensitivity by Megan Pemberton (directed by Liam Fleming). A good backdrop, excellent interaction with unseen passers-by, wholly beliveable and despite it being a very down-beat and serious ending to the evening, it left us with some very sobering thoughts.
The next online Bare E-ssentials will be 30th September, available to watch for free (donations welcomed) via their YouTube or Facebook pages.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 26/8/20
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