What a brilliant idea! Instead of opening an Advent Calendar each day, Oldham's Coliseum Theatre invite us to watch a short monologue each day, all written and performed by the best of local upcoming talent, and all under the direction of the Coliseum's Artistic Director, Chris Lawson. Each monologue is between 2 and 6 minutes long, and here I look at the second batch, dates 8 - 16.
Once again a veritable smorgasbord of approaches to this idea, with some comedy, some more serious, and again, one particular short which touched a nerve it was so simple and heartfelt. This time it was Nan Kofi Kufuor's "Gift", performed by Shaban Dar, which had that certain X factor.
Others worthy of special mention were Chris Hoyle's 'Bauble' (performed by Wendy Albiston), which saw a lady adorning her Chrsitmas tree, not as flamboyantly this year, not going over the top as she usually does. There is a reason for this, and it leaves one with a lump in the throat.
I also enjoyed Adam Fenton's 'Christmas Dinner' and Rob Ward's 'The Mistletoe Project', although the end of this was too short, we needed a second or two more to appreciate her own living conditions and situation in order to truly make the contrast.
There's still a few more short monologue surprises left between now and the end of Advent, and so am looking forward to my daily dose of Oldham Coliseum magic!
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 17/12/20
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