Poetry, Pubs and Searching for Self - Day 3 of the National Drama Festival

Day 3 of the National Drama Festival, Saturday 20 July, and the Albany Theatre hosted three plays in the afternoon and another two on Saturday evening.

Review by Alison Manning.

The National Drama Festival, featuring the ‘Cream of amateur theatre’ has been taking place at the Albany Theatre, Coventry, this weekend. It has featured a range of already award-winning plays from all over the British Isles and beyond. Saturday's performances came from Worcestershire, Warwickshire and Welwyn, and as far afield as Ireland and Gibraltar.

Opening the afternoon session was Once this was a Poet by renowned poet Brenda Read-Brown. This is a semi-autographical tale of a year in the life of two poets who meet and fall in love, though, heart-breakingly, it proves to be the last year for one of them. Beginning with a brief excerpt from a Bach cello concerto, it is heartfelt, humorous and clever, told in a simple but effective flashback narrative style which flows freely as it charts the course of the relationship between Angie (Kate Preedy) and Pete (Gregory Aston). Extra parts are played effectively and efficiently by Reece McCormack and Sam Hughes. The style is poetic throughout, occasionally breaking out into actual performance poetry, as you might expect from a tale of two poets, which is well-delivered by both main actors. The action partly flows freely as the two poets glide around barefoot, slipping into costumes from a clothes rail at one side of the stage, and seamlessly picking up props from a small table at the other.

Before its heart rending ending this play also explores the interesting idea of poetry and how, sometimes, poets can lose their words or their muse and feel unable to write. This can occur through illness, but also through happiness too. Fireworks are a poignant symbol in this play, both as the metaphorical fireworks of the speed and intensity of their relationship, as well as Pete’s love of fireworks, then his insistence that Angie watch the New Year fireworks for him when he is unwell and unable to see them himself. Ultimately Angie and friends let off fireworks as a celebration of Pete’s life, and the light, sparks and joy that he brought to Angie and to life.

The Donor by Wayne Roberts performed by Little Acorns is a short play about two men in a pub. One man, drinking alone, is approached by a younger stranger who wants to ask questions to ascertain if the older man is the one who he is looking for. Suspicious of the newcomer, however, Mr Smith is hard to get a straight answer out of, resulting in circumlocution, funny misunderstandings and procrastinating pedantry. As answers are slowly obtained, power shifts between the two men. There is a twist, followed by later twists, which leads to a good mix of pace, a shift in empathies and pathos in the humour, before the ultimate final twist. The cast consists of just Chris Shreeve as Mr Smith and the playwright, Wayne Roberts, as the stranger Matthew Pine, who also both comprise the crew.

Finishing the afternoon session was The Same by Enda Walsh, performed by Prosperous Drama from Ireland. This is a complex, at times confusing, psychological drama, featuring two women both called Lisa, played by Cyrena Hayes and Claire O'Neill. Staged in partial darkness, this adds to the intense atmosphere, with lights just illuminating the two women and the two grey desks and chairs that the set consists of, hinting of an institutional setting. The two women, although occasionally initially also playing other characters as the foil to the other one, reminiscence about their past, recounting stories about how they came to the city and how they met. As they tell stories in overlapping flashbacks, phrases and stories are repeated again and again, such as “dead women’s kitchen” and tales of sausage rolls.  They gradually realise as the parallels and similarities emerge that they are in fact the same person, as younger Lisa puts it: “I have met myself.” This is reflected in the similar muted colours of their costumes, grey and dark blue, and the progressively increasing mirroring of each other’s mannerisms.

Dramatic blue flashing lights and speeded up speech and noises mark the transitions between characters' narrations and points in time. These gradually increase in length as the piece progresses, powerfully delineating the sections. Ultimately, as emotions run high, the two Lisas must determine if they really wish to keep reliving their joint past together, or be free of it, if their path is determined or their future set out, or if they can reinvent themselves

The Saturday evening session got underway with Goldfish Girl by Peter Souter, performed by Welwyn’s Woodhouse Players. Originally a radio play, but adapted well to the stage in this production, it deals with the story of Ally, who has lost her memory following an embolism. Joe, her husband, visits her to help her regain her lost words and lost memories, but there may be some that they would rather forget. As Ally slowly relearns the word for hedgehog and that she and Joe got married on a beach, she starts to get a sense of something missing, that there is a horrible thing left unsaid.

Joe patiently explains who he is and encourages her to search for missing words, believing they have just dived beneath the surface like whales. However, as thoughts resurface, sometimes in the third person, such as “Ally doesn’t want to see Joe anymore” she has to painfully explore the roots of these iceberg tips of memory and decide if knowing the truth is preferable to the trauma of memory loss. Momentum is maintained throughout, as gear shifts occur with each revelation, with accomplished well-rounded performances from Ashleigh Cole as Ally and Nick Hone as Joe.

Finishing off the evening was a dramatic rendition of Bull by Mike Bartlett, performed by Theatre Makers from Gibraltar. The setting is a dazzlingly-illuminated boxing ring, strikingly framed by a giant lit up backdrop in the triangular, almost mountain-like, gap between the rear draped curtains. This initially pulsates red, before changing colour slowly throughout the production, changing from blue to an intense red again in the finale.

Three characters, Thomas, Isabel and Tony, circle each other within the ring. They are there to, seemingly almost literally, fight for their jobs, awaiting the boss who will decide which one of them will lose their position. As they square up to each other and exchange insults and lies, it becomes clear that Isabel and Tony are prepared to gang up together on Thomas and play dirty. Thomas sees now that he cannot trust them and it becomes unclear what is truth and what is lies, what essential information they have omitted to tell him and what bullying tactics they will stoop to, to save themselves and throw Thomas under the bus. When awaited boss, Carter, arrives, in his blue suit there are echoes of the worst behaviour on The Apprentice with bickering, blaming and backstabbing.

The precise positioning of each character within the barriers of the ring seems carefully choreographed whilst remaining fluid; sometimes squaring up to each other, sometimes backing away, sometimes hounding them down, it becomes the elegant dance of a boxer or matador, particularly in the final sequence after the boss has delivered his verdict. The barriers of the ring pit them against each other, penning them in and forcing them into the fight for survival.

There is a final chance, if you’re quick, to see the last two plays at the National Drama Festival at the Albany Theatre at 1pm on Sunday 21 July, immediately followed by the awards. Read more about the National Drama Festival: https://ndfa.co.uk/national-drama-festival and find out how to get tickets: https://www.albanytheatre.co.uk/whats-on/drama/