STUDENT THEATRE REVIEW: Double Bill: A Dream Play / Bully Boy - The Studio Theatre, Arden Theatre School, Manchester.

 

Directors in their final year of their MA Directors' Course at Arden Theatre School (housed within City College, Manchester), present their final pieces - a one-act play of their choosing - to a welcoming public. This evening it was the turn of two young directors to present their productions.

The first was 'A Dream Play' by August Strindberg in the edited and reworked version by Caryl Churchill. Admittedly the original is a little avant-garde with a cast list of over 40, however, to my mind (and this was the first time seeing the Churchill version) she has not really helped matters much and sadly, not being a fan of Churchill's works, I was left very uninspired by this piece too.

The premise for both versions is that a young and beautiful daughter of a God has come down to Earth to see what it is like to be human and to then report back to the Gods on her findings. However, things are not what she expects, and she encounters poverty, suffering, cruelty and misogyny. Only at the final moment does she awake and realise it has all be a dream (or at least that is what we, the audience, are given to understand). 

Directed by Kerry-Ann Parkins, she utilised a single composite set which did not work for all the scenes portrayed sadly, and peopled her version with characters which were dressed in costumes which ranged from every decade between 1800 to the present day vagariously and indiscriminately, and this further confused and obfuscated the narrative. There also appeared to be TWO goddesses in her version, which confused me even further. (not sure if that was Churchill's idea or not). The pace set was a little pedestrian at times, although the serious scenes with pathos were handled par excellence, but the comedy scenes were somewhat fake and over-the-top, thus diluting the importance and meaning of the more seriously-natured scenes. The arc of the play was a little jagged, but the actors overcame this by using their own skills as performers. Sight-lines were also an issue at the end when the door finally opened; only those sat directly in the centre of the auditorium would have seen one of the goddesses in a coffin. This image was blocked by bodies for most of us.

6 actors and actresses peopled this play, most playing several characters as the play progressed. Again, this was not ideal, since we did not know who these people were, since they tended to keep their own accent or body language foe every character played; their differences were (at times and not by everyone) pointed enough.

All-in-all, a rather confusing and, despite the sincerity of the acting, flippant presentation.

After the interval, and we were shown a piece of writing that was completely new to me. In fact, I did not realise that writer Sandi Toksvig had written anything that was not comedy, so this was a revelation.

Directed by Tomasz Pietrasik, this two-hander's themes were excellently highlighted and as the play progressed it was abundantly clear that Pietrasik had a real affinity with this piece and the two actors he had tasked to play the two army personnel in this play. 

Aiden Hope and Christopher Noone worked superbly together, and their developing relationship within the piece was excellently measured. A young army private (from Burnley) is accused of deliberately drowning an 8-year-old boy (Omar) down a well during an unnamed conflict against an unnamed but Muslim enemy. A wheelchair-ridden Major is sent to investigate prior to a formal hearing. There is a deal of humour in the play, which is nicely placed, but as the play moves along we learn more and more about both of these two men and how they ended up in the situations they did. The play highlights both the fact that most soldiers, regardless of whose side they are on, prefer not to kill, and even though they are staring death in the face, cannot and will not pull the trigger. The other main aim of the play is to highlight the fact that more military personnel suffer from PTSD (as we now have come to abbreviate it), and / or other related mental illnesses; and more ex-military commit suicide, than those who are wounded or killed in the course of conflict. 

It's a bit wordy, and perhaps a little long too. (a few minor cuts to the dialogue here and there would have made the play perfect), but Toksvig's knack of suffusing poignancy and pathos with a laugh does not fail her here, and the two actors make great use of her information-heavy dialogue.

Candidly told, powerfully acted, and skilfully directed.

Reviewer - Alastair Zyggu
on - 8.7.25