| Haunting but Elusive New Writing |
At Louche Theatre |
| Louche Theatre Company- The Remnants of Once Fine Girls , Aberystwyth Arts Centre , May 23, 2009 |
A red kite in the sky was once a rare sight. Now they are commonplace. I have even seen one above the M40 in Oxfordshire. Similarly, new writing is still an irregular sighting; with a favourable habitat and nurture in the form of the NTW hopefully new theatre writing will similarly grow and flourish. In the meantime Louche Theatre put on a haunting play by Stephen Todd, high in ambition but more mood piece than underpinned by plot.Stephen Todd has won an award for a radio play and “The Remnants of Once Fine Girls” gave every appearance of being adapted from radio. It was rich in sound texture to the detriment of action. As an example Sarah Mair Gates’ Hannah takes part in a crime reconstruction of her murdered twin sister, Sarah. This would be an opportunity for an actor to occupy the whole acting area and demonstrate wordlessly apprehension, loss, a whole range of emotion. This opportunity for physical stage action was not taken up. The psychological core of the play was dead accurate. This was the dislocation of midwife Hannah, returned to London from service with Medecins sans Frontieres in Darfur. As it happens I have seen this close up and can vouch for its truth. A neighbour of mine spent an unbroken year as a volunteer for the same agency in the middle of the Bosnian war. For a period his life back in Britain was one of profound disorientation. But the language of loss was less convincing. Grief and loss have been heavily written about and a line like “I need to be near her” does not feature. Louche Productions is one of the companies that exemplify the best of Aberystwyth theatre. The technical standards are very high, with regulars StuArt James as stage manager, Richard Hull’s sound and Iestyn Griffiths’ lighting. Director Harry Durnall did the complex design himself. The ensemble work was excellent with beautiful singing by the chorus of three, Denise Williams, Jojo Engelkamp and Danielle Marsden. Stephen Todd is definitely a talent to watch. But he has been allowed too many actors here. Normally, a young writer has to justify every penny of a production. Even Gary Owen has a two-hander in his current “Amgen/ Broken.” The character of Martha, however admirably played by Barbara Hoggers, for example could easily be thrown out without loss to the drama. At fifty minutes “the Remnants of Once Fine Girls” - great title- felt rich in possibility but thematically dispersed. The best that could next be done is a commission for the writer; back to the keyboard for a process of distillation- seventy minutes for a cast of the two sisters, and one, maybe two additional actors. There is nothing like economy to hone a drama to its essentials. As a footnote Aberystwyth set a new benchmark this week. In the main house ten women were playing in Mererid Hopwood’s version of “Ty Bernarda Alba”. In the Studio Stephen Todd had seven women on stage in his play. This must be a record for putting right the absurd and unjustifiable gender imbalance in the theatre, a cause recently taken up by Equity |
Reviewed by: Adam Somerset |
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