Writers: Lee Lomas and Demi Leigh
Director: Lee Lomas
In an unspecified town somewhere far from the reaches of London, the dominant employer of the town has severely downsized, placing the livelihoods of many at risk. Those pressures add to a variety of other issues on the townsfolk, and as they all converge on the town’s small church and community centre, tensions begin to surface.
Constructing a scenario that can accommodate a cast of eighteen in an hour-long piece is a tricky one, particularly when the work is an acting showcase that must give each performer the opportunity to display their ability.
Writers Lee Lomas and Demi Leigh accomplish this for the Working Actors Studio’s winter showcase by splitting writing duties, and cast, down the middle. The multi-stranded storytelling does its best to hide the join and for the most part, the concept of a large-cast series of short scenes works.
Holly Jane is first out of the gate to dazzle, as eager-to-impress but prone to swearing teacher Faye. Her naturalistic, open conversational style sets a high bar for what is to come, although it’s not a standard everyone is able to match.
Todd Hunter and Sofie Theobald, playing an engaged couple scoping the church out for their forthcoming wedding, are hampered by some uneven writing that makes Hunter’s character the more interesting of the two by far. He is able to take the opportunity to play both saucily comic and more serious interpretations of his character, while Theobald struggles gamely with the cypher of a character as his fiancée.
An altogether darker strand is revealed as Dani (Leigh) struggles with the possibility that her father may have exposed himself to her daughter at the local swimming pool. Leigh drops hints that her character may not necessarily be telling the whole picture, but it is only when the father (Bülent Mehmet) turns up to meet his granddaughter that things come to a head. Unfortunately, the resultant confrontation scene is a mess, with writing, direction and commitment from all actors involved struggling to make sense of the chaos.
Elsewhere, Megan Manning’s Cath is a nice portrayal of a staunch congregation member, but it’s a character which falls into a one-note stereotype as her objections to her lesbian daughter’s sex life become clear. Anna Head portrays the wayward Alex with a vivid sense of clarity, especially when, after being kicked out, she assumes she can move in with her girlfriend Mel (a quietly impressive Annie Foreman).
Prince Shovelu’s factory worker Blake completes the cast for the first half and puts in a sterling effort, bringing life to his interactions with Manning and Mehmet.
In the second half, gossipy motormouth Becky (a delightfully horrible Susie Voce) rubs multiple people up the wrong way, from mother Andie (Jayne Sharp) to former schoolfriend Rebekah (Meredith Jones) and Rebekah’s new friend Litha (Patricia Santi). Sadly, once Voce departs, Jones and Santi’s characters lose any sense of spark.
Kaye Brown-Hallam and Sophie Aisling fare better as two friends affected in different ways by the latter’s pregnancy. Some nice touches from both make their characters engaging.
Elsewhere, the men of this half draw the short straw in terms of character range. Byron Donovan’s quasi-mysterious Theodore seems part estate agent wideboy, part stalker, and easily eclipsed by Sharp’s Indie in their encounter.
Similarly, Andrey Rogozin does not have much to play with in the role of a man struggling to be supportive of a partner who is pushing him away after her cancer diagnosis. But his is a giving performance, allowing Rafaela Elliston to give one of the best performances of the whole piece as a woman grieving for her own lost future.
The nature of the work means that as a play, the stories tend to run out of steam rather than end. But as an effective showcase, it allows eighteen actors to highlight their abilities, and for some, it demonstrates that their talents deserve far wider exposure.
Reviewed on 15 December 2022
