Writers: John Patrick Shanley, Cary Gitter, Gracie Gardner, Darcy Fowler, Nick Payne and Elinor Cook
Directors: Jack Staddon, Allegra Marland, Jess Moore and Laurence Mitchell
Theatre Handmade has chosen five plays to perform in their anthology evening Shorts: A Collection of One-Act Plays which runs for around 85 minutes at the Hen and Chickens Theatre. From a mother rejecting her baby to a mystic in Tennessee, an encounter in a motel to a sick woman cared for by her partner, this is a diverse selection all performed by the same four actors. But other than a stated interest in human connections and the shared two-handed form, why Theatre Handmade selected these specific plays and what they collectively have to say remains unclear.
Shorts opens with John Patrick Shanley’s Tennessee a mysterious piece about the future and finding a meaning to life in which a student travels to a small town to meet an Oracle-type figure known for her mystical gifts. There is strong characterisation in the opposing roles, played by Kieran Urqhart and Allegra Marland, as the pair enjoys a rather fractious conversation and there is plenty here that could expand into a fuller-length story.
Equally affecting is Nick Payne’s Fugitive Motel performed by Urquhart and Elizabeth Connick, the only play with multiple scenes involving a couple in a hotel meeting in secret for the first time and following the trajectory of their involvement over a few months. Payne’s piece has a generic set-up but the emotional intensity of the evolving relationship and its consequences are well played, creating an intensity that holds the audience in thrall throughout.
Darcy Fowler’s piece also tells a story over time, of a father and daughter meeting annually to look at the stars together, a connection that becomes increasingly distant as the daughter moves through her teenage years and would rather be at friend’s parties. Each meeting blurs nicely into the next but strangely, this is played in the dark as an audio drama, and while affecting, there is little reason to include it among the staged performances.
The remaining plays have less substance, an interesting scene or idea but not quite finding sufficient character depth or drive to sustain them beyond the few minutes played here. Gracie Gardner’s Hate Baby is built around an unconvincing twist that misses all the interesting avenues for the drama while Cary Gitter’s How My Grandparent’s Fell in Love may be a deeply personal story, but the intellectualised dialogue never quite convinces. Meanwhile, the concluding play, Eleanor Cook’s The End of the Alphabet, does not resolve its protagonist’s illness which was the play’s original hook and instead has her paraphrase the plot of Z forZachariah.
The performers work hard to bring each of these shorts to life but most are really one scene rather than one Act plays. Whether it’s new writing or two-handers, a little contextual information about this selection and the criteria for inclusion from Theatre Handmade would help to bring the purpose of this collection more clearly into view.
Runs until 20 May 2023
The Reviews Hub Score:
Why these plays?
