Review of Thursday’s Plays
by Ron Beswick
The opening play of the evening, Little Dolls, presented by High Horse Productions was a dark tale presented on a disturbingly dark stage.
Vicky (Megan Hills) is attempting to overcome her fear of darkness through sessions of counselling with a rather spooky counsellor John (Neil King).
This is no relationship counselling like we experienced in Parallels on Wednesday. We are in the realms of deep psychological trauma.
The stage is set in very low level lighting which John seems to insist on forcing Vicky to endure endlessly. As a comforter she has a lighter flame, of which John restricts the use. A ticking clock adds to the suspense of the session.
Vicky opens the play with a heartfelt monologue of her feelings and memories. We recognise she is a very troubled individual.
As the counselling session progresses we learn that Vicky’s trauma was the result of the rape and murder of her best friend when, as young children, they were on a vacation retreat. The young girls, ‘little dolls’, were all asleep when an intruder attacks her best friend. John’s stage entry is perhaps a parallel to the intruder entering the girl’s dormitory.
Vicky vividly describes her feelings of guilt, fear, anxiety and obsessive behaviour. She just wants to be NORMAL. John is encouraging her to confront her fears by recalling the past trauma.
Vicky expresses her desire to stop or at least have a break, John is persuasive in her continuance of the sessions. We wonder, will she be cured by this seemingly torturous process?
Good luck Vicky, but well done High Horse Productions for a gripping drama.
Our next play, Bus 404, presented by Underwood Productions takes a motley crew of ‘tourists’ on a bus tour of the Isle of Man. The confident Girl Driver (Michelle Cain) prepares and starts her luxury coach, a wooden chair, and welcomes the assorted travellers.
With some airline style hosting and a lovely choreographed group movement the bus sets off on it’s tour. We are introduced to the passengers with little cameos and what a strange bunch they are. From the ex-war hero to the young gamer girl. Would we be happy passengers with this lot?
As the tour proceeds, just past Fairey Bridge, one of the passengers, Bonnie (Vivian Toro) is feeling ill and asks the driver to stop. Now the darkness starts, Bonnie and her partner, guess who, Clyde (Darren Webb) are set to rob the passengers of their valuables. As the hold up continues, the robbers begin to fall apart, deviating from their plan, violence ensues and Girl Driver is taken captive. As they say, no honour amongst thieves.
At the off stage sounds of violence and sexual assault, the passengers shy away from intervening except for Joe (Gonzo Galliad) who carries the communal conscience. Joe goes off to try and help. The passengers are in ‘do nothing trauma’ mode. Bonnie and Clyde abandon their heist intentions and rush off, Clyde abandoning the spoils of the robbery.
A dishevelled Girl Driver reappears and breaks down but slowly recomposes herself and reverts to professional tour guide persona. Handing back the stolen items to the passengers she prepares and drives the bus away, leaving the vacant chair and a battered Joe on stage.
We are left questioning why was Joe rejected by Girl Driver, who attacked her – Clyde or Joe?
The poignant ending sees Joe breaking down alone on the stage as the local radio announces that a tour bus has gone over the cliff edge.
Thank you Underwood Productions for an entertaining new play with many different emotions.
Our final play of the evening, Roast Dinner, presented by Service Players starts with another driving experience with, two chairs this time, as young lovers, Carrie (Kim Childs) and Ben (Tom Cain) drive off for lunch with Mother (Lisa Smith).
We start to view Ben as a bit of a ‘know it all’ criticising Carrie for her driving skills, when it is soon revealed that Ben is really an Alien. Ben’s controller on Earth Commander Snootyparp (Toby Smith) soon appears with his invisibility cloak engaged. We have a series of three way conversations between these two and Ben’s, human, golfing friend, Karl (Ben Davenport) to great amusement.
It appears that there is a ‘Grand Plan’ about to be implemented which involves the extermination of all life on Earth and take over by the Aliens. This is disturbing news to Ben as he is in love with Carrie and wants to save her.
Carrie and Mother have the usual mother daughter friendly/antagonistic relationship, but Mother is fond of Ben. They all sit down to Sunday lunch, including Karl with Commander Snootyparp observing from his cloaked position.
As the doom minutes approach and oblivion looks like the ending (shades of Theodora) it appears that Mother is also an Alien (different species) and Mother’s previous relationship with a human brought about Carrie.
However Mother and Carrie are more powerful aliens than Snootyparp and Mother has been able to see Snootyparp all the time. She takes romantic advantage of Snootyparp, leaving a disheveled Snootyparp in a state of exhaustion at the Sunday dinner table.
Roast Dinner has shades of The X Files meets Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy. Great comedy, thank you Service Players for bringing another new IOM play to the stage.
