{"id":5551,"date":"2026-03-13T14:58:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T14:58:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/madf.im\/?p=5551"},"modified":"2026-03-13T14:58:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T14:58:14","slug":"day-2-madf-festival-of-one-act-plays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madf.im\/?p=5551","title":{"rendered":"Day 2 MADF Festival of One Act Plays"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Review of Thursday\u2019s Plays<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

by Ron Beswick<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The opening play of the evening, Little Dolls<\/strong><\/em>, presented by High Horse Productions<\/strong> was a dark tale presented on a disturbingly dark stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vicky<\/strong><\/em> (Megan Hills) is attempting to overcome her fear of darkness through sessions of counselling  with  a rather spooky counsellor John<\/strong><\/em> (Neil King).<\/p>\n\n\n\n


This is no relationship counselling like we experienced in Parallels<\/strong> on Wednesday. We are in the realms of deep psychological trauma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The stage is set in very low level lighting which John<\/strong> seems to insist on forcing Vicky<\/strong> to endure endlessly. As a comforter she has a lighter flame, of which John<\/strong> restricts the use. A ticking clock adds to the suspense of the session.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vicky <\/strong>opens the play with a heartfelt monologue of her feelings and memories. We recognise she is a very troubled individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the counselling session progresses we learn that Vicky\u2019s<\/strong> 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, \u2018little dolls\u2019, were all asleep when an intruder attacks her best friend. John\u2019s<\/strong> stage entry is perhaps a parallel to the intruder entering the girl\u2019s dormitory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vicky<\/strong> expresses her desire to stop or at least have a break, John <\/strong>is persuasive in her continuance of the sessions. We wonder, will she be cured by this seemingly torturous process?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Good luck Vicky<\/strong>, but well done High Horse Productions<\/strong> for a gripping drama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our next play, Bus 404<\/strong><\/em>, presented by Underwood Productions<\/strong> takes a motley crew of \u2018tourists\u2019 on a bus tour of the Isle of Man. The confident Girl Driver<\/strong> (Michelle Cain) prepares and starts her luxury coach, a wooden chair, and welcomes the assorted travellers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With some airline style hosting and a lovely choreographed group movement the bus sets off on it\u2019s 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?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the tour proceeds, just past Fairey Bridge, one of the passengers, Bonnie<\/strong> (Vivian Toro) is feeling ill and asks the driver to stop. Now the darkness starts, Bonnie<\/strong> and her partner, guess who, Clyde<\/strong> (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<\/strong> is taken captive. As they say, no honour amongst thieves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the off stage sounds of violence and sexual assault, the passengers shy away from intervening except for Joe<\/strong> (Gonzo Galliad) who carries the communal conscience. Joe<\/strong> goes off to try and help. The passengers are in \u2018do nothing trauma\u2019 mode. Bonnie<\/strong> and Clyde<\/strong> abandon their heist intentions and rush off, Clyde<\/strong> abandoning the spoils of the robbery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A dishevelled Girl Driver<\/strong> 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<\/strong> on stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are left questioning why was Joe<\/strong> rejected by Girl Driver<\/strong>, who attacked her \u2013 Clyde<\/strong> or Joe<\/strong>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The poignant ending sees Joe<\/strong> breaking down alone on the stage as the local radio announces that a tour bus has gone over the cliff edge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thank you Underwood Productions<\/strong> for an entertaining new play with many different emotions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our final play of the evening, Roast Dinner<\/strong><\/em>, presented by Service Players<\/strong> starts with another driving experience with, two chairs this time, as young lovers, Carrie<\/strong> (Kim Childs) and Ben<\/strong> (Tom Cain) drive  off for lunch with Mother<\/strong> (Lisa Smith).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We start to view Ben<\/strong> as a bit of a \u2018know it all\u2019 criticising Carrie<\/strong> for her driving skills, when it is soon revealed that Ben<\/strong> is really an Alien. Ben\u2019s<\/strong> controller on Earth Commander Snootyparp<\/strong> (Toby Smith) soon appears with his invisibility cloak engaged. We have a series of three way conversations between these two and Ben\u2019s<\/strong>, human, golfing friend, Karl<\/strong> (Ben Davenport) to great amusement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It appears that there is a \u2018Grand Plan\u2019 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<\/strong> as he is in love with Carrie<\/strong> and wants to save her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carrie<\/strong> and Mother<\/strong> have the usual mother daughter friendly\/antagonistic relationship, but Mother<\/strong> is fond of Ben<\/strong>. They all sit down to Sunday lunch, including Karl<\/strong> with Commander Snootyparp <\/strong>observing from his cloaked position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the doom minutes approach and oblivion looks like the ending (shades of Theodora<\/strong>) it appears that Mother<\/strong> is also an Alien (different species) and Mother\u2019s<\/strong> previous relationship with a human brought about Carrie<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


However Mother<\/strong> and Carrie<\/strong> are more powerful aliens than Snootyparp<\/strong> and Mother<\/strong> has been able to see Snootyparp<\/strong> all the time. She takes romantic advantage of Snootyparp<\/strong>, leaving a disheveled Snootyparp <\/strong>in a state of exhaustion at the Sunday dinner table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roast Dinner<\/strong> has shades of The X Files<\/strong> meets Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy<\/strong>. Great comedy, thank you Service Players<\/strong> for bringing another new IOM play to the stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Review of Thursday\u2019s 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 … Continue reading Day 2 MADF Festival of One Act Plays<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madf.im\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madf.im\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madf.im\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madf.im\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madf.im\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5551"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/madf.im\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5552,"href":"https:\/\/madf.im\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5551\/revisions\/5552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madf.im\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madf.im\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madf.im\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}