Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh
Four stars
For the last couple of years, an ever expanding group of writers,
actors and directors have set up shop in a pub function room in Leith
to showcase their work at a series of lo-fi monthly events. Every night
last week, Edinburgh's original home of new writing has hosted a set of
similar events presented by the team behind the Village Pub Theatre in
a way that suggests VPT has quietly become a significant force on the
theatre scene.
As a grand finale to the week, Saturday night saw script in hand
presentations of eight works previously seen at the company's regular
home alongside a series of quick-fire Twitter plays, with each one
using no more than 160 letters. There was an end of term feel to
proceedings as VPT founders, writer James Ley and director Caitlin
Skinner, introduced the evening, which began with Morna Pearson's Of
The Green Kind, a look at the effect an invading alien has on three
very different young women. Short pieces by Ellie Stewart, Louise E
Knowles and Sylvia Dow completed the first half, with new works by
Catherine Grosvenor, Colin Bell and Sophie Good following in the second.
As performed by seven actors directed by Skinner and Caro Donald,
themes of romance, ageing and family were explored both comically and
more poignantly. Best of all was Ley's own Alison and Paulo, a tender
hotel room liaison between a young Spanish man and an older female
holiday-maker in search of love. All of the works on show displayed
just how powerful short plays can be in an increasingly vital form of
presentation.
The Herald, April 7th 2014
ends
Comments