South Gloucestershire | Archive | 2006 | March | 10
From the archive, first published Friday 10th Mar 2006.
THIS town hall is a stylish venue for occasions such as this and on a February evening it proved a warm and welcome venue for performances that sustained the enthusiasm of a large audience.
The Avon Association of Drama, which presented the plays, is in the Western Area of the All England Theatre Festival.
By far the better of the two productions I saw was Steve Mercer's Wilfred and Len, performed by the Sodbury Players. Effectively directed by the playwright himself, the action took place on the platform of a country railway station just before the end of the First World War. I say action, but there was little physical action, although many emotional exchanges between the spirit of Wilfred Owen, the poet, and Sergeant Len Williams and his adoring wife. Len had come safely through the war but felt guilty at having been posted in England owing to a heart condition. The quartet was completed by a rather pompous and self-absorbed station master.
I found Wilfred and Len an engaging and moving play, which was well mounted and acted. Adjudicator Chris Jaeger also liked it.
But what to say about the performance of Maggie Allsopp's All the World's a Stage by the Sodbury Players' Youth Section which was directed by the playwright herself? The play showed a mysterious stranger helping two teenagers with their drama coursework by conjuring up some scenes from classic plays. Unfortunately much of the diction was sloppy and led to frequent inaudibility. Although there were good performances from Ross Brown, Grant McCotter and Brent Morgan the play appeared to me to require much more rehearsing. Here the adjudicator was rather too kind in his summing up. These young actors needed constructive criticism and to praise just about everything was surely not doing them a favour.
That said, it was encouraging to see all these young people getting involved and having a go.
The award for the best one act play, chosen from nine productions during the four-day festival, was presented to the Actonians Drama Group for Seven Women by JM Barrie.
Sodbury Youth Players won the youth section.
The group performs in the next stage of the competition at Cotswold Playhouse, Stroud, on April 29.
© Newsquest Media Group 2008