It’s that time again for the biggest little play festival in the world, Short and Sweet 2007. The Festival opened at the Newtown Theatre on Tuesday 16th January, and is running at three different venues, with a Gala Final and Awards Night on Friday 23rd February. Over the Festival some 140 short plays will be performed.
I went to the Festival’s opening night to see the first batch of ten plays performed. As always, the night was a little bit of a mixed bag however the thing always with ‘Short and Sweet’ nights is that it is always stimulating and fun, and rather than sitting through one long play that one might not connect with, one has the choice of seeing a variety of plays, out of which there will be at least a few that one will get something out of.
Now for some interesting plays from the first night…American playwright Marina Kale’s ‘Break It’ was an interesting feminist piece which basically focused on women’s relationships with their mothers. The piece was simply structured with the stage divided into two areas. On one side the three women discussed issues between each other and then, one at a time, they would walk across to the other side of the stage, and under spotlight, they would have a conversation with their mums. ‘Break It’ was directed by Bulbin Akyiran, and performed by Orlena Steele-Prior and Belinda Gosbee.
Peter Lewis’s ‘Way to go’ was an entertaining, quirky piece about death. It was basically an improvisational piece with the three actors, Jemima Burke, Patrick Lewis and Mitchell Tangney acting out different ways to die. Nic Lewis directed the play in a darkly comic style.
Stephen Vagg’s play ‘Sex with the Ex’, directed by Byron Kaye, and featuring Megan Alston and Rowan Ellis, was a quirky relationship piece. The play features an encounter in a bar between a couple who used to be together. There’s no happy ending to Vagg’s play, with the woman walking out of the scene. The play worked because there was an authentic feeling to it.
Some plays had interesting ideas, a bit like shots in the dark, that didn’t quite come off. These included Gordon Smith’s “Lost Souls” featuring the unlikely scenario of a woman arriving at a cemetery security office late one night, after being recently widowed. Then there was Scott McAteer’s ‘Transactions’ about a man’s encounter with a prostitute.. I found the narrative a bit unclear and wayward. There were a lot of intimations but that was about it!
All in all, it was a stimulating first night and the night augured well for a good Festival.