Imprint: Young Writers Festival 2002 - Reviews

GRAFFITI by Richard Leighton

A DAY IN DULL ARMOUR by Chloe Moss

JERWOOD THEATRE UPSTAIRS 18 October - 2 November 2002

Direction: Richard Wilson
Design: Simon Daw
Lighting: Trevor Wallace
Sound: Ian Dickinson
Cast: Anthony Flanagan, Andrea Lowe, Tony Maudsley, Caroline O'Neill, Howard Ward

'...Chloe Moss's 50-minute play, A Day in Dull Armour, depicts a nasty case of assault, it is remarkable for the restraint and subtlety with which she vividly characterises two ill-suited fantasists who are drawn together by loneliness and similar personality traits.

'Miss Moss's clever dialogue conveys far more than it says. "I wouldn't be buried. I'm claustrophobic." Says attractive, twentyish Tracey who is in normal health, but has already planned music for her funeral.

'The first scene, in a chuchyard, stages an edgy encounter between Tracey, who works at the checkout of a Liverpool supermarket and David, a slightly older, portly nerd. This fellow, engaged in security work at the supermarket and soon seen playing childish war-games in which he figures as an American marine, is a kindly fantasist, who finds reality little fun. Tracey, whose destructive ex-boyfriend appears at her checkout with his mother, is possessed by hidden anger. And Miss Moss convincingly suggests why the girl forges tentative bonds with the secretly smitten oddball and how their relationship is ruined.

'...A six-minute curtain-raiser, Graffiti, by 15-year-old Richard Leighton, delves into the world of schoolboy bullying and briskly displays signs of real theatrical talent.'

The Evening Standard

'Over the years the Royal Court's young writers' festival has thrown up plenty of talent, including Andrea Dunbar, Michael Wynne and Leo Butler. The two writers represented here, 15-year-old Richard Leighton and 26-year-old Chloe Moss, could also have a bright future in the theatre.

'...Moss's play is really worth getting excited about - it is confident, funny, touching and has its own distinctive voice. Actually, it is more a wail of quiet despair. Teenage Tracey has a dead-end job as a checkout girl in a dead-end northern town. "I like life - just not this one," she says. She dreams of leaving and, in the meantime, strikes up a friendship with the shop security guard, Tony. Tony is one of life's losers, a gentle soul who likes reconstructing wars - he has done Vietnam and is doing the Falklands next week - and saving wounded pigeons. In Tony, Tracey finds someone she can talk to, unlike her cocky, bullying ex-boyfriend David, who has finally got himself a one-way ticket out of deadendsville.

'You believe every word of this play. It is an everyday tragedy so small it would hardly make a ripple in a millpond. Almost nothing happens and in the end life goes on, and on. and on. As Tracey points out, feeling angry is not exactly a complaint that you take to your GP.

'Richard Wilson's production is just right, not too flashy, not too understated, and precisely, perfectly acted.'

The Guardian

'...Leighton's ten-minute locker room sketch, turns around Steve, threatened by heavy-weight oik Michael. Despite his youth, teenager Leighton shows a first-hand feel for Pinteresque subtext - the menace that lurks beneath the dialogue congeals into a sinister vision of humanity.

'...Among the actors, Tony Maudsley excels, first as Leightons' gigantic bully and then as Moss's bumbling nice guy. Meanwhile the overall direction by Richard Wilson ensures these young writers learn something that should serve them well in the future.'

Metro

NIGHT OWLS by Will Evans

PARALLEL LINES by Miranda Howard-Williams

JUST A BLOKE by David Watson

THE ONE WITH THE OVEN by Emma Rosoman

JERWOOD THEATRE UPSTAIRS 7-23 November 2002

Direction: Ramin Gray (Night Owls, Parallel Lines, Just A Bloke), Joseph Hill-Gibbins (The One With The Oven)
Design: Simon Daw
Lighting: Gavin Owen
Sound: Gregg Fisher
Cast: Sian Brooke, Jo Joyner, Roland Manookian, Daniel Mays, Marcel McCalla, Rafe Spall, Howard Ward, Liz White

'An embarrassing dad, two mates falling out over a girl and a group of Essex twentysomethings getting hammered every Saturday night. These are the eternal themes illuminating the Royal Court's second programme of young writers.

'Night Owls, by 22-year-old former art student Will Events, is an accomplished 15-minute short about a crumpled cabbie who drives his daughter round town one night because she's locked out of her mum's house. It's a neat little tale full of subtle but perceptive psychological three-point turns.

'The One With the Oven, by 26-year-old Emma Rosoman, redeems the Essex stereotype by pushing it beyond its limit. Amid a barrage of drunken abuse, the dirty half-dozen wrestle with the notion of self-improvement through poetry. It's a rowdy but thoughtful piece which could be a television series: This Life meets Birds of a Feather.

'Most impressive is David Watson's Just a Bloke and not just because he's only 17. Watson's dialogue is brilliantly elliptical and immaculately contemporary as he sets a moody young maths teacher against an Ali G-style white boy.

'There's also a darkly absurd, Kafkaesque mystery at the the heart of this edgy tale as these two old friends fall out over an idealistic art student played by another young talent, Siân Brooke, who sparkles in each of the three plays.'

Metro