Beginnings: New Writing Showcase
The Horse and Stables
20th January 2014

★★★☆☆

Every piece of new writing needs a really good beginning. In Ghost Dog Productions' latest showcase, there are six of them. Each playwright tackles the theme differently - from the beginning of a new stage in someone's life to the beginning of life itself. It's an apt idea - new writing evenings are never places to explore long-form philosophical theories and, for the most part, people keep their pieces frothy and bouncy rather than chock-full of metaphor and meaning.

Kicking off the night is Sevan K Greene's Unexpected-Beautiful, light and amusing romcom following an encounter on the bus to Balham in which Phineas (Charlie Haskins) attempts to strike up a conversation with stranger Daphne (Hayley Norris). As you'd expect, the course of true love doesn't run smooth and Phineas suffers from an acute case of foot-in-mouth syndrome. It's a comedy of awkwardness and silence - one bleak moment excepted - and like the other plays which follow, timing is everything. Both performers and director Abigail Pickard Price get this spot-on.

The main exception to that "frothy" rule is Melanie Anne Ball's Shane and Shame. This darker piece explores a mother's attempt to carry on following a huge personal tragedy, and plug a hole she previously filled with alcohol and cake. But is the relationship Sarah (Katharine Ingle) has with jailbird Shane (Kris Mochrie) really helping? Esme Hicks' direction did initially confuse the audience, with applause occurring during an early scene change, but it otherwise helps to establish the tragic tone, eliciting even-handed pity for both protagonists. Sarah is nervous, but resolute, her demeanour helping to esablish an age gap with the younger, more troubled Shane and, while this wasn't necessarily the strongest piece, it satisfyingly set out to achieve a lot in its short time.

This new age of gender equality has brought many rights and revelations. Women can vote, women can work and sometimes, woman can game. Lou Treleaven's Love in the Time of Magicka revolves around gamers Sally (Caroline Spencer) and Justin (Elliot Ross) who play Magicka as a form of escapism. Think Second Life, but with more emphasis on the sci-fi. As you've probably spotted, the title's a nod to the Colombian modern classic Love in the Time of Cholera. And as well as swiping a major conceit - the couple talking indirectly via telegram, or in this case, a MMORPG - it mirrors a few themes in Gabriel Garcia Marquez's book, such as identity and love as an ideal versus the grim reality. And for our pair of heroes, it's a bittersweet resolution. Nonetheless, director Freyja Winterson has great fun with this piece, with the jerky movements of the ever-present avatars Iona Stormsinger (Carly Bedford) and Yaghan Swiftblade (Rhys Stephenson) and contrast between clothing of the four actors.

Sometimes a beginning starts with an end. Despite the case made by boyfriend Marco (Matthew Crowley) in Marietta Kirkbridge's A Land in My Blood, Sally (Francesa De Sica) doesn't want to move on, as made obvious by her inner thoughts, as voiced by Rosie Frecker. De Sica spends a fair amount of time lying on the floor, which is fitting with the plot, but regrettably, much of the audience miss out on her wonderful expressions and movements, a limitation of the venue. Director Matthew Radway meets this problem halfway by making sure even if you can't see De Sica, you can still follow the action from Frecker's vocals, and still get the joke. Still, it's disappointing that the entire audience can't fully appreciate the disonnance between what they see and hear in an otherwise witty piece.

If you didn't think your school days were the best days of your life, spare a thought for little Johnny (Joe Sowerbutts), who is homeschooled by his unhinged parents Charles (Joe Robert Buckingham) and Sarah (Helen Bang). In his play The Home-Schooling of Jonathan Anderson, Sean Christopher Lewis shows us the potential beginning of the end of all civilisation, skewering American attitudes to gun ownership. Even the title has a hint of John Irving-style Americana to it. It's an odd, but not unwelcome, fit to the night and director Tania Azevedo milks the script for laughs, the humour coming from the sheer ridiculousness of the situation and an escalating sense of inevitability. It's also extremely uncomfortable, as while the actors are necessarily over the top, we're all too aware that it's not too far removed from reality.

Negating the sobering "we're all going to die by the hand of the US"thoughts struck by the previous play, in Swimmers: How Life Begins...Really James Walczy takes us back to the start of life itself. Granted, these have all been beginnings, but there's something satisfying about placing this last. As beginnings go, it's less concept and more conception. Ed (Ben Wiggins), Lance (Jordan Maxwell) and Henry (Noah James) wait around for instructions from Mr Vas Deferens (Sebastien Blunt), mentally preparing themselves for the task ahead. Ed is assured, Lance anxious in an adorable way - and then there's Henry. Even for an already ridiculous play, director Rae Coates turns him into a disgusting Harry Enfield-esque grotesque, who gains plenty of laughs just from being on stage. Other plays during the night appealed to the sardonic intellect. This is simply base, but nonetheless very funny.

The Horse and Stables is very much a function room rather than a dedicated theatre, and that accounts for the lack of polish in the staging of these plays. Seats are all on one level - a pet hate - but the directors do their best to work with these confines and largely succeed. Each self-contained piece is strong enough in both idea and execution to be fleshed out further, even given the lightweight nature of such nights. After all, from humble beginnings...

Beginnings: New Writing Showcase ran from 20th to 22nd January 2014 at the Horse and Stables.

Nearest tube station: Lambeth North (Bakerloo)