100

Wow! That certainly was an emotional rollercoaster of ride of a script and a perfect example of captivating an audience’s attention. SIYT are certainly a group out to make their mark and with this youth production are doing just that.

Directed by one ex-member (who has recently left) and one of the senior members Elise Davis and Ilia Palmer-Masterton, 100 is a short play of about 50 minutes by Christopher Heimann, Diene Petterle and Neil Monaghan and was first presented at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2004, where it won the Fringe First Award. It investigates the afterlife of four people who have died prematurely and are asked to choose one memory to take with them on their way to eternity. Described in the programme as a beautiful story of human nature, where these four people are faced with an impossible question which they each approach from different sides of humanity: love, intellect, the pursuit of greatness and the inability to settle.

The show was performed upstairs in the Free Church in St Ives Market Square, and the stage, built by Andy Davis, Brett and Will Golding and managed by Chloe Rogers was a raised cross shape in the middle, with sloping entrances at all four corners and the audience neatly placed at 45 degrees facing the centre of the stage. This was a clever design which both drew the audience into the story and gave the actors quick entrances and exits well suited to the dialogue. In the middle of the stage where the cross met and most of the action took place were four black, freestanding, wooden boxes used for sitting and standing on. Each scene required a different layout and the actors were very well drilled at setting them correctly ahead of each scene so one ran smoothly into the next. Very neat indeed. 

Lighting , designed by Will Golding was spot on and cued perfectly, but we went in the afternoon and although a mammoth effort had been made to put blackout curtains up at the many windows it was impossible to completely black out the room as it would have done for an evening performance, so for example the instant disappearance with a camera flash as each character demise took place  probably wasn’t as dramatic as it was for the three evening performances. It certainly didn’t detract from the performance however.

Costumes were sourced by the two directors, with most of the characters dressed in everyday clothes, but the one exception was the Guide who wore a stunning long white dress and cape which gave her a very appropriate ancient Greek but imposing appearance, definitely paying homage to Charon ferrying the deceased across the water to Hades, the underworld.  Very well thought out.

This is basically a play for five characters, with the extra minor roles normally played by the five actors themselves, but SIYT chose, quite rightly to divide them amongst other members of the group.

The guide played by Orla Hilton was the glue that held this show together. A mysterious character who is probably the most complex of the characters, with a very large range of emotions which kept us mesmerised throughout. A tall lady who used her height to great effect in what was a very domineering performance.

Charlie Stewart played Alex, a young self-assured man who challenges everything and argues with the Guide on several occasions, and whose memory of racing motorbikes turns out to be a figment of his imagination.  

Ketu, played by James Rowbotham, is a character out of step with the world and fully paid-up member of the flat earth society. He played it with a light touch and thus provided a lot of the humour in what is otherwise a very intense story. Having said that his suicide scene by hanging was one of the most intense moments of the play.

Grace Warner played Sophie, with another very intense performance of this character who gradually has to come to terms with her hollow achievements throughout her short life.

Afiya James as Nia completed the four with another soul searching performance. Her interaction with Alex as her ex lover were particularly poignant. Their use of pauses was extremely effective.

All five of them had obviously put in a great deal of hard work and the result was outstanding. This is a complex play which goes through every emotion in the book and which they had obviously deeply studied. Not easy to do, but by goodness they certainly nailed it.

Well done also to: Summer Appleton - French Commentator / Mr Grey, Natalie Freeman - Mother / Elder, Ben Chapman - Son / Passenger, Becca Bateman – Daughter / Voice, Tergan Csepecz-Strong – Wife / Lucy, Fin Stewart - Jerry / Hunter 1, Matthew Giles – Phil / Hunter 2

One of my mantras in life is, ‘Never underestimate the young,’ and, although adults would have been around, this was a play put on exclusively by the young members of SIYT themselves, who came up with a production way beyond their physical ages. So well done to Directors Elise Davis and Ilia Palmer-Masterton, their cast and crew, you should be very proud of yourselves. Probably summed up best by my wife’s comment at the end, ‘Wow! There were times I stopped beathing!’ I know what she means!  

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