Burn

The future of amateur dramatics in Stoke is in very safe hands if the quality of performance I witnessed by Stoke Youth Musical Theatre Academy is anything to go by.

Burn is the story of Birdman, fifteen years old, no family, no friends – a loner with nothing to lose. The story is narrated by a group of friends during a summer heatwave and follows the final day of the boy that they never really knew, Joey Hawk. From the very first word until the last, the emotions were clear for everyone to see, both among the cast and audience alike. Birdman was played by Oliver Degg, a commanding figure on stage who desperately wanted to fit in and be liked. Oliver portrayed a figure who experienced a wide range of emotions and there was no danger of not knowing how he was feeling as his change of moods were extremely convincing. It is difficult to mention all of the friends by name as each one of them had their own individual plot to narrate, how their paths crossed on that final day, and how their interaction with Birdman played out. Each member of the cast was so convincing and communicated their relationship with Birdman perfectly, the audience were in no doubt of who and what their feelings were towards him. Each one of them was always involved when on stage, not necessarily with dialogue, but it was pleasing to watch each of them continuing to act out their story in the background.  Most of these moments were performed as flashbacks in time to that final day, very individual moments in a single spotlight, and, impressively, no other cast member was drawn to what was taking place and maintained a stillness as not to detract from the speech and break the illusion. Linda, played by Jess Wilbraham, was the only one who showed any sign of friendship towards him and eventually perished in that same fatal moment. Linda also went through a mix of emotions – should she befriend him or keep her distance? Birdman obviously had feelings for her and Jess expertly took us on the journey her character went on.

The cast responded extremely well to very detailed direction by Sian Jones, there was pace to the whole play, and the moments of inaction gave the audience time to reflect on what had happened in the previous scene. The scenery was imaginative, and although there seemed to be random items on stage, they all had a place to construct a scene for the cast to play out. It was extremely well-designed and constructed. Lighting played a large part in creating the necessary atmosphere of the play and this was another plus for this talented group.

This is a very thought-provoking piece of drama giving insight into adolescent awkwardness. This cast extracted every ounce of emotion out of the script, I can now understand why it is only a short play, it carried us all on a rollercoaster due to the quality of performance from them all. The standing ovation it received was truly deserving. Thank you for the very warm welcome I received and congratulations to everyone involved in this production.

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