(Circle Dreams Around) The Terrible Terrible Past

This year St Ives Youth Theatre is taking part in the National Theatre’s Connections Programme with Simon Longman’s (Circle Dreams Around) The Terrible Terrible Past, Directed by Sam Burke. sIYT is performing the play both in St Ives, and in April 2023 at the The Royal and Derngate in Northampton.  

This play is reminiscent of N F Simpson’s Theatre of the Absurd as it takes someone’s weird dream - you know the sort — you are you but you don’t know all the other people involved — where the weirdness keeps circling around.  In this unusual and pretty absurd play of a recurring dream, there are fish, chickens, cows, who all look and sound like people and people who look kind of familiar. They dream about the past mainly, a past that they don’t belong to but a past that wants to belong to them. And then there’s a butcher, killing people. The dream circles around, going back to the start again and again; a dream they can’t escape.

The staging in the Free Church was of necessity minimal but everything needed was there and nicely used.  Lighting and sound were used as well as the facilities available allowed and the costumes were well thought out.   

Director Sam Burke had put together a pretty talented cast and twelve of the fourteen actors play two sometimes three or four different roles which is no mean achievement but it gave the participants a great opportunity to show their talents.  Well done Harry Crier, Will Dack, Elise Davis, Orla Hilton, Martha Hiscock, Areeya Hudson, Maja Kurkiewicz, Joe Mason, Tilly Newman, Priya Pandey, Cayden Pether, Justin Ramsbottom, James Rowbotham and Charlie Stewart.

Once or twice dialogue was rushed as often you talk faster than you think you do, especially when the adrenalin kicks in, but overall everyone was very good. It takes some doing to deliver your character convincingly dressed as a fish, or in a chicken or cow onesie, with a straight face.  Particular well done to the Chicken who confidently delivered a wonderfully dramatic soliloquy holding a fluffy chick toy in each hand depicting his dead sister and brother.   Also to The Butcher totally focused as he constantly dragged dead bodies from wing to wing to laughter from the audience. 

This was a very enjoyable, if slightly weird, evening with some admirable talent on show. Congratulations to Director and cast, also to the large technical, backstage and front of house support team. Best of luck in Northampton and, hopefully, London.

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