Evening of One Act Plays

Many thanks to Longton Players for inviting me to their Evening of One Act Plays which was performed at St Andrew’s Community Hall, Longton. I saw the performance on the evening of Friday 10th May. The evening consisted of 5 short plays, 4 of which were written by members of the cast. The 5 pieces were extremely eclectic, in terms of genre, style and theme, which was quite refreshing to have presented as one evening of entertainment. The space was set up in caberet style, which immediately set the context as being informal. Robert Daniels opened the event with a nice summary of each of the shows, which also added to the casual nature of the evening.  

The cast were holistically strong throughout the performance, some taking on roles in different pieces, and some that this was their debut performances. The five plays presented were ‘Waiting for Johnno’ by M J Stockley, ‘Anonymous’ by John Warrall-McBride, ‘The Camera Never Lies’ by Robert J Daniels, ‘Beautiful and a fall to ground’ by Nicola B Hindley and ‘The Ballet of Fervour or Perhaps Bingo’ by Sheridan Zabel. It is difficult to compare the pieces holistically as each were so different and required different styles and energies. I would say that the third play may have been better as the second showing. The pace of this story was much slower in line with the haunting themes, and so it did drop the energy leading into the interval. 

‘Waiting for Johnno’ was centred around a gathering of 5 characters who received an ambiguous invitation requesting them to arrive at a meeting point as a matter of urgency. Within these scenes, each character's stories unfolded of which there was a commonality, they all had caused the host, Johnno, a grievance at some time in their lives. These stories were enveloped within a separate timeline of events. The piece started with Johnno creeping across the stage with a riffle in hand, with gunshots being heard once he is off stage. The tail end of the production shared the aftermath of the event, the police arriving on the scene to which we learn is a mass murder, and then their reactions to the events which happened. It was performed well with great intrigue and subtlety created, so that the twist was not apparent before its unveiling. I loved the striking visual created upon the exit of the 5 characters, with them all walking upstage whilst a single flood beams downstage, silhouetting their movements. 

‘Anonymous’ was a comedy in which the cast were at various stages within their recovery from their addiction. This was well performed, with various heightened characterisations created to enable the comedy. There was delight in the unveiling of the addiction of cake and there was a lovely moment of most of the cast grotesquely fighting over a mound of sweet delights at the end of the piece, which gave a visual release to a very humorously written satire. 

‘The Camera Never Lies’ told the story of a couple’s visit to a medium after losing their son. The medium who was famous for photographing the spirit he conjured with enabled its passing. The drama was created through the wives belief and desire to contact her son, the husband’s cynicism to the medium and the tension their investments in belief created, and the manipulation of the medium into the couple’s affairs. Again, a nice twist within the button of the plot where, unknowing to the medium, the spirit of the son appears within the photograph without hoax. This was very nicely played by all actors involved. 

‘Beautiful and a fall to ground’ was a beautifully sculpted monologue which captured multiple layers of a nurse's mental state. On stage the character fell asleep, which then unfolded into sequential, repeated motifs of areas of her life whereby she become stuck and could not move beyond. These included moments with or as a a child, which circulated. Although not written directly, the way this was performed suggested that the nurse left the space to take her life. Very chilling and subtle and extremely well acted. 

The final piece was a grandee comedy whereby an extravagant, extroverted director and scriptwriter is massively underwhelmed by the auditionees for the show do not live up to expectations. Before he pulls the show, he basically reenacts the entire plot, playing every part with finesse, and chewing the scenery at every opportunity. The humour came not only from this character’s exuberant performance, but from the stark contrast between him and his actors’ performances. The plot revolves when the casting assistant pulls out a replacement script which is written with the actors in hand in mind, thus giving great meaning to knowing your audience, reading the room and making courses fit for horses, rather than the flip of this. 

I thank the Longton Players dearly for inviting me to this evening of performances. I loved the diversity in style and genre of the selected works, which proviced a really refreshing and humbling evening of entertainment.  

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