Hunt

Guns, bad language and blogging teenagers are some of the themes that fill this middle-aged woman with dread, being as far away from real life as Dorothy and her sparkling slippers.  However, Hunt by Fionnuala Kennedy shows how prevalent these things can be in the lives of teenagers and how the mundane and everyday can implode in the most serious of ways.   The story sees a group of friends as they play a game in their local neighbourhood of Hunt – which involves borrowing objects from the gardens of neighbours without being caught.  A largely harmless activity, but cracks begin to show in the relationships with the return of ‘Mad Danielle’, the under-current of the ‘Man in the Van’ and the story of the kitten.  Tensions are fuelled and the connections and friendships begin to fall apart endangering a missing younger sibling of one of the group.

Gina (Alice Lamb) is a gregarious blogger who records her life and surroundings.  Lamb moved confidently around the stage and was thoroughly believable in what she was doing.  The part of Jo was taken by Chloe Watson, who once again demonstrated excellent ability as an actor particularly during the final scene.  Layla Grace as Lisa gave a confident portrayal with Natasha Lunt as Jamie and Grace Wassell as Niamh also giving very credible performances.

Fra (Rebecca Kirk) was big sister to Peter (Emma Loynes) whom she has to take along due to challenging domestic circumstances.  Kirk gave an emotionally engaging performance when Peter goes missing and Loynes was super as the anxious youngster placed in a very difficult situation.

Eliana Grundy (Carly) and Connor Monkman (Steve) were excellent in their roles portraying just the right amount of teenage angst, confidence and at points fear of what was coming next.  Lucy Galvin as Danielle gave a stunning performance of a girl on the edge of womanhood wrongfully accused by her peers, who still chooses to keep a secret to protect a friend.  Great characterisation and delivery of some emotive lines.

The roles of Danielle, Carly and Steve were double cast (demonstrating the immense talent within this group).  The alternates being Arwen Dale, Brooke Wilkinson and Jeevan Ganatra (respectively) who all acted as crew during this performance.  They also beautifully supported the movement on stage when the show reaches its climax and the rifle is fired.  The slow-motion representation of the impact of this action was excellently translated and delivered.

The script also included a recorded flashback to times when members of the group were younger and the game more innocent.  The film, made by John Broadhead, was very cleverly interwoven into the production and included performances by Yew Tree members Izzy Cowie and Juliet Thomas Kovacs.

Technically the production was to Yew Tree’s high standards with clear diction, excellent direction and evidence that these young people had worked hard on their character building and no doubt had a detailed back story which allowed them to give the audience a deeper presentation rather than merely a superficial look at interactions during a moment in time.  Appropriate costumes, subtle lighting, strong sound and props so realistic you’d think they’d been ‘borrowed’ from a housing estate all added to the production.  Created as part of a week-long performance development opportunity during half term Hunt will be performed at Sheffield Crucible in the NT Connections series on Friday 25th March so there is still chance to see this production by following the link

https://www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk/events/connections-festival-day-2-2

Congratulations to everyone involved and very best wishes for your performance in Sheffield.

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