Refresh

Under the general heading of Refresh, four original short plays were performed in order to give acting opportunities to younger members and to give new writing by Oldbury Rep members a chance to be performed. Each play was staged in the studio theatre, with simple and effective sets.

The first by Peter Corser, was titled ‘Staying Late’, set in a school in 2007, including two teachers and 4 pupils trapped in detention for various reasons. Tim Ward as the main teacher Mr Tovey, supervising the detention, was suitably stern with the pupils, dressed as you might expect with 4 pens sticking out of his top pocket! He sets the 4 girls a task to be completed in 20 minutes and disappears. The girls interact well with each other. Lisa (Elise McPherson)  is clearly quite intelligent and the others wonder why she is there, only to discover later that she cheated in a French exam. Lyn (Eve Pitt) spends most of the time listening to music, Mel (Katrina Gould) is touchy about the attention her boyfriend Dean always gets and Janine (Ezme-Jean Forbes-Moore)  has lost her father but still has a pleasing supportive outlook on things.

Mr Tovey returns to the teacher’s common room and catches Tara Blake (Elizabeth Ormston) smoking  and who is worried that the girls will discover that her partner, also a teacher, has left her.  She pops back to check on the girls and clearly takes the approach of being friendly to gain their respect.  There is a commotion outside the building and  Ward and Ormston are amusingly animated.  It becomes clear that Mr Tovey would like to retire as soon as possible and the girls all finish detention with a selfie. This was all well- acted and kept the audience’s attention throughout.

The second play called The Interview, set at ‘The Recruitment for All Employment Agency’, by Lin McLeod, focused on Mr Bailey (Matt Turner) who needs a full-time job as a barista, whilst Mr Wyse (Alan Groucott) needs to fill a vacancy in his legal team. When Bailey checks in at reception he is met by Rose (Tracey Foden)  nicely exasperated, with her laptop problem, but manages to send Bailey to the wrong interview room., where he meets Miss Carter (Elizabeth Ormston) who acts for the Agency.  When the interview starts the confusion is really funny,  Wyse’s line of questioning completely inadequate, and repeatedly called Rose and Bailey by the wrong names, which became increasingly bizarre, in the style of  a sketch by The Two Ronnies – all very well handled by all the players and at a great pace.

Next up, ‘T-Minus Mom’, by Peter Corser, depicts the morning after, where four girls have had a party whilst mum was away, but they discover she is due back in 20 minutes! Two girls are asleep on the settee and Terry  (Peter Corser)  is also found asleep in one of the bedrooms. Pauline (Gail Mee) arrives to collect a casserole dish, (Terry dives behind the settee)  and soon after Chloe (Lauren Mee) delivers a parcel. The interaction between them all was good. The girls  (Eve Pitt, Katrina Gould, Ezme -Jean Forbes-Moore and Elise McPherson) did eventually start to hoover up and just in the nick of time, as mum (Tracey Foden ) arrives home.  The twist in the story came when we discover that Terry was supposed to let mum know what was going on , but his phone battery died, so Pauline was sent to check on them and the last surprise was that Terry and mum are an item! All very well played.

Last up, ‘A Slice of Scandal’ by Ben Mills-Wood.  I liked the introductory music from the Archers. Jemima (Tracey Foden) is excitedly putting the final touches to her cake for judging at a WI gathering and has added some brownies which she discovered in the bottom of her daughter’s suitcase. Daughter Anna (Lauren Mee) expressed concern about this, and, when Lady Mayoress ( Gail Mee)  who complimented the cake which was very popular, is seen dancing on a table. There is also general bedlam amongst the WI ladies. Good support too from Elizabeth Ormston (Verity). Anna tries to deflect attention away from the cake by making some punch. In short, the brownies contained marijuana that have actually been prepared by Anna and her dad, in co-hoots with each other, for the purposes of keeping Jemima calm!

These were four well- structured plays and well-acted and everyone involved should be very pleased with the results, clearly achieving the original objectives and which were enjoyed by the audience.

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