The House, The Boys & The Trial

Soup Productions returned to the stage to perform The House, The Boys and The Trial, an original production by Michael Pirks. The play delivers some harrowing and strong messages, while telling the story of a group of men in Warrington in the 1800’s who were tried and hanged for homosexual acts. The cast, under the direction of Michael Pirks, clearly understood the weight of this story and passed it on to audiences through their performances.

The performance space contained a stage; however this was not used all that much throughout the production, with most of the performance taking place at floor level. This was a great touch for really allowing the audience to connect with the characters and feel they were part of the narrative. The stage space housed 2 screens, one for projecting onto and the other acting as a scrim for shadows to be created. Unfortunately the positioning of the actors or the lights were not quite right for the shadow work so it was hard of make out the shapes/scenes being created. However, I can see and appreciate the vision behind it. The projection screen was used to show images to set scenes/locations throughout, however it was quite far behind the action taking place so did have a slightly disjointed feel. Minimal set was used for the production, mostly chairs and benches. This worked well with the cast undertaking scene changes as it allowed them to flow nicely to maintain the pace of the play. Something that stuck with me was the staging of the trial. Having this at floor level really did make the audience feel part of it and we were able to see the facial expressions from the cast so clearly.

Lighting throughout worked well to compliment the atmosphere for each scene, especially the use of red hues. The cues were all spot on and the cast were well lit throughout. Music was used to underscore numerous scenes within the play, and it all matched the emotions shown by the cast. The timing was spot of for the music cues coming in, however I did feel that it often came to quite an abrupt end rather than fading out slowly. The voice of the Judge (Spencer Lawrence) worked well and had a great impact when booming over the audience. The costumes throughout were mostly spot on for the era and the differences in class between the characters, however there were a couple that didn’t have the same authenticity, mainly some shoes worn by the cast.

Josh Hopson gave a brilliant performance as Charlie Baxter, playing the nervousness and fear of the character very well. His mannerisms and facial expressions were consistent throughout and he explored all the emotions of the character beautifully. Josh’s performance in the scene where Charlie’s mother disowns him was truly heartbreaking to watch.

In the role of Gregory Fishwick was Jake Liken. Jake was fully committed to the role throughout and showcased a lot of raw emotion. His monologue was completely captivating for the audience and he wasn’t scared to look into their eyes and make them feel what he was feeling. His physicality throughout and relationships with different characters was excellent. An amazing performance.

Andy McQuiod took on the role of Sir Isaac Hitchen, displaying strong stage presence at all times. His performance was gripping, peppered with some comedic moments in just the right places. Some lines did get a little lost at times, but this was nonetheless and very strong performance from Andy.

During the trial scenes, Andy, Josh and Jake all gave great reactions and facial expressions, even when the spotlight was not on them. The authentic fear and anger shown from the trio was outstanding and they were all able to pull on the heartstrings of the audience.

Marcus Cameron gave a lovely performance as Jacques/Lucinda, with some expert accent work! He was very softly spoken throughout but every word could still be heard and understood. He gave some brilliant comedy moments throughout and formed a brilliant relationship with Josh as Charles. Thomas Rix was played by Liam Derbyshire who gave a great performance in this role. His stage presence and the way he held himself was very fitting for a character of a different class. I must also give a mention to Emmett Drinkwater as Oscar/Clerk. The monologue performed by Emmett during the opening of Act 2 was brilliant, filled to the brim with emotion! Emmett displayed great diction throughout. Some parts were slightly harder to hear due to volume, but this was on the whole a great performance.

Overall, this production was so well thought out in terms of the emotions shown by the actors and their relationships between each other. The whole cast should be proud of themselves for bringing this story to life and not shying away from the important messages that come with it. The ending of the show really stuck with me. Rainbow lights taking over the space, and a still image of the 4 men hanged on the stage. Meanwhile images of Pride parades through the years were projected on to the screen. This was a hard-hitting moment that was performed and created beautifully.

Thank you to Soup Productions for the invite and their kind hospitality, and I wish them the best of luck with their next production Off Track, to be performed in July.

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