Two One Act Plays

Henfield -Two one act plays

It was truly wonderful to see two one act plays together, but more importantly to see the youth theatre company and the adult company working together. The two plays were 'The Real Inspector Hound' by Tom Stoppard and directed by Karen Blunden, followed by ' A Cold Supper Behind Harrods' by David Morley, Directed by Malcolm Harrington and Sheila Nye.

Diected by Karen Blunden

Firstly it was the youth theatre groups chance to shine in The Real Inspector hound. Director Karen Blunden went all out with the sylistic staging. Every member of the youth group shone out with incredible presence and great volume without the need for microphones. Tom Stoppards play is simultaneously hilarious and a who-done-it. It follows the story of two theatre critics, Moon and Birdboot, as they go to a play in London. Concurrently, we trace the plot arc of the theatre critics and the narrative arc of the murder mystery play that they are assigned to review. So, it is a play-within-a-play. By the end of the play, the two narratives become entangled and are nearly impossible to separate. It would be almost impossible to separate or single out any of the fabulous cast as they gave it 100%. Alex Carter, Luke Punt, Ashton Roworth, Ben Carter, Orla Williams, Robyn Thomas, Korey Grierson and Zoe Ainsworth were all first rate. If I had to share a laugh out loud moment it would be when Mrs. Drudge was pouring out the teas, as it was hilarious and the timing was perfect.

Directed by Malcolm Harrington and assisted by Sheila Nye

Moving on to the adult play, this was a much darker affair. It' 1997 and three Special Operations Executive agents from World War Two are giving interviews to the BBC for a documentary series. This is a play based on true events and was incredibly poignant. Mary Maston, Gordon Eaton, Ken Jones and Zoe Ainsworth (yes she was in both plays) were the main characters with Suzie Walker playing the silent Patricia who they had all come to reminisce about. Although the documentary was intended to commemorate their achievements in securing triumph for Britain over the Germans, none of them actually felt very heroic. Divergently, they all felt accountable in some way for the death of Patricia, a fellow-agent who had been tortured and executed at the hands of the Gestapo. As the drama unfolded, however, it became more and more evident that the agents' disenchantment was nothing more than a smoke-screen, intended to cover up what really happened to Patricia, and how one of the agents at least was frankly to blame for her death. None of this emerged in the television documentary - which was similarly treated as a concealment designed to obfuscate rather than divulge the truth. Again the commitment to the parts was brilliant and all of the cast were noteworthy of praise for their character portrayal. This was a well directed tour de force production and Henfield should be very proud of their acting gentry.

A thoroughly great afternoon at Henfield.

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