#YOLO

Matthew Bulgo is a welsh Lamda trained actor who, in 2013, changed direction from the stage to the page giving an attempt at creative writing with the semi-autobiographical piece ‘Last Christmas’. 

‘#YOLO’ - also written by Bulgo four years on and is here being staged by a youth ensemble from Cygnets as part of the 2017 national theatre connections scheme.

The writing style has been crafted to reflect accurate conversation imitation - so much so that this piece had a sense of improvisation about it, at times it was hard to believe that the words had ever been written down which is a very rare and incredibly refreshing experience. The articulation of some of these players could have been improved as we did experience a fair amount of muffled delivery amidst some background distraction noise from the ensemble and ambient sound effects making the focus a struggle to pinpoint at times. Actors need to understand the thought process of their characters if they’re to translate as naturalistic, those who recognised this and are skilled enough to communicate this trait are the ones who excelled.

Making the most sincere and natural expressions of the evening were Sam Pearson as Jack, Charlotte English as Josie and Kieran Odedra as Johnno. This trio understood the style and concept of the play delivering the most genuine and believable acts of the night, all of which shone in the latter part of the play; we got a profound moment between the two siblings (scene 9) and a naturally comical feature from Kieran (scene 7) when trying to calm a heated situation whilst dealing with a friend coming to terms with a broken nose.

There was a feel of exam presentation or student fringe about this presentation which completely works for this style of play being as short as it is and with a youth ensemble cast. We got a black box performance space with simple / minimal furniture and a collection of projected images were used for backdrops helping to keep proceedings moving at a good pace. The ensemble work could have been tighter and perhaps stylised / choreographed in an abstract, contemporary physical theatre method to bestow a structured ensemble presentation rather than the chaotic melange of ‘business’ all happening at once, some visual comedy early on would get the audience on side from the off, gain our trust and grab our attention for the affecting despair that’s to come. The final tableau was absolutely the right idea to visually end the performance.    

Director Kalini Kent had focused on the principal players to accentuate the moods and help these young actors realise their characters situation. I agreed with the simple staging and overall style of presentation. I sensed room for research, especially with how medical professionals conduct a consultation as I wasn’t convinced with the body language or tone of how this early scene was constructed, keeping them both sat at the desk throughout that early scene would have been more accurate to realistic conduct, it’s ok to be still which allows the audience to home in on the words and facts, getting up and pacing around felt somewhat unwarranted in this scene. 

A mention to the ensemble to remain focused on what they’re supposed to be doing, don’t be distracted away from your task to try and find where your family and friends are sat in the audience.

Music played an integral part of this presentation with a good choice of tracks which suited Jacks style and followed through from his image and personality whilst reflecting the mind set of that particular section.                                         

This was an opening night viewing and we experienced evident signs of this with some hesitantly nervous performances with restless, ungrounded stances and some slightly forced deliveries to begin with which I’m pleased to say relaxed as the hour-long performance progressed.

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