24 Hour Plays, New Greenham Arts Centre, Newbury 1st August 2015

On Saturday August 1^st five theatre companies performed short original plays in New Greenham Arts Centre. All five companies were made up of performers between the ages of 15 and 21, and all the plays had been written and rehearsed over the last 24 hours.  The venture was the initiative of actor Kristoffer Huball. After a day’s workshop for everyone in a range of theatre skills on Monday, the nominated writers were then given short notice of a theme and turned up at the ominous-sounding 101 on Friday for a night’s work script-writing, inspired by props offered by their actors. After drafting, storyboarding, redrafting, and developing through the night, writers handed over their scripts to actors and directors, who had a single day to turn them into a live performance. The emphasis was on independent thinking by talented young people, with suggestions from professional mentors Nigel Munson, Chris Harrison, Nadia Nadif and James Roselman.

Winchester were first up, with Broken News, written by Samuel Morley (who also did the lighting for the evening) and directed by Henry Fuller. This was the most light-hearted show of the evening, featuring an interplanetary news team ‘scooping’ a non-existent supernova on a distant star. The cast of five put their characters over clearly and there was some delightful mime involving spaceships and space suits. The tone changed abruptly with Kennett School’s Appreciation, a monologue by Maveric Hearn about family tragedy. This was sensitively delivered by Adam Smith, who convincingly played more than one character. The Young Corn Exchange followed with The Rose, a Grimm-like parable by Scarlett Quinton, performed by Becky Lillycrop and Adam Taylor, who made striking use of space and movement and covered a range of emotions. St Bart’s School followed with Abi Smith’s Testament of the Imprisoned 2, a prison drama in which director Parry Bates drew some subtle ensemble acting from his all-female cast. Last on the bill was Trinity School’s The Beak Tail of Two Penguins, written by Luke Stevens and directed by John Creed. Molly Fairchild-Smith and Adam Taylor played eco-conscious space-travelling penguins in a piece which started as high comedy and ended somewhere much darker.

All the teams made maximum use of minimal means – no costumes, few props and some basic furniture were enough to create whole worlds in the audience’s imaginations. They had clearly relished the 24-hour challenge and the end result was strong, focussed theatre which will live in the memory. At the end Kristoffer Huball encouraged all the actors to form companies and keep putting new work out there.  With cuts everywhere, there is much to be worried  about in the performing arts at the moment; but seeing the wealth of talent on show in Newbury, there is clearly a lot to be excited about ,too.