Monday 17 October 2005

Woking Drama Festival - Tuesday 11th October

Surrey Heath Young Actors Company - Die Superkinder by Steve Hyett.

A group of children are held captive by sinister forces. But why?

Why indeed. After watching this play - I don't really care one way or the other. This was the worst thing I think I've ever seen on stage. OK, it's kids acting. But I've seen other plays where the kids actually made some effort at putting some feeling into their voices rather than simply intoning their lines, as this lot did. And the direction was awful. 20, or so, kids ranged in a semi-circle, stepping forward to deliver their words, then stepping back again. This was worse than a primary school Nativity play.

Runnymede Drama Group - Happy Birthday Dear President or Who Killed Norma Jean? by Nick Bird.

What if Jackie Bouvier Kennedy killed Marilyn Monroe?

Again, as with the previous one, who cares?! RDG are usually pretty good, but this was a dull load of nonsense. Seems that plenty of people in the audience (including the adjudicator) thought this was 'gripping'. But, the adjudicator did wonder if it was just as interesting to people who weren't born when the events happened. Answer - no it wasn't. Not interesting at all.

It didn't help that some of the actors' moves seemed a bit stilted. And the idea of having a Chorus simply stopped all the momentum every time it was built up.

Sorry, but I'm afraid this was the only evening of the festival on which there was nothing worth seeing.


Disclaimer: I'm not a professional theatre critic or a qualified drama adjudicator. I'm biased in favour of stuff that isn't dull. Sorry if my opinions offend you - it's nothing personal!

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