The Conquest Youth Theatre has done it again. The 7th and 8th of July saw them all involved in three short plays, two devised by the cast, which were witty, sparkling and fresh - the hallmark we have come to expect of this ever-developing group.
All three shows were set in a bedroom, with a bed, teddies, and that mysterious collection of odds and ends hanging from the walls and ceiling that you find in a bedroom, which only really make sense to its owner. In the first sketch (Sisterly Love by Peg Kehret, directed by Angharad Smith) the room belonged to three sisters, two of whom (Victoria Stack and Mary Ann Wall) ganged up on the third (Bethanie Evans), who manged to hold her own so effectively that before long they all went off happily together again. The play had movement, pace and energy, and settled us in comfortably for the next one.
Lex's Story (by the younger members of the Youth Theatre) and Henry's Story (by the older ones) were based on brain-storming improvisation sessions over the earlier part of last term, in which more or less anybody could decide to do anything, the ideas then very skillfully threaded together into coherent pieces by director Barbara Hockley, so that although the audience frequently felt sanity slipping away, we were always gently and wittily led back to comprehension before losing it completely.
Both stories began with homework, Lex (Steph Street) and Henry (Josh Herriott) groping rather feebly for ideas. Into their respective vacuums gradually poured increasingly unlikely manifestations of their subconscious, and eventually some sort of order prevailed. Lex, in the end, couldn't cope with them all and concluded, in time honoured style, "and then she woke up" while Henry's rather more involved plot resolved itself by his self-discovery that the girl of his dreams was somebody quite different from the one he'd originally fancied. To list all the characters would fill a book, but in the first play I particularly liked a brightly-bow-tied doctor (Alex Cofield), a Bloomsbury darling (Miranda Phillips), and a Bohemian artist (Liam Stobart), athough there was some excellent ensemble work from the whole cast. There was also a wonderful trolley of bubbling scientific apparatus, the meaning of which was clearly... um...
Henry's Story gave us Brian de Bergerac, a musketeer-like Frenchman with a long nose played by Josh Raven, two Juliets pining for their Romeos, sword-fights, pirates (including the feisty Black-Hearted Lil - Angharad Smith, and the gormless but sensitive Barney McBoz - Joe Rolt), vampires, monsters, speaking statues, three old ladies who had apparently escaped from Monty Python and even the shark from Jaws. As the story took off with a mind of its own, Henry's girl (Scarlett O'Donnell) found herself increasingly sidelined, and reduced to yelling, "What about me? Why aren't I a sexy pirate?" while the quiet Doris (Emma Gibbons/Ellie Scott), albeit sporting a big black moustache, revealed herself as Henry's true love, sneaking into his story just to be with him, even if it meant walking the plank together.
With the minimum of furniture but a a huge assortment of personal props, this play cracked along with all the energy needed to take the play on a successful tour, and I know that it will be very well received at Gilwell Park, the Big Youth Theatre Festival, and at Nozstock on the 22 July. Good Luck, Young Conquest!
This review appeared in the August 2006 edition of 'Off the Record'
"Follow that!" they said at the end of The Return To The Forbidden Planet, and by golly, they did. One might have been forgiven for a few forebodings about a rock opera improvised by a group of teenagers, but under the masterful direction of Barbara Hockley, their initial ideas, themes and characters were crafted together into a coherent whole, built around twenty or so classic rock hits.
The unusual plot involved a Halloween competition between an eclectic group of the undead, each trying to be the first to seduce an unsuspecting human, and thus draw him into their realm. This year's game is infiltrated by last year's victim, whose aim is to draw her boyfriend after her into the otherworld. A number of delightful little subplots decorated the main theme, and there was an intriguing twist at the very end.
A good thing about writing your own show is that everybody's talents can be exploited to their best, and it was clear that being comfortable in their own roles enabled each of these young actors to interact as team. Particularly notable was the developing romance between a rather feisty banshee (Scarlett O'Donnell) and the venerable butler of Deadrock Manor (Josh Raven), the ensemble acting of a group of demon dolls (Steph Street, Beth Flathers and Joanna Handley) and a wonderful little cameo between an eager young human (Mary Ann Wall) and a very apprehensive apprentice butler (Liam Stobart).
The older members of the cast led the show both dramatically and vocally, with terrific solos from five of them (Joe Rolt, Angharad Smith, Emma Gibbons, Ben Marshall and Ellie Scott) and a couple of crisp numbers from live band Illusion (Josh Raven, Ben Marshall and Chris Cook). On top of this there was a really amazing 3D ghost effect at the end of Act 1, where all the audience had to wear special glasses, and a wonderful audio-visual slide presentation in the foyer during the interval by photographer Peter Frampton. There is barely room to mention the technical wizardry behind all this performance. Jim Rolt's backing tracks (with recorded vocals from the cast), the all-original costumes (Barbara and a dedicated team), the ghost, werewolf and vampire make-up, Boz Farey's atmospheric lighting and Greg Harwood's choreography all combined to make the show truly first-rate, with a talented committed cast and highly professional production values.
This review appeared in the January 2006 edition of 'Off the Record'
The Conquest Youth Theatre achieved new heights last week with a
stunning production of Return To the Forbidden Planet, a sixties rock musical
by Bob Carlton, which quite literally glittered with talent and astonishing
attention to detail over every square inch of the stage. The enthusiastic cast
took us on an improbable journey by spacecraft to the
planet of the mysterious Dr Prospero and his daughter Miranda, via a
fantastic story of misused potions, misplaced love and mislaid crew
which used dialogue largely culled from Shakespeare to link together some of
our greatest sixties rock hits.
After some quick pre-flight instruction for the audience on how to
survive a polarity reversal, the curtains opened to reveal one of the
most detailed sets I have even seen. Dozens of panels of textured silver,
studded with pipes, wires, dials, keyboards, monitors, flashing lights and
various other shiny gizmos flooded the view, while earnest crew members pored
over their navigational tasks with admirable credibility. In one corner a big
display brought us TV commentary from outside the ship, and strategically
placed microphones ensured that none of us were likely to drop off
during this show! Within moments Captain Tempest arrived on the bridge, and we
were off.
All shows of this nature are team efforts, but some members of the
cast are, inevitably, more equal than others, and I have no hesitation in
awarding the audience award to Angharad Smith, as Captain Tempest. She
was brave and fearless - as the programme notes told us - but above all she
was completly confident in her role, rising effortlessly above technical
hiccoughs with relaxed good humour, putting the audience, and cast, at
ease. Good singer too!
Around her were a plethora of diverse talents. Ben Marshall, as the
love-lorn Cookie, was a superb drummer, a singer, and, I suppose, a good
cook too! Joe Rolt (Dr Prospero)was a tall, serious and suitably conscious-stricken scientist, Ellie Scott (Miranda) looked and sounded
just lovely, and Emma Gibbons (the Robot Ariel) slid in and out and around
the stage on roller skates. The Science Officer (Steph Cresswell) saved the
day and the Bosun (Matthew Oliver) played the saxaphone.
Although it would tax the patience of the editor to list the entire
cast, all the minor roles deserve a mention in dispatches for the way they
continued to "work the ship" in the background of the story, gathering
around the mikes when necessary to become backing for the main singers,
ever industrious, ever acting, but never distracting, adding excellent
credibility to the mise-en-scene.
My lasting impression, however, will continue to be the love and
care that that had obviously gone in to every detail of this production. The
beautiful handsewn original costumes (Jenny Shortland, Barbara Hockley &
Joyce Marshall), the TV commentary DVDs (Jim Rolt), the Audio-Visual
presentation in the foyer during the interval (Peter Frampton), the jive
choreography (Greg Harwood), even the delightful ray-guns (Hetty Scott)
showed that hours of work had been spent and no effort spared to make
this show the best it could possibly be, and it is an immense credit to
Director/Designer and Youth Theatre Leader Barbara Hockley, and her
musically versatile and technologically superb partner Jim Rolt that
they managed to draw so much out of so many.
If you saw it, you'll know what I mean. If you missed it - don't
you wish you hadn't? Well don't despair - they'll be back with a new show
before too long!
This review appeared in 'Off The Record' January 2005
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