PLAYS FOR TODAY
and was directed at Royal Exchange in Manchester by Ned Bennett OA. A brutal but tender study of brotherhood, it explores a childhood lived without boundaries, and the con- sequences of being forced to grow up on your own. Written in 2021 and still running in the West End, Robbins’ 2.22 A Ghost Story is a contemporary haunted-house chiller that plays with all the old tropes and is ripe with jump scares, paranoia, in- trigue and the electric fear of expectation. Amédée Le Gouellec De Schwarz (Grenville) and Justin Tam (Raleigh) were jointly awarded the adjudicator’s discretionary cup for delivering two impactful and truthful performances in supporting roles. George Loynes took home the Max Hunter Cup for his invaluable contribution to the Drama Department over many years; an accomplished actor, director and writer, he has been at the heart of so much theatrical activity in the EAT. Grateful thanks to our adjudicator, actor Rosie Taylor- Ritson, who had the unenviable task of awarding the cups and prizes, and to our Practitioner in Residence, Eddie Loodmer-El- liott, for curating an evening of wry, funny, provocative, moving and sometimes challenging material to shine a light on the world we’re living in now. ◎
The Upper School House Drama festival celebrated brilliant and eclectic new writing, presenting satirical, sensational and startling societal snapshots, says Kathryn Norton-Smith
W hilst acknowledging the mileage in old favour- ites, we were keen this year to widen the pool of texts so as to embrace some of the indus- try’s most contemporary and exciting playwrights, with every piece presented at the Upper School House Drama festival having been professionally premiered within the last 10 years. These included the powerhouse female voices of Annie Baker, Anne Washburn, Lucy Kirkwood and Anna Jordan, the British brilliance of Roy Williams OBE and Danny Robins, the caustic wit of Jewish-Ameri- can writer Joshua Harmon and the Panamanian-American offerings of Matthew Lopez. Raleigh’s extract from Chimerica by Lucy Kirkwood scoop- ed the top spot. The 2014 Olivier Award-winning play, deftly directed by Jonathan Millis, is a thriller focusing on the political relationship between China and the US, and delving into the story behind the ‘Tank Man’ photograph taken during the events of Tiananmen Square in 1989. Coming in a close second were Grenville, with their staging of an extract from the bitingly funny 2016 Critics’ Circle-nominated Bad Jews by Joshua Harmon. The play centres on the push and pull between the traditions and heritage of religion and the homogenisation of modern Western culture, but it also looks more universally at grief, loss and legacy and how easy it is to lose sight of other people. Sonny Birrane was awarded Best Actor for his powerhouse performance; as the adjudicator remarked, ‘from the moment he burst on to the stage, a bundle of pent-up ire and self-obsession, this actor was compelling to watch; he’s just got funny bones’. Marlowe were third, presenting Annie Baker’s 2016 play The Flick , which goes behind the scenes at a cinema to
expose the desperate longings of its three young pro- tagonists. This piece about love, lost souls and popcorn saw some great ensemble playing from the trio of George Loynes, Niccolò Robertson and Harry Sugden, all deliver- ing truthful and moving performance work. Jonson and Sidney shared fourth place with extracts from Roy Williams’ The Firm and Anne Washburn’s Mr Burns. Gilbert Edwards was awarded Best Director for his evoc- ative conjuring of Williams’ world of gangland culture, with its stagnant grievances and latent violence. Oscar Pelly, aided by Carol Morris’ very effective lighting design, bravely and effectively tackled Washburn’s 2012 Pulitzer Prize-winning play, delivering a dystopian post-apoca- lyptic world vision based on the ‘Cape Feare’ episode of The Simpsons. Washburn makes a case for how modern pop culture might become a future source of consolation, camaraderie and survival, as well as art. We also saw some excellent performance work in Drake’s staging of Matthew Lopez’ Inheritance, Howard’s extract from Anna Jordan’s Yen and Spenser’s extract from Dan- ny Robbins’ 2:22 A Ghost Story . Lopez’ powerful 2018 Olivier Award-winning play is a portrait of 21st-century gay men in search of their collective past. Paying homage to English novelist EM Forster, who lived as a closeted gay man, and with the spectre of the AIDS crisis thread- ing through the narrative, the play lays bare the legacy of loss. Yen won the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting in 2015 A brutal but tender study of brotherhood, it explores a childhood lived without boundaries, and the consequences of being forced to grow up on your own
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THE ALLEYNIAN 711
DRAMA & DANCE
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