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Stars explained *
A production of no real merit with failings in all areas.
**
A production showing evidence of not enough
time or effort, or even talent, and which never breathes any real life into
the piece – or a show lumbered with a terrible script.
***
A good enjoyable show
which might have some small flaws but has largely achieved what it set out
to do.****
An excellent show which shows a great deal of work and stage craft with
no noticeable or major flaws.*****
A four star show which has found
that extra bit of magic which lifts theatre to another plane Half stars fall between the ratings |
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Ground-breaking drama
White Poppies
Hall Green Youth Theatre
**** WHITE Poppies by Sue Saunders is set prior to the onset of the First World War. It is centred on
a Northern mining community and a group of lads who enlist to fight for
their country in the knowledge that their tunnelling skills and work
underground could be vital under the battlefield. Sixteen year old Tom Headley lies about his age and much to the sadness of his sweetheart and widowed mother, heads straight to the front line. Through a twist of fate he is blamed
wrongly for the deaths of his comrades. Some eighty years later, a young
schoolgirl sets about finding out about her ancestors for a school
project and eventually unearths the truth and eventually restores the
Headley name and Tom’s place in local history. With such a complex and emotional piece the Hall
Green Youth theatre showed great understanding and depth of the subject
and under the direction of Roy Palmer elevated the work from what could
have been just an exercise into a credible piece of theatre.
The principles players, of William Garett as Tom
Hedley and Emily Beaton as his sweetheart Jenny Lucas, were both
excellent in conveying the gentle innocence of young love and their
final separation by the war. There was some inventive staging when Tom and his
friend Mattie played by Pascal Bourke are tunnelling under the German
lines when another friend, Will Fordham played by Ross Shaw, an officer
and the son of the local Lord from their home town, panics and brings
about an explosive tragedy. Lit only by candle light and with a few
smoke effects they created the claustrophobic atmosphere that the lads
would have faced. The play is told through a series of flashbacks
and the present day characters of Jenny Clark, played by Anie Hu,
and Clare Doherty as her mother never missed a cue in connecting their
modern findings in a box of heirlooms to then having them played out by
the characters in the past. There was an also a nice performance by the
confident Luke Ellinor as the vicar heading up his congregation and
solid work too by Jack heath as the Doctor. Good work also was
delivered by Iona Taylor as Hannah Lucas, Jenny’s sister and the
spiteful Polly and Lizzie played by Ailish Reel and Charlotte Crowe
respectively. Much of the role of a Youth theatre is to give
young people the experience of performing and whilst for some here there
was an element of that, the overall performance was engaging and
emotional and worth supporting. White Poppies may have been designed as something
of an educational piece but the team at Hall Green Youth Theatre have
dug up a gem and shown that they and the play should really get a wider
audience. To 11-10-14 Jeff Grant
03-10-14 |
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