Haverhill Drama Festival
By Liam Plumridge on Monday, 4th June 2007.
This year’s Haverhill Drama Festival kicked off on Monday. Liam Plumridge of Castle Manor Business & Enterprise College has been following the action...
Sawston Players 'PEOPLE LIKE US' by Cherry Vooght
Directed by Frances Bartram
The first play in this year’s drama festival was one that confronted an issue that worries many of us, advancing age. The play tackles ordinary feelings of ordinary people in their fears of getting older and dying. The location that is given for the actors to express their worries of advancing age is outside a caravan. Caravans are nowadays places that are more used by older people who want to avoid flying, foreign food and would like to be by the tranquil coast, the beach, fish and chips, deckchairs, penny slot machines etc.
This caravan is the home of Maud (Alice Lodziak). Maud is an insensitive, arrogant and rather rude character who does not like to be helped or does not particularly worry about the feelings of others. She is a widow and she lives on her own and in this play, Maud is visited by her sister Alice (Audrey Harris) and her daughter Anne (Kirsty Wright). Alice is rather frail and innocent, and lives on her own in a cottage in the countryside. Alice’s appearance, tone of voice and body language show she may have some sort of mental problem or that old age is creeping fast on her.
Alice tries hard to talk with Maud, and to get Maud to do different activities, but Maud is too stubborn to want to speak to her sister. Nice natured Anne though also tries to convince Maud to do more then she does, but Maud is not having any of it.
Anne though is very worried about her aunty Alice and suggests to Maud that Alice should live with her in the caravan and provide each other companionship. Maud does not like this idea, putting on that she was to be on her own. As she refuses this idea, a pivotal moment in the play is when Alice presents Maud with a shell picture. For the first time in the play, we see Maud not only happy, but she is speechless, she is surprised by Alice’s kindness towards her. This develops into Maud asking Alice “Do you think I am arrogant and rude”. The conversation makes Maud confess that Anne wanted Alice to come live wit her in the caravan. It is surprising though that Alice does not want to leave her cottage. She admits she loves being on her own and she has never been so happier in her life. Maud then is frank fully honest and confesses she is worried about old age and death. A sympathetic Alice offers Maud to come live with her in her cottage and Maud seemingly obliges.
The stage for this show was very simple, a typical garden outside a caravan. It was what Vooght obviously wanted in her stage directions, a very clean and basic environment.
Lighting was very basic, and the sunny start of the play turning misty was well brought out, even though I would have liked it towards the end to be rather darker to go with the mood and the compelling conversation of Alice and Maud.
Anne Lodziak’s betrayal of Maud made Maud look as she was supposed to be perceived. I did think we saw Maud’s more gentleness and to not be on the defensive so much in a very subtle and clever way. Anne was very static on stage, and was always in the down stage centre position. There was times when that position showed that she was the pivotal character, but I also thought that if she moved around it may have been more interesting to see. Overall Maud was at the start a female “Victor Meldrew”, but we felt sympathetic towards her before the end.
Anne played by Kirsty Wright was a very jovial character, always smiling and I think she was “too nice”. Her diction was of a very good standard, but her over-niceness was rather damaging. Anne may have been more firm, raising her voice making her mother’s defensiveness more explicit.
The best character in the show was Alice. Audrey Harris played Alice to make the audience warm to her. Her voice very soft and very pleasant, her stance and facial expressions showed elderliness but an the same time affection and calm. In comparison with Anne, Alice’s niceness was what was needed to show her as an ageing, not sturdy lady, with Anne niceness was not what was supposed to be intended.
She was a lovable character that reminded me of Nana Moon out of Eastenders. It was a very good performance from what must be a very experienced actress. Her elocution was impressive, and she is a contender already for Best Actress.
Overall this play was tackling a sensitive issue. It was very emotional, but may be soft, and aggression could have made this a more fast flowing play. At times the tempo was slow and the movement static. The underlying sea noise in the background was very effective, and was a nice touch by the director.
This was a production that was very sweet and innocent and may have been more brutal about old age.
Nevertheless a good effort by Sawston Players and Good Luck at The Edinburgh Festival.
Festival Information
The Haverhill Drama Festival is adjudicated this year by Mike Kaiser GODA. Mike has thirty years experience of teaching English and Theatre Studies, and is an award winning director, actor and writer.
On Saturday evening, Mike will announce the awards to the winners in the following categories .
BEST PRODUCTION
RUNNER UP
BEST ACTRESS
BEST ACTOR
BEST DIRECTOR
HAVERHILL ECHO BEST CAMEO AWARD
THE DON MACKAY ADJUDICATOR’S AWARD
THE FRANCES MACGECHAN STAGE PRESENTATION AWARD
THE ALAN SMITH YOUTH AWARD
BEST NEW PLAY AWARD
Sawston Players 'PEOPLE LIKE US' by Cherry Vooght
Directed by Frances Bartram
The first play in this year’s drama festival was one that confronted an issue that worries many of us, advancing age. The play tackles ordinary feelings of ordinary people in their fears of getting older and dying. The location that is given for the actors to express their worries of advancing age is outside a caravan. Caravans are nowadays places that are more used by older people who want to avoid flying, foreign food and would like to be by the tranquil coast, the beach, fish and chips, deckchairs, penny slot machines etc.
This caravan is the home of Maud (Alice Lodziak). Maud is an insensitive, arrogant and rather rude character who does not like to be helped or does not particularly worry about the feelings of others. She is a widow and she lives on her own and in this play, Maud is visited by her sister Alice (Audrey Harris) and her daughter Anne (Kirsty Wright). Alice is rather frail and innocent, and lives on her own in a cottage in the countryside. Alice’s appearance, tone of voice and body language show she may have some sort of mental problem or that old age is creeping fast on her.
Alice tries hard to talk with Maud, and to get Maud to do different activities, but Maud is too stubborn to want to speak to her sister. Nice natured Anne though also tries to convince Maud to do more then she does, but Maud is not having any of it.
Anne though is very worried about her aunty Alice and suggests to Maud that Alice should live with her in the caravan and provide each other companionship. Maud does not like this idea, putting on that she was to be on her own. As she refuses this idea, a pivotal moment in the play is when Alice presents Maud with a shell picture. For the first time in the play, we see Maud not only happy, but she is speechless, she is surprised by Alice’s kindness towards her. This develops into Maud asking Alice “Do you think I am arrogant and rude”. The conversation makes Maud confess that Anne wanted Alice to come live wit her in the caravan. It is surprising though that Alice does not want to leave her cottage. She admits she loves being on her own and she has never been so happier in her life. Maud then is frank fully honest and confesses she is worried about old age and death. A sympathetic Alice offers Maud to come live with her in her cottage and Maud seemingly obliges.
The stage for this show was very simple, a typical garden outside a caravan. It was what Vooght obviously wanted in her stage directions, a very clean and basic environment.
Lighting was very basic, and the sunny start of the play turning misty was well brought out, even though I would have liked it towards the end to be rather darker to go with the mood and the compelling conversation of Alice and Maud.
Anne Lodziak’s betrayal of Maud made Maud look as she was supposed to be perceived. I did think we saw Maud’s more gentleness and to not be on the defensive so much in a very subtle and clever way. Anne was very static on stage, and was always in the down stage centre position. There was times when that position showed that she was the pivotal character, but I also thought that if she moved around it may have been more interesting to see. Overall Maud was at the start a female “Victor Meldrew”, but we felt sympathetic towards her before the end.
Anne played by Kirsty Wright was a very jovial character, always smiling and I think she was “too nice”. Her diction was of a very good standard, but her over-niceness was rather damaging. Anne may have been more firm, raising her voice making her mother’s defensiveness more explicit.
The best character in the show was Alice. Audrey Harris played Alice to make the audience warm to her. Her voice very soft and very pleasant, her stance and facial expressions showed elderliness but an the same time affection and calm. In comparison with Anne, Alice’s niceness was what was needed to show her as an ageing, not sturdy lady, with Anne niceness was not what was supposed to be intended.
She was a lovable character that reminded me of Nana Moon out of Eastenders. It was a very good performance from what must be a very experienced actress. Her elocution was impressive, and she is a contender already for Best Actress.
Overall this play was tackling a sensitive issue. It was very emotional, but may be soft, and aggression could have made this a more fast flowing play. At times the tempo was slow and the movement static. The underlying sea noise in the background was very effective, and was a nice touch by the director.
This was a production that was very sweet and innocent and may have been more brutal about old age.
Nevertheless a good effort by Sawston Players and Good Luck at The Edinburgh Festival.
Festival Information
The Haverhill Drama Festival is adjudicated this year by Mike Kaiser GODA. Mike has thirty years experience of teaching English and Theatre Studies, and is an award winning director, actor and writer.
On Saturday evening, Mike will announce the awards to the winners in the following categories .
BEST PRODUCTION
RUNNER UP
BEST ACTRESS
BEST ACTOR
BEST DIRECTOR
HAVERHILL ECHO BEST CAMEO AWARD
THE DON MACKAY ADJUDICATOR’S AWARD
THE FRANCES MACGECHAN STAGE PRESENTATION AWARD
THE ALAN SMITH YOUTH AWARD
BEST NEW PLAY AWARD
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