Review: Act II Festival (Session 1), Hounslow Arts Centre

Act II Festival is a chance for emerging artists; writers, directors and performers, to gain valuable experience of putting on a professional show. This year the festival was split over three nights, with all the shows then repeated during one full day. The below reviews are of the shows that performed first on the Wednesday, with these reviews taken from their repeat performance on the Sunday.

You can also find a review of the festival itself here, Session 2 reviews here, and Session 3 here.

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Things to Say When I See You in Person ★★★★

She (Andy Mackinnon) is an artist, he (Matthew McGoldrick) is a charity worker. She’s left at home whilst he is abroad, working in some far-flung country for months. It means their only communication is by phone, and even that is proving difficult, leaving them to resort to unsatisfactory, long, rambling voice messages. It is via these messages that she first confesses her concerns and jealousy, worried he is seeing someone else, not just now but also before he left. In return, his voicemail is equally as confessional, as he admits his worries back to her.

Nayib Jean Baptiste’s writing beautifully eases us through the stages of the phone calls. What at first appears to be two lovers separated and simply missing one another becomes a confession of jealousy and mistrust and then more.

Considering this is a play that consists almost entirely of people leaving voicemail, it’s still remarkably visual. Clever stage management by director Valerie Mo has both parties on stage at all times, which means that when he is leaving his message, we get to watch her reactions as she listens. Mckinnon’s performance is especially strong, her facial expressions during his phone calls adding enough to tell us her thoughts.

Things to Say is a clever little play that has the perfect blend of writing, directing and acting, and promises much from all involved.

Written by: Nayib Jean Baptiste
Directed by: Valerie Mo
Cast: Andy MacKinnon, Matthew McGoldrick

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In Good Time ★★★

AI is another topic that unsurprisingly makes an appearance during the festival, here in the amusing In Good Time. Writer Claire Watt has taken things to the extreme, where every single aspect of our life is managed by our individual Alexa. Our lives are fully controlled, with our consent; woken up at precisely the same time every morning, what to wear, how long to take doing each task, and even what to say on a phone call to mum.

However, when Peter (Tom Terry) is directed down a rather unusual route to the train station, he meets Lisa (Emily Brandon), a woman who has taken herself off-grid, which means as far as AI is concerned, Lisa and her home no longer exist.

In Good Time delves into the debate about how much we are allowing our lives to be controlled by AI, and does a good job exploring it in a fun and interesting way. In this short form, it does at times struggle to fit everything in; there are some plotting issues and moments where the pacing feels slightly awry, but nothing that distracts from what is a promising piece of writing. Director Samuel Smithson keeps it all flowing along, but maybe could have been a bit braver with a few decisions, especially the one to have Terry walking on the spot way too much – there’s nothing wrong with taking an actor off stage and back again to show he has moved on.

This is certainly another play that suggests there is a longer story to be made from this idea.

Written by: Claire Watt
Directed by: Samuel Smithson
Cast: Emily Brandon, Tom Terry

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Leander Lost ★★

First off, massive credit to director Katie Kirkpatrick for stepping in as a late actor replacement, made all the more impressive considering there’s even a small dance routine to be tackled!

As well as her bravery in picking up the role of barmaid Nadine to ensure the show goes on, Kirkpatrick also takes some wonderful risks with her direction, starting proceedings from the very back of the auditorium as Leander slowly walks from rear to front whilst they talk, plus some simple use of the large stage space to help separate different scenes.

Writer Sieve Bonaiuti clearly has some grand ideas going on about being different and finding your place to belong, but here those themes struggle to transfer to the stage. Ideas are lost in meandering speeches, whilst the three scenes almost feel like three different stories, with a lack of real cohesion between them all. It’s most likely due to the need to reduce the play down to just 15 minutes, and hopefully if increased time were given to explore what Bonaiuti is trying to say this could grow into something more satisfying.

Written by: Sieve Bonaiuti
Directed by: Katie Kirkpatrick
Cast: Beckett Gray, Yasmin Twomey, Ethan Atkinson

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Ama-gi ★★

There is plenty of mileage to be had from the culture clash between Western society and second generation immigrants, and that is just what Misha Domadia’s Ama-gi attempts to take on. Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite work.

Two daughters and a son gather as they wait for their mother to arrive for Mother’s Day. As they wait, they bicker about where they are in life, and whether this is what their mother would have wanted for them. Interspersed with this are scenes of their mother clearly as a younger woman, allowing us to see what her ambitions were before she had children and scarified her own dreams to allow them to strive for theirs.

Scenes between the siblings feel rushed, words coming way too fast, and therefore becoming unnatural, as if they are trying to force too much into their 15-minute slot. There are also issues of projection as they are talking to one another and not the audience, leaving us feeling a little disconnected from it all. Saying that, the moments we hear from the mother are nicely handled, showing the difference when delivery is more considered and time taken.

These are important and worthwhile themes to explore, so hopefully Domadia can take this away and work out how to approach it in a more successful format.

Written by: Misha Domadia
Directed by: Priya Basra
Cast: Prabjot Sandhu, Sonal Kaur, Vanshika Mitter, Rubayet Al Sherif

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Cars That Drive Us Crazy ★★★★

I have to admit, I’m a little lost about what Vilma Paananen’s Cars That Drive Us Crazy is all about. But sometimes that really doesn’t matter when a show is as enjoyable, bizarre and well-presented as this.

Rue and Gia begin by playing in the dirt, and massive love and respect for the madness and commitment of bringing so much dirt to the theatre for just a 15 minute short! They play as if children; but maybe they are not, their conversation skirting between infantile and adultlike, leaving much open to debate. It then switches to Rue doing a stand-up routine, whilst her phone keeps interrupting her, much to her annoyance, whilst Gia waits her turn to perform her song. The whole just plays madly with your perceptions of what is really going on! But in a good way. It also gets a little meta at times, and you wonder if there is an attempt to make a play within a play here?

Noelle C. Sacher and Olivia McDermott deliver two brilliant performances, the connection between the pair working perfectly, and their work is brought to vivid life by Harriet Taylor’s strong direction.  

This really is one that deserves to be revisited, with more time given to explain what it is Paananen is actually aiming for. And you’d hope that they would do so with the same team, who seem to all be singing the same song, even if we don’t actually get to hear what it is Gia was going to sing for us!

Written by: Vilma Paananen
Directed by: Harriet Taylor
Cast: Noelle C. Sacher, Olivia McDermott