Troubadour Theatre Scratch Night

Guesting last night at Troubadour Theatre’s Worthing Scratch Night at the Charles Dickens pub, featuring a cast of actors performing extracts from seven new plays for writer feedback. Hosted by Lin Robinson.

Drew Rumble by Shari Auldyth
An affectionate pastiche of those 1950s radio thrillers, with great character and accent opportunities for voice artists. Pacey and entertaining.

Purgatory by Beth Bayes
A young ex-couple still live together – and it’s that awkward and pivotal moment where the new girlfriend and the ex meet. Natural dialogue and flawed characters.

Result by Sarah Agnew
Crisis for a quirky set of colleagues at a failing lads’ mag. Want to know what happens next!

The Bench by Crayford Howard
All those memorial park benches have their back stories and secrets – what if you discover your mother’s?!

Bite by Rebecca Frew
Two women gearing up for a Gothic themed hen night in a comedy short with a little twist (no spoilers!).

Inrush by Norman Miller
A small coastal community is gradually being consumed by the sea. Great role for an elder actress especially, in this full length play.

Enemy of the State by Jacqueline Bayes
A look at coercive control and Draconian powers in extreme times – a sense of menace and helplessness in the face of the law and at home.

Good to see so much happening at this new monthly event for writers and actors in Worthing, and we’re looking forward to more.

Philippa Hammond

(Pics: Thomas Everchild)

The Tower

Written by Emma Kelly
Directed by Debbie Fitzgerald
Choreography Charlie Hendren
Projections A/B Smith, aka Boblete
Wild Elk Productions

In a future where climate change has caused catastrophic flooding, pockets of humanity survive huddled together for refuge.

A trio of actor dancers tell this tale of four generations of women, at its heart Toni, a young girl born after it all happened and at first uncomprehending as to why a mother would want to create new life into this disaster.

Isabella McCarthy Sommerville is physical, emotional and resolute, flowing through the adored child clinging to all she’s ever known, the adolescent justifiably angry at everything, until as in all the best hero’s journeys she has no choice, she must move on. The young woman striking out alone, the growing adapting woman, the mother, the elder having to move on again in this fluent world.

Sarah Widdas is mother’s love personified, always there, supporting, pushing, advising, Toni’s light in the dark. There’s a dreadful memory of assault defeated performed with visceral power, and the sense that as long as she’s needed, she’s there.

Lorraine Yu gives strength and resolve, the abandoned child creating a flawed new world from nothing with all the weight of a community on her shoulders, singing and playing (is it a fishing rod? Bow and arrows? No – an intriguing one string instrument) gradually coming out of her spiky armour plating to reach out and learn.

It’s a story of all our lives and a possible future, and for anyone who’s ever let themselves say goodbye, the final moments are very moving.

Simply staged with lights, soundscape and watery projections, in a venue drenched with sea history, the show could travel all round the coast to communities where the water is an ever present element of their livelihoods, and perhaps now a new threat?

A last thought … The Day of the Triffids begins with strange lights in the sky and the appearance of mysterious plants. As I left the Old Net Loft, Brighton Fishing Museum venue, stepping straight onto the seafront looking at the dark sea and the lights of the wind farm on the horizon under a strange green sky that was the beginning of the Aurora Borealis night, I thought about the QR code that carries the programme for The Tower, printed on a little card…
embedded with mystery seeds…

Philippa Hammond
May 2024

Sussex Playwrights reviews:
The Ministry of Biscuits
By Brian Mitchell and Philip Reeve

‘Stop! Think before you eat that biscuit!
Is it in any way fancy?
If so, then you are a criminal!’

Twenty something years ago, two chaps sat in a Brighton cafe and started to spin a musical tale of a shy, innocent young biscuit designer with a vision and a crush – and the Ministry of Biscuits was born. It travelled to Edinburgh, where The Stage called it ‘top-hole musical comedy’. Now it’s back for a second freshly polished revival; something different for Christmas, and a tour to follow.

It’s set perhaps somewhere in the grey decade between the end of WW2 and the birth of rock & roll – Spitfires are a fairly recent memory, though there’s no rationing, the Russians are a threat and all foreigners faintly suspect, so it’s hard to tell. Think Salad Days meets Brazil, with a nod to Ealing comedy style.

The show captures that pompous old world authority-mocking we used to see in Dad’s Army, Monty Python and the Goon Show, when ministers wore tailcoats and Bakelite still ruled.

The cast play and sing live in the Brighton production, and there will be additional backing track support on the tour. The Lantern Theatre felt rather small for the production – I’d love to see it expand, and the news that it will come to Brighton Open Air Theatre next year is an intriguing prospect.

Co-writer and composer Brian Mitchell’s bluff Machiavellian minister delivers a Gilbert & Sullivanesque turn, while Dave Mounfield’s flashy conman spinning tales of not quite true wartime exploits plus mad costume changes sparked real rich-tea-stuffed-in-mouth hysteria moments.

Amy Sutton and Murray Simon are a delight, singing clever, wistful and stirring little odes to love and loyalty, Britishness, betrayal and biscuits with delicate charm and heartwarming silliness.

Look out for the original pastiche public information film by Ben Rivers.

Philip Reeve’s science fiction novel Mortal Engines is about to get the Peter Jackson big screen treatment – we can’t wait!

The Ministry of Biscuits is on at The Lantern Theatre Rock Place, Kemptown until December 30th, with a UK tour to follow.

Philippa Hammond

Details, dates and ticket information