After the last night of The Legend of Deadrock Manor (December 2005)people said "how will you follow that?" The Answer - 'May Contain Nuts!'.
Our July production consisted of 2 shows, one designed to be performed outdoors as well as in the theatre and both were devised & produced by the company. After weeks of workshops and improvisations we had scripts and a show! The 'show' consisted mainly of 2 stories. The first was Lex's Story and the second Henry's Story. Both stories were concerned with people trying to write stories and Henry's Story (simply called 'May Contain Nuts' on tour) was performed at 2 outdoor venues as well as the theatre. On the Saturday night a third sketch was performed by 3 of the group who had been away on a school trip and had therefore been unable to join in with the other shows.
Lex's Story
The plot centred around Lex, who has homework. Which of course she is intending to get finished before dinner is ready. So, with half an hour to go, can Lex call on enough inspiration to get her story started, let alone completed? The answer appears to be 'no'. But, luckily for Lex, her resourceful and imaginative guardians are on the case…
What was Henry's Story about?
The following was the explanation we offered on the programme:
This show is very, very silly and has been devised with outdoor, festival performances in mind. So, that's our excuse and there's nothing you can do about it. You may as well disengage all intelligent and analytical thought processes and sink into a mindless trance-like state for 40 minutes or so. If you feel the urge to giggle, or even snigger, please don't suppress it, we won't think badly of you. However, if you could manage a chortle or two, that would be better.
For those of you in need of a plot synopsis I can tell you that our hero, Henry, is trying to write a story. Actually, he has a rather fertile mind. It's just that despite his best efforts to stay with safe, mundane story-lines, where he can save reasonably attractive girls from domestic crises, he has absolutely no control over it at all. In fact Henry's imagination runs away with him. Together, and in the company of a few friendly pirates, they go on a perilous mission to find treasure. And then there is Jane, who refuses to be enslaved in the kitchen of Henry's mind any longer … and Doris, eager to be chased by more runaway wheelie bins… I told you it was silly.
(I don't think it helped anyone understand what was happening.)
We had a great reception to 'Nuts' in the theatre, at the 'Big Youth Theatre Festival (where we played to a capacity audience) and at Nozstock and were delighted to find that people thought it was very funny! Read our excellent review published in the local Bromyard publication 'Off the Record' below.
Stef - Victoria Stack
Jess - Mary Ann Wall
Molly - Bethanie Evans
(From the programme)
Lex - Steph Street
Sparkle - Beth Flathers
Orphilia - Jo Handley
Professor - Alex Matthews
Doctor - Alex Cofield
Sweetie - Miranda Phillips
Artie - Liam Stobart
Speed - Timmy Oliver
Pep - Nicola Barlow
Lissy - Lucy Parker
Song chosen, arranged and sung by Jo Handley
Sound Effects by Liam Stobart, Timmy Oliver & Miranda Phillips
An important note about the Teddy Bears:
For all 'action sequences' specially trained Stunt Teddies were employed. No Teddies were harmed or mistreated during this show. In fact, they rather enjoyed the excitement of it all.
(I bet you wished you'd seen this now...)
(From the programme)
Josh Herriott plays Henry & Johnny
Scarlett O'Donnell plays Jane & A Montague
Joe Rolt plays Boris (Jane's bro), Mercutio, Barney McBoz the Hopeless Pirate, The Mysterious Old Woman & Dracula
Jake Hafer plays Bill (Jane's other bro), Romeo & Jonathan Harker
Josh Raven plays Brian de Bergerac, The Cave Monster, A Screaming Furry & Van Helsing
Ellie Scott plays Juliet, A Montague, Bootleg/Doris, A Screaming Furry & Poppy
Emma Gibbons plays Juliet & Bootleg/Doris
Ben Marshall plays Romeo, A Pirate & Speaking Statue
Angharad Smith plays A Montague, Black Hearted Lil & Daisy
Abby Regan plays Smeek
Helen Albert plays A Pirate, A Screaming Furry & Mina Harker
Scenery & other parts are played by the company (I just can't be bothered to list everything they do, sorry)
When we perform our 2 outdoor shows Matt Oliver will play Bill and Jonathan Harker and Grace Parker will play Juliet and Smeek
(From the programme)
Ollie Edgar plays The Stage Manager
Hugh Farey plays The Lighting Designer
Barbara Hockley plays The Director/Designer
Jim Rolt plays the person who is really good at blowing stuff up, supplying phone rings & other stuff
Emma Gibbons plays the artist who creates the amazing poster
Alison Stobart plays the person who gets costumes together
The set was assembled from an instant-do-it-yourself-blow-up-set kit by Jim Rolt, Barbara Hockley & Hugh Farey.
Both shows were devised and generally put together by the company. No one person is to blame.
BIG thanks to: Members of the cast and their families for providing the various items hanging, lying & being thrown around the set.
Hugh Farey and St Richards for loaning us a bed and the trolley of wonderful scientific gizmos I wish we could keep.
Jenny, Ann & Judith in the costume dept.
Everyone who took the time & trouble to publicise the show with posters, leaflets & word of mouth or contributed in any other way
Front of House & Box Office Staff
The Conquest Youth Theatre has done it again. The 7th and 8th of July saw them all involved in three short plays, two devised by the cast, which were witty, sparkling and fresh - the hallmark we have come to expect of this ever-developing group.
All three shows were set in a bedroom, with a bed, teddies, and that mysterious collection of odds and ends hanging from the walls and ceiling that you find in a bedroom, which only really make sense to its owner. In the first sketch (Sisterly Love by Peg Kehret, directed by Angharad Smith) the room belonged to three sisters, two of whom (Victoria Stack and Mary Ann Wall) ganged up on the third (Bethanie Evans), who manged to hold her own so effectively that before long they all went off happily together again. The play had movement, pace and energy, and settled us in comfortably for the next one.
Lex's Story (by the younger members of the Youth Theatre) and Henry's Story (by the older ones) were based on brain-storming improvisation sessions over the earlier part of last term, in which more or less anybody could decide to do anything, the ideas then very skillfully threaded together into coherent pieces by director Barbara Hockley, so that although the audience frequently felt sanity slipping away, we were always gently and wittily led back to comprehension before losing it completely.
Both stories began with homework, Lex (Steph Street) and Henry (Josh Herriott) groping rather feebly for ideas. Into their respective vacuums gradually poured increasingly unlikely manifestations of their subconscious, and eventually some sort of order prevailed. Lex, in the end, couldn't cope with them all and concluded, in time honoured style, "and then she woke up" while Henry's rather more involved plot resolved itself by his self-discovery that the girl of his dreams was somebody quite different from the one he'd originally fancied. To list all the characters would fill a book, but in the first play I particularly liked a brightly-bow-tied doctor (Alex Cofield), a Bloomsbury darling (Miranda Phillips), and a Bohemian artist (Liam Stobart), athough there was some excellent ensemble work from the whole cast. There was also a wonderful trolley of bubbling scientific apparatus, the meaning of which was clearly... um...
Henry's Story gave us Brian de Bergerac, a musketeer-like Frenchman with a long nose played by Josh Raven, two Juliets pining for their Romeos, sword-fights, pirates (including the feisty Black-Hearted Lil - Angharad Smith, and the gormless but sensitive Barney McBoz - Joe Rolt), vampires, monsters, speaking statues, three old ladies who had apparently escaped from Monty Python and even the shark from Jaws. As the story took off with a mind of its own, Henry's girl (Scarlett O'Donnell) found herself increasingly sidelined, and reduced to yelling, "What about me? Why aren't I a sexy pirate?" while the quiet Doris (Emma Gibbons/Ellie Scott), albeit sporting a big black moustache, revealed herself as Henry's true love, sneaking into his story just to be with him, even if it meant walking the plank together.
With the minimum of furniture but a a huge assortment of personal props, this play cracked along with all the energy needed to take the play on a successful tour, and I know that it will be very well received at Gilwell Park, the Big Youth Theatre Festival, and at Nozstock on the 22 July. Good Luck, Young Conquest!
This review appeared in the August 2006 edition of 'Off the Record'
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