Review of UoN Fringe: PROJECT 25 by Unorthodox Theatre Collaborations at The Platform, Northampton

This production from Unorthodox Theatre Collaborations is a curious one to review, as I didn't see all of it. PROJECT 25 you see is an immersive, interactive play, where we the audience become very much part of the emerging story.

We are introduced, after being name-checked and tagged, to The Platform, a pharmaceutical company that has come up with the perfect drug that could save the health care system. Or so they say.

The play launches with a smart little-choreographed routine from the cast (and some extra actors), which culminates in company staff member Amy Brown (Jemma Bentley) being sacked and expelled from the building. As Bentley is a cast member, we, of course, know that her return will happen, but in what form?

Bobbie-Lee Scott

After this neat and impactful opening, we are led into another room and presented with a glossy and technically impressive launch from the company team Pandora Pearson (Bobbie-Lee Scott) and James Van Laren (Daniel Peace). Following this, we are subjected to a screening to check our eligibility, and this is when this show is turned on its head.

Daniel Peace

We have all been issued with numbers and as number 94, I and six others in the audience are expelled from the building to be taken home in a car.

What happens now, is a complete split in the show, as us, the lucky few, become part of a splinter group and we meet outside in the street, Amy Brown again, who has now become undercover agent Sam Carter (not of the Stargate SG1 kind though).

Jemma Bentley

Now, just in case this show happens again (which I hope that it does), to say more about the plot would be a spoiler. However, the branch of the play that I was taken on was an intriguing one and very well staged considering the open nature of the piece.

The main actors involved in my section, Bentley, Dean Adams as Tom Knox and Joe Conroy as Scott Bentley kept the drama going, while Bentley and Adams kept a nice playful edge to their buddy partnership. It was great fun, and some really inventive interactive theatre that harked back to 2016's Flash Festival shows The Hold Up and The End, but upping the interaction element, certainly in my section.

Dean Adams

So, what happened to the other audience members while we were running around George's Row and Bridge Street? They must have had a show as well, and this is where it was a shame that I didn't get another chance to see the show. I got a play, most certainly, but the area of mystery remains of what happened on the other side.

Joe Conroy

Project 25 was for me, the best of The Fringe shows this year, not based on the acting as such (however, it was excellent throughout), but on the ambition and invention involved. This was challenging theatre for both its audience and of course those creating it. There was some excellent tech involved with the show, carefully staged sequences, and superb timing. Ambitious, clever and just simply brilliant.

Performance reviewed: Sunday 25th March 2018 at The Platform, Northampton.

The UoN Fringe ran between Friday 23rd and Monday 26th March 2018.

Review of Cluedo 2 at Milton Keynes Theatre

Back in 2022, the original Cluedo stage play, based on a 1985 play by Sandy Rustin, itself based on the cult US film Clue , journeyed to Milton Keynes Theatre as part of a UK tour. It was, it has to be said, an average affair, made good by some excellent staging and at times a very fair tribute to the original board game. Now two years later, the success of that tour clearly warranted a return to the franchise and we find Cluedo 2 now on stage at Milton Keynes Theatre. So, is a follow-up warranted, and does it address many of the issues of the original? Let's find out. Unlike the original and with no film source material to create a second play from, legendary TV comedy writers Maurice Gran and Lawrence Mark have taken the helm to provide the script for this production. Sadly, the legendary writers have for the best part plowed through their archives of extremely dated, and tiresome comedy. Much of the script is heavy on the obvious, high on the cringe, and while at times it can

Review of Unexpected Twist at Royal & Derngate (Royal), Northampton

This new stage adaptation by Roy Williams of Michael Rosen's Unexpected Twist is a very important piece of theatre. Much like a pantomime's appeal, this special little production could be key to a lifetime of theatre activity for young people who experience it. The production, directed by James Dacre, ticks so many of the boxes to make this interesting for them, talk of mobile phones, streetwise kids at the stories centre, R&B, and beatboxing. It is as down with the kids and as cool as any Royal & Derngate Made in Northampton production I have seen and in arrangement with The Children's Theatre Partnership this is something very special. Not to say that this show is just for kids, as this is as much for grown-ups as well. Rosen's story takes Charles Dickens Oliver Twist , and wait for it, twists a new story from it while linking brilliantly to the trials of life and families in 2023. You see, every modern character in this story sees their world collide with a

Review of Go Down Swinging - A Rehearsed Reading at Royal & Derngate (Underground), Northampton

I found myself picked out and targeted on Twitter as to whether I would be available and like to see this very first reading of new play Go Down Swinging . Happily, as it turns out it was my free night as this was a truly excellent night, with both an impressive new play and an equally great post-show discussion (almost an hour!). I remained silent as is my tradition at the discussion, I am a writer, not a talker and like to sleep on thoughts as well about shows before putting fingers to keyboard. Dan McGarry Go Down Swinging is a loose telling of the true story of Venezuelan world champion boxer Edwin Valero, a man of both successes but one troubled in life outside the ring resulting in it being very short. This play transfers the setting to the UK and Valero has become boxer Karl Johnson (played in this reading by writer Dan McGarry). Miriam Grace Edwards This at its heart is a play about domestic violence, although it's neat trick is that throughout it remains very

A Small Mind At The Theatre

Search This Blog