The Salon: Collective are a grassroots group of artists that offer classes, workshops and produce work. United by American practitioner Sanford Meisner’s post-Stanislavskian technique, they have amassed a network of actors, teachers, directors and writers dedicated to supporting each other’s creative development. Monorogue is one of their latest endeavours, an evening of new writing linked by a prominent central theme. This month’s is Seven Deadly Sins, chaired by a judge and voted ‘guilty’ or ‘not guilty’ by the audience jury. It’s a simple, effective format that allows actors to showcase characterisation skills and develop their writing, with a clear through line that makes it feel like more of a production than a showcase. Potential for variation in style and tone make this new writing night worth catching again.

John Jesper has created Judge Frank Goody, an east London geezer who blagged his way to the top of the courts. Whether or not it’s intentional, the character is a powerful comment on contemporary judicial corruption as he orders a trio of prostitutes between acts, drinks and falls asleep. He is supported in court by religious fundamentalist PD Callie Carter (written and performed by Rachel Stoneley) who killed her husband for committing sins against God and marriage. These two characters provide much needed levity in between more serious characters, though some of the people we encounter are more amusingly bizarre than encountered in real life.

Of the seven sinners on trial, the most interesting stories belong to Angela Harvey’s Mel, a business woman obsessed with the homeless man who camps out near her work, and the reverend who tirelessly fundraisers not for her church, but for local poor people. Helen Rose-Hampton’s character is easily forgiven by the audience even though she lost her job. These two feel like they could be central characters of bigger stories. The others are mostly fine, but only one of the seven didn’t work particularly well. Wrath is embodied by a Sun reader cracking formulaic jokes akin to a stand-up set culminating in a display of aggression that isn’t worthy of the sinful qualification.

The full theatre has a strong moral compass but one that is easily swayed by the grotesque. Almost unanimously condemning Edmund (Kim Hardy) for being in a consensual feeder relationship with Tammy and making a living through amateur porn, they then decide the young wife disappointed with her post-mastectomy boob job is free of pride. Neither is breaking any law, but the socially taboo is condemned in this arena. It makes for a social experiment that’s as interesting as it is a piece of theatre.

This new writing showcase and scratch night is certainly a unique one in its polish and format. Though each one so far has had a distinct theme and some will be more effective than others, it makes for a fun, interactive night out and a great showcase of emerging talent.

Monorogue: Seven Deadly Sins ran for 1 night only.

The Play’s the Thing UK is committed to covering fringe and progressive theatre in London and beyond. It is run entirely voluntarily and needs regular support to ensure its survival. For more information and to help The Play’s the Thing UK provide coverage of the theatre that needs reviews the most, visit its patreon.

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Tate and Max live in Tate’s nan’s flat above The Bedford pub in Balham. They’re awkward, posh boys with little life experience, though they’d like to believe otherwise. When Tate brings Billie, a woman twice their age who falls in the pub, upstairs to get cleaned up, her carefree spirit captivates the two lads. Billie rents their spare room, resulting in learning experiences for the three and their travelling housemate who returns unannounced. In Matilda Curtis’ first full-length play, there’s an interesting premise but the follow through is weak. With underdeveloped and underplayed characters, the full potential for both comedy and conflict is present, but Curtis sticks too close to the mundanity of real life, preventing the idea from developing into a truly compelling story.

Of the cast of four, Dan Furlonger as socially inept to the point of autistic Tate is excellent. Furlonger captures Tate’s emotional turmoil and various levels of discomfort with empathy and ease, and he has a more pronounced journey than the others. Curtis has invested more depth and internal conflict in the character. In contrast, Billie has the potential to be a disruptive, life changing force for better or worse, but this power is denied her. Denise Stephenson does her best to inject the character with life, but the noncommittal, conversational dialogue lacks punch. Laddish Max is a dull stereotype with little emotional depth, and Evie (sensitively played by Adele James) is also not provided with the opportunity for profound change. The lack of character development and mostly flat narrative arc is incredibly frustrating, but easily changed with a script overhaul.

Director Grace Joseph uses the irregularly-shaped room well, and her set has some lovely details that accurately reflect a posh nan’s flat that hasn’t changed in decades. She has a good instinct for pace and timing in naturalistic work, but the final sequence feels forced – though this could be a script issue as well.

Expectations shows good potential; Joseph is a competent early-career director with a good instinct for space and casting. Curtis clearly has good ideas, but her execution needs refining. It’s a good attempt from emerging artists, but not a great one.

Expectations runs through 28th July.

The Play’s the Thing UK is committed to covering fringe and progressive theatre in London and beyond. It is run entirely voluntarily and needs regular support to ensure its survival. For more information and to help The Play’s the Thing UK provide coverage of the theatre that needs reviews the most, visit its patreon.

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“War has changed, but it’s effect on generations of women hasn’t,” writes Sarah Berger, founder and artistic director of So & So Arts Club. Military history is mostly dominated by men, but Sally Hayton-Keeva gives voice to disregarded but valid female experiences of conflict. Valiant Women in War and Exile is her collection of stories spanning the generations of global conflict from El Salvador to Germany to the Philippines. Adapted for the stage by Lanna Joffrey, Valiant interweaves verbatim monologues that director Alexandra Rensetti places on a bare stage with intermittent textual projections. It’s so simple, but fantastic performances by four multi-rolling actors and a script that’s equally riveting and horrifying serves to educate, advocate and protest. This production is a vital contribution to women’s history, giving voice to those ignored in favour of patriarchal experiences of human suffering in times of war.

Lanna Joffrey, Diana Bermudes, Catherine Fowles and Gemma Clough each play several characters, at least three or four each. As impressive as their work is, much credit is due to their accent coaches, Joy Lanceta and Nicola Redman. There were hardly any lapses in accent and the actors integrated them in their performance rather than be inhibited by them. 

All text is delivered to the audience in a first-person narrative. Sometimes this is a lengthy section by one person, other parts are fragmented and shared to emphasise shared experience. These women are wholly uncensored and overflowing with emotion, whether that is violence towards the Nazis by the youngest ever Russian sniper, passion from a radical Afghani teacher teaching her students revolutionary poetry, or the numb devastation of a Northern Irish wife who watched her husband and daughter die in a car bomb. There are so many more, each as powerful and moving as the next. The pain and torture these women have endured is incomprehensible to most people, as is their strength. The actors’ ability to evoke empathy through complete commitment to these women and their stories gives this production its power.

Renzetti’s direction is simple and uses large text blocks of projection to add visual variation, but the actors acknowledgement of it before speaking unnecessarily breaks character. Joffrey’s script is a relentless barrage, but It should be – it drives the message home again and again. These stories are not isolated across space and time, they are everywhere. The amount of women introduced in the short space of time reinforces that women and children are often neglected in the wake of stories of wartime male heroism and that history’s narrative must change.

There is little to fault in this production and its message is loud and clear. If only Valiant were required viewing for politicians the world over who grunt and preen in luxurious, remote palaces like overweight performing monkeys, perhaps they may learn that war has an unimaginable but very real impact on the 99 percent. Soldier casualties are clear, mostly male numbers thrown about in political rhetoric but the often unseen consequences on women and girls must be acknowledged.

 Valiant runs through 31 July.

The Play’s the Thing UK is committed to covering fringe and progressive theatre in London and beyond. It is run entirely voluntarily and needs regular support to ensure its survival. For more information and to help The Play’s the Thing UK provide coverage of the theatre that needs reviews the most, visit its patreon.

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Shakespeare often seems to come in cycles, with several productions of the same play on at once in different venues. At the moment, it’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream though it’s a common summer favourite anyway. With so much competition, individual productions need to distinguish themselves from the rest as well as have a distinctive concept, even if that concept is to stick to tradition. New company Wildcard takes a modern approach to the play and adds quite a bit of music, but a range of performance abilities, homogenous delivery and few unique elements make this production feel like a student or recent graduate production. There is a lack of confidence in the direction and the concept is not new or exciting, apart from the use of music. Though it has some good performances, this production isn’t awful, but is largely forgettable.

Amongst the thirteen actors, a few distinguish themselves from the rest of the company. Natasha Killam is a fantastic Hermia, in love, expressive and fully committed to the role. The hipster has an emo best friend in Helena, who plays the character with a dull indifference. Whilst this makes sense to the character stereotype, it’s boring to watch – though this is likely to be a directorial choice. Peter Dewhurst as a townie Demetrius is also very good, eventually matched by Joshua Leese’s hippie Lysander after Puck drugs him in the forest. As representatives from four distinct social tribes, the likelihood of them being in love in real life, let alone friends, is rather implausible, though. A sulking Helena dressed all in black in love with a polo shirted, jumper round the shoulders, Demetrius? Really? This is another of director James Meteyard’s inexperienced and unjustified decisions. 

The most inspired casting is Theseus and Oberon as a woman (both played by Abi McLoughlin), a nice touch but still shows the power imbalance between them and Titania and Hippolyta (Rhiannon Sommers). There are a few female mechanicals (Elly Lowney as Starveling, Christie Peto as Snug and Harriet Ruffer as Quince), which is also great to see. With seven of the thirteen actors women, it goes some way in adding diversity in the entirely white cast of whom nearly all have identical, Home Counties accents and all look to be about the same age. The character types represented are also generally associated with white, middle class people, further showing a blatant lack of diversity in race or social class. Whilst this isn’t an issue in and of itself, it is most definitely a sign of the lack of diversity in theatre.

Some of the lighting design is pretty to look at, though some of the changes are so dramatic that attention is drawn to the lights rather than the performance. There are some pretty strings of fairy lights, but these add to the studenty feel of the piece. There are a couple of retro easy chairs that initially look out of place, but are used well to comedic effect later in the play.

Meteyard tries to further update by adding off-text dialogue and heaps of verbal pauses, Most of which cause the energy and pace to drop. There’s also a lot of slow, even delivery, particularly in the first half, across most of the characters. Fortunately, it picks up up in the lovers’ best scene, which is played well and gets plenty of laughs. He seems to have little experience directing Shakespeare, though he excels with the music. Puck sings most of his monologues, which is really lovely (though why is he in leather trousers, topless and covered in glitter?) and the mechanicals accompany both onstage and off, creating a rich soundscape.

With the music the strongest element of the production, particularly at the end with a delightfully surprising jig, it’s not all pedestrian. But this young company is still very much finding their feet with classical work.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream runs through 23 July.

The Play’s the Thing UK is committed to covering fringe and progressive theatre in London and beyond. It is run entirely voluntarily and needs regular support to ensure its survival. For more information and to help The Play’s the Thing UK provide coverage of the theatre that needs reviews the most, visit its patreon.

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