Review: A PROMENADE OF SHORTS 2 at Holden Street Theatres

Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Thursday 12th January 2023.

In early 2020, Red Phoenix had been faced with the challenge, like all local theatre companies, of only being permitted a maximum of 20 widely spaced people in an audience. This seemed financially unviable. A Promenade of Shorts was born out of necessity. The company came up with the very clever idea of having the three venues at Holden Street theatres each hosting 20 well-separated people, a total of 60, making it just about financially possible to cover costs, if it worked. It did. It not only worked, but it was a huge success. Added to this, the rehearsal period was only three weeks, helping to avoid COVID amongst the people involved by limiting the amount of contact time between them.

In October 2020, each of the three areas, The Studio, The Arch, and The Box Bar, hosted three short plays, with the divided audience moving from venue to venue, seeing nine plays in total. After seeing each set of three plays, there was an interval. The company has been repeatedly asked when it will do it again.

By public demand, therefore, they have now repeated the concept in A Promenade of Shorts 2, presenting another nine short plays around the three venues. As before, they are incredibly diverse. What was born out of necessity, a desperate measure to keep performing in the most trying of times, looks like becoming a regular mini-festival, at least, I certainly hope so.

On arrival, there was time to chat, interact with the roving performers, listen to the musicians, and, if inclined, have a drink or two. With the audience having been divided into three groups, we each moved to our first venue. For me, it was the Box Bar. After a break, The Studio was next, then, after another break, The Arch. In the Box Bar, all three works were directed by Joh Hartog, who was a regular director at the now-closed Bakehouse Theatre. He brings considerable experience to the plays.

Jane Anderson's, The Last Time We Saw Her, features Lyn Wilson as Fran, a senior manager, as she attempts to come out to her insensitive boss, Hunter, played by Geoff Revell. Her partner is tired of being referred to by the secretary as "the flatmate", and Fran wants to bring things out into the open with her staff in order to clear the air. She felt that she should inform her boss of her intentions before acting. hunter, though denying it at every turn, is conservative, misogynistic, and racist, and doesn't want her to reveal her sexuality. There is dark humour in their conflict, with Wilson and Revell creating some convincing characters and powerful interaction.

Joyce Grenfell wrote and performed a considerable number of very funny monologues and one of my great favourites, from 1958, was Nursery School - Free Activity Period, sometimes known as George, Don't Do That! She wrote a series of related monologues: Nursery School - Flowers, - Going Home Time, - Nativity Play, - Sing Song Time, and - Story Time, all of which are great fun. Perhaps we'll see these others in future Promenades of Shorts. Jolly hockey sticks, Free Activity Period was recreated here by Emily Branford. Branford didn't try to blatantly emulate Joyce Grenfell, nobody could ever be quite like Joyce. Branford gave it her own fine interpretation, bringing the audience into her performance by targeting individuals when delivering lines to each of the, normally unseen, unruly children.

Uma Incrocci's A Hot Brick takes us back a century, to Washington. Passed by Congress on 4th June 1919, and ratified on 18th August 1920, the 19th amendment to the constitution granted women the right to vote. We meet two women outside the White House, campaigning ahead of this time. Women campaigned from 1917 until 1919 when they were given the right to vote. The campaigners were known as the Silent Sentinels, standing silently, holding their placards demanding the vote. Dora, Petra Schulenburg, has been doing it for a long time, but Nellie, Finty McBain, is new to the campaign. Nellie hasn't quite caught on to the 'silent' part of being a Silent Sentinel, and attempts to engage Dora in conversation, distracted by the thought of a friend's party that she wishes to attend. Schulenburg's Dora is resolute, but is kind to McBain's wavering Nellie, enlightening her and gaining her full support for the cause. They are a great pairing.

In The Studio, the first two pieces were directed by Nick Fagan, and the third by Hayley Horton, with two comedies on either side of a drama.

The Processional, written by Robert D. Kemnitz and Jennifer McMaster, is the wedding rehearsal for Dillon and Fay, Jackson Barnard and Laura Antoniazzi. The pastor, Rebecca Kemp, is insisting on going through it yet once more, as the evening drags on and the happy couple, and their attendants, Jarod and Jacki, Tom Tassone and Brittany Gallasch, are desperately hoping it will soon be over so that they can catch up with their friends, who already out to dinner and waiting for them. Kemp's highly unconventional pastor, Barnard and Antoniazzi as the couple with peculiar ideas, and Tassone and Gallasch as their equally odd attendants, make for a very funny bit of situation comedy, but it is the two readings from the bible that are chosen for the wedding that will have you in stitches.

Confession, by Conrad Bishop and Elizabeth Fuller, is the most serious drama of the evening. Raymond, the killer of a boy, played by Stuart Pearce, is interrogated by a detective, played by John Rosen, while a new stenographer, played by Joanne St. Clair, sits alongside, appalled by everything that she is hearing, and expected to record. Pearce is eerily cool as the killer, and Rosen rages at his prisoner's calm, while St. Clair shows a growing distaste as the stenographer in a powerful performance.

Rebissa, an artist, Claire Keen, cannot pay her rent and so, without discussing it with her new boyfriend, Vanda, Nick Fagan, she agrees to have a microchip inserted in her head in, The Chip, by Michael Higgins. We are all familiar with the algorithms on FaceBook where one mention of a topic, or an idle search for something, opens up a flood of advertisements in the news feed. This chip is triggered in a similar way, generating an income for her whenever it responds, with hilarious results thanks to the precise comic timing of Keen and Fagan.

Finally, in the Arch, we were presented with another three varied pieces, all directed with skill by Libby Drake.

Captain Rockets Versus the Inter-Galactic Brain Eaters, written by Don Nigro, takes place on the set of a 1950s low-budget, live-to-air, television series for children, Captain Rockets and his Intergalactic Ranger Brigade. The show has just been cancelled. The aging alcoholic actor playing Captain Rockets appears to have lost touch with reality, and is worried about the invasion of the Squid People of Betelgeuse, which he thinks is actually happening. Ed, the announcer, Malcolm Walton, introduces the episode and the Captain's attractive assistant, Luna, Cheryl Douglas, tries to keep the broadcast on tack as he strays ever further from the script. Bobby the Space Boy has already quit and taken another job, so Irving Kurtzman, far past the description of a 'boy', played by Jack Robins, takes over the role for this last episode, but the Captain thinks that he is one of the alien invaders. The four performers generate plenty of laughter in this absurdist comedy.

Tom Moran's Breakout introduces four people who work for Edumax, developers of educational materials for schools, who have been tasked with attending a brainstorming session to find ways in which it could be made a better workplace for employees. Three of them, played by Anita Zamberlan Canala, Rosie Williams, and James Fazzalari, are taken aback by the fourth member, who introduces herself simply as 'Claw', played by Sharon Malujlo. Their superior, Mr. Anderson, played by Russell Slater, explains that the company has diversified, and that 'Claw' is from a section of which the others were previously unaware. The three conventional members of the group have remarkably different reactions to Claw, the actors giving solid performances, but it is Malujlo's Claw that steals the show.

In David Miller's, Brian's Got Talent, Brian, played by Jack Robins, a singer/guitarist in his 60s, is about to audition for Britain's Got Talent. Why anybody would put themselves through that, just to appear on an over-hyped talent contest, eludes me, but there it is. His wife, Mary, Jenny Allan, is helping him to pass the waiting hours. As she sits by his side, their conversation drifts towards their life together, and what has led him to this audition. There is a strong rapport between them in this gently romantic piece.

There are a large group of people helping with sound, lights, stage management, costumes, props, sets, and more, too numerous to mention, but you'll find them all listed in the programme when you collect your tickets.

Once again, Red Phoenix has turned on an evening packed with little gems that is not to be missed. It is a smorgasbord of talented people doing what they love, and you'll love what they are doing.

An eclectic collection of nine short works makes for a great night out, and then there are the entertaining intervals, too, so it just doesn't let up for a moment. Red Phoenix has found a winning formula with their Festival of Shorts idea and, as usual, I advise booking very quickly if you have not already done so, because it is sure to sell out.

Don't miss the two full-length plays, The Suicide, a Russian satire, and Cyprus Avenue, an absurdist comedy, coming up later in the season. The Suicide opens on 25th May, and Cyprus Avenue on 19th October. Be sure to book as soon as you can.

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