One (very long) drama festival night down, two to go

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UPDATED:
1530 26 February 2011

In the original version of this post, I suggested that the adjudicator, Ron Cattell, had declined to appear on BBC Radio Orkney in the mornings, to summarize each night of the festival. It has been pointed out to me that this was not, in fact, the case, and that it was Radio Orkney's decision to have Sam Turner report on the festival. Sorry about that! (I have amended the text below to remove the error.)
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SCDA Orkney District One-Act Play Festival
Orkney Arts Theatre, Kirkwall
Wed 23 - Fri 25 February 2011, at 7pm

The Festival got off to a great start last night, with 3 good performances, from Palace Players Youth, Stromness Drama Club (Hamnavoe), and St Andrews Drama Club. I only have time for a few comments about the first night before heading out to watch the second night - so here goes!

I am not a big Harry Glass fan, so I was a bit apprehensive when I realised that both the first and third plays were by written by Glass (I Thought Cabbage Was Green, and Agnes, respectively). In the event, I enjoyed both performances very much (despite what I thought were poor scripts, with material that was very unoriginal and dated for plays written in the 90s and noughties). I was particulaly impressed by the quality of the performances, and the good team work, displayed by the young actors in I Thought Cabbage Was Green. I also liked the excellent set, and the gung ho performance by by Bruce Omand as Joe, in Agnes.

The meat between the Harry Glass bread in the first night sandwich was Topsyturvydom, by W.S Gilbert. I have to admit that I may have been biased in favour of this production because my 2 oldest children appeared in it (Kathy Hunter as Tipto, the Queen Grandmother; and Thomas Hunter as Wilkins, a Servant): I thought they and all the cast did a grand job under director David Fidler's expert direction (but I have to mention especially Gareth Crichton's excellent performance as Mr Satis). There was a lot of difficult-to-get-across language in the play, and some daunting technical challenges, but I thought they did really well. The thing that struck me most about this production (along with the absurd set) was the very good casting of actors of appropriate age and phyisical appearance to some challenging roles.

The main downside of the night was its sheer length! This was principally due to a public adjudication by Ron Cattell which stretched out until around 10.45pm. I am trying to maintain an open mind about the adjudicator, but I must say I felt that there was more quantity than quality in much of what he said on the first night! On the plus side, Mr Cattell had clearly made a big effort to find out about the plays he was to watch, and to work out what he was looking for, and made clear early on how he intends to approach his task. To try to make sense of each night's proceedings, you could do no better than to listen to Sam Turner's reports each morning on BBC Radio Orkney (his first, on Thursday morning, was a very skilled summary of the evening). I may not post updates after each evening this year - there is so much else going on! - but I will post a round up here on Saturday or Sunday.

In the meantime, if you are performing or assisting any of the productions, I wish you the very best of luck, and hope that everything goes as well for you as you are hoping!