“Commitment. What a conundrum.”
I’ve written more about the Off Cut Festival in the review of Group 1 and in this post, so in this post, I’ll just cover the shows that were included in the second group of plays. As a collection, it felt that they were slightly more adventurous both in the writing and the direction, unafraid to push the artistic envelope a bit more but with mixed success.
My top three were Two Rings by Louise Taylor, a favourite from the Bloggers evening and one which moved me once again with its mismatched couple of a stroppy young volunteer and an Alzheimer’s-ridden care home resident who find they have so much more in common than they ever dreamed; Wet Dog by Ösp Viggósdóttir was a delightfully surreal adventure with an all-too plausible manipulation of a hapless visitor; and the bizarre MEAT, which was most squirm-inducing yet still managed to intrigue as well. Rebecca Fielding’s Bound was very well received so I wouldn’t be surprised if that made it through but I found it a little dull to be honest.
Performers of note in this grouping were Dave Maybrick’s creepy Butcher, Ellie Dickens’ Ena flicking in and out of heart-breaking lucidity and all of the Wet Dog cast, Joanna Greaves, Karl Niklas and Victoria Waddington.
