State of Fear Responsibility to ..? Southwark Playhouse

★★★★

Caroline Hanks-Farmer

My particular passion is new writing and so when Pamela Schermann of Time Zone Theatre invited me to State of Fear Responsibility to …? I moved heaven and earth, juggled the diary and made sure I  was able to attend an evening of seven new plays.

I’d not been to the Southwark Playhouse but for me this was the perfect raw setting for an evening of sublime entertainment in the form of my passion new writings. As there were seven plays I’m not going to review each one of them but I am going to mention my particular highlights. However do remember this evening was to celebrate and showcase new writing and because of this, we were privileged to see some snippets of brilliance to come. I would suggest that you ask every single audience member which they preferred, or indeed, what they understood the pieces to be about, you’d get a wide variance of opinion. None any less valued than the other, just different. Which is the exact reason for my championing new writing.

What an opener we had with The Watchers by Jayne Woodhouse who is, I consider, fairly local to me and therefore this play was of particular interest.

Directed by John Young and with Olivia Onyehara and Madeleine Bowyer. A piece about silent protest and making a stand, loyalty, family and fighting for what is right. An intricate well written play which was both very well directed and acted.

Britain For Breakfast by David Bottomley Pamela Schermann directed Esme Sears, Andres Ortiz and Fayez Bakhsh. This extremely relevant poignant play gave an indication of when bureaucracy and politics combine the people in the middle “the refugees” actual needs and feelings are completely ignored. The exact opposite of what the propaganda is or inference is to be believed. An intelligent thought-provoking piece.

Walruses By Daniel Segeth Directed by Rob Henderson Cast Nicholas Clarke and Andrew McDonald illustrated what a government office could, and probably is like. With the “powers that be” that make all the decisions for the social good of the country whilst manipulating the system for their own gains. Your average hard-working person who still believes that they can make a difference is blatantly patronised and ignored.

For me the evening stealer was Life Sentance by Siân Rowland directed by Tessa Hart and acted by Victoria Porter. This exquisitely written, superbly acted piece took you by the guts and wrenched you from your seat. Making you feel sick from the exposure to what your feelings were, for seeing the opposite perspective than you would normally see. This play made you truly question yourself and your thought process. Brilliance personified in new writing.

This was a wonderful evening and I understand there will be more next year, so I would suggest, that as this was a sold out event, as soon as you hear about it I’d get yourself a ticket and I’ll see you there!

State of Fear Responsibility to ..? Southwark Playhouse

★★★★

Caroline Hanks-Farmer