PROTEST AT THE ARTS THEATRE CAMBRIDGE
Can adults and children enjoy the same play? Outside of the fantasy of Frozen or the comedy of a punchy pantomime, can old and young get on with the same material?
Protest bursts with talent. The three lassies on stage exude energy. -a trio of primary schoolgirls. Each has her own reason to protest. Alice rages against the unfairness of the running order in her school race. She dreams of a role as the anchor of the end of term relay race - but finds the boys always snatch that honour away. And even on a vote, they win, because - well everyone likes to be on the lads’ side. Kirsty Maclaren as Alice is fiercely indignant.
And then the softly spoken Jade, remembers her Caribbean grandmother’s war effort and smarts at the unfairness of racist slogans painted on her estate. Harmony Rose-Bremner draws us into her world with actorly skill. The third protester is a tenderly portrayed Chloe, Amy Murphy is the solitary eco warrior who clears the woods of rubbish and dreams about her absent Dad and feels Greta, like the robin, is left alone too often. Three little girls against the world. Each with her own injustice to fight and each one battles with disappointment and dismay - only to emerge triumphant through the kindness of the community support they raise.
You might say – and my companion did – they hit every woke note.
But this is not really a play. These are three monologues interspersed with energetic electronic music. It is intriguing the way they interweave, and all turn out to be at the same school. But the action is non-existent, these clever players have little to do., The set has flashing lights and podiums but nothing else. And there is no interaction between the girls whatsoever until it is hinted at towards the end.
What this play needs is theatre. Instead, it is two dimensional and has no integrated story. Writer Hannah Lavery has some great ideas, a brilliant way of conjuring the language of children and she produces believable little girls with all their resentments and ambitions.
But without a story to unite them, they are just a string of individual, brilliantly done, monologues. The stage movement is good, when it happens -well done Nadia Iftkha - but it has no real point or purpose. And the entire script is far too didactic, and for adults, an hour felt frankly, endless.
Yet the 9 year-olds in our party absolutely loved it. They liked the girls, they were spell-bound by their stories and felt they were real believable characters, and came away pleased with the whole show.
Perhaps you can’t please all the people all of the time
