Five – Day Plays
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Back in March over a 10-week period Chichester Festival Theatre launched an opportunity for original plays, no longer than 10 pages and written in 5 days, to be submitted. This was open to all ages the only rule being they had to follow a weekly brief. In all over 300 mini plays were received with 10 winners being picked. Four of these have now been brought to life as audio plays, co-directed by Hannah Hogg and Dale Rooks and can be heard on the CFT website www.cft.org.uk/fivedayplay
All the actors involved have previously appeared in CFT productions and the standard of work is immensely impressive with standout dramas in particular from David Kinder and Alexander Wiseman.
BACKBONE – Louis Turner. This cliff-hanger is a two-hander, an excitable exchange of secrets, lies, evidence and verbal gymnastics (the brief being: two characters with a secret to tell).
BLUE MOON – David Kinder (brief: dancing in the moonlight). A cleverly written dialogue set at a Tory Party conference gala between a left-wing journalist and a Conservative politician. With a shared history it is not long before their entertaining conversation becomes heated and passionate.
ROCK POOL – Alexander Wiseman (brief: your favourite place in the entire world). A young man originally from Cornwall is drawn back there on a poignant, complicated, grief-driven journey but a chance encounter with a Cornish bred stranger helps him to let go.
SIGNS OF LIFE – Hannah Crouch (brief: a historical character) Mary Shelley has an atmospheric late-night encounter.
With the current tragic situation affecting the arts these short, sharply observational dramas are a timely reminder of the overwhelming inventive talent we are all missing.
Jill Lawrie