Tag Archives: LittleBerry Productions

Theatre Review by Phil Ryan of Trash by Tom Hunt at the Space East London

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Trash by Tom Hunt directed by Kim Moakes
Produced by LittleBerry Productions

A strong ensemble piece with a slightly frantic pace the audience seemed delighted at this witty and cleverly written piece. The subject matter was well chosen and quite competently explored. A difficult ask of a director, the very large cast (and I think the cast was a little too large) Kim Moakes delivered a bold and amusing vision of a student house with an alternative twist.
Despite the rather unwieldy size of the cast there were some standout performances. These included the nicely laconic Noor Dillan-Night ably and cleverly channelling a wannabe urban revolutionary and excellent and strong physical comedy from Adeline Waybey who perfectly captured the bawdy street persona of wild child freagan Vikki. A special mention is Alexis Coward who delivered a wonderful other wordly performance as Curly Kat, brilliantly inhabiting a child-like modern hippy girl who at times appeared to be in a world of her own.
At the risk of repetition the piece did struggle at times due to the large 12 strong cast with certain parts highly confusing as so much was going on. Plus the acoustic properties of the space itself made certain sections quite overpowering. But that said much of the audience seemed to enjoy the slightly muddled and noisy interactions. And my belief is when a full capacity audience are laughing constantly and uproaringly the play must be doing something right. With elements of high farce the piece was both entertaining and funny to watch. Finally I was very heartened at the broad age range of the audience demonstrating that LittleBerry productions can deliver a mainstream piece of theatre and should go from strength to strength.

Definitely one to watch.

Phil Ryan 16th September 2012

Fate on the London Fringe

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‘As Fate Would Have It’, produced by LittleBerry Productions, is the debut play of up and coming playwright Phoebe Hunt. It follows the two possible lives of a couple, Damien and Grace, who agree to toss a coin to decide whether they stay together or break up. The story unfolds with episodic scenes following both strands of possibility. In one strand, the couple stay together, continuing the increasingly unhealthy habit of making decisions by the flip of the coin. In the other strand, they break up, setting Grace free, while Damien continues to allow the coin to decide his fate.

As Grace, Phoebe Hunt made the most of the challenging transitions between depression (when with Damien) and glee (when set free from his ever increasing evil clutches). Her bright-eyed smile allowed the audience some breathing room, giving us a break from the relentless tension, and the pathos of her alternate situation. Jamie Hutchins, playing Damien, gave a very specific performance, in both vocal quality and physicality. The way he tossed a coin to make a decision for the very first time, uncertain and tentative, said a lot about his journey when contrasted with his eventual habitual attachment to the ten pence piece. Dinarte Gouveia (Michael) delivered his frequent comic lines from the heart, without force, and Jamila Jennings-Grant (Agatha) gave the audience a voice of reason, with her powerful portrayal of the best friend a girl in a bad relationship could have.

The entire play was accompanied by the composition and live performance of Matt Gaydon on the guitar. Whilst the music added a lot to the moments of heightened emotion, I personally found it occasionally contrasted the feelings expressed by the actors, and needed more variation in melody. Saying that, it served an important purpose when signifying to the audience that we were now changing episode from one strand of reality to its alternate, and back.

The script is cleverly written, though sometimes merging style between naturalism and poeticism, occasionally making believable delivery difficult. Though I admired the unrushed scene changes upstage, the activity downstage could have been more engaging in order to distract us from the movement of furniture. Otherwise, Cat Robey’s direction encouraged high stakes, and a gradual build towards a thoroughly gripping climax.

“As Fate Would Have It’ plays at The Space, Isle of Dogs on the 10th and 11th August, and at The Lion and Unicorn on 14th and 15th August. It is definitely worth a watch, but if you can’t make it, keep an eye out for future productions by LittleBerry Productions.