Here are some reviews of our company and company members:

REVIEWS OF THE VIEWING ROOM

IndieLondon Preview on the production Leonard’s Radio 4 Loose End’s Interview with Nicholas De Jongh. Leonard’s BBC Newsbeat Interview Leonard’s Metro Interview – Leonard at the Brits!

Article about the production in the Stouffville Free Press (Ontario, Canada):

Stouffville playwright/actor in West End debut
By Kate Gilderdale

Samantha Wright, who grew up in Stouffville and attended Unionville High School’s Arts York program, is appearing in the UK premiere of The Viewing Room by Daniel Joshua Rubin, which opens March 4 at The Arts Theatre in London’s West End.

The Viewing Room also stars Leonard Roberts, known to many fans as D.L. Hawkins in the hit television series Heroes, and James Flynn who, along with Sam, is a co-founder of Practicum Theatre, the company presenting the play. James, in addition to his live theatre credits, has appeared in a number of television programs, including The Tudors and Ballykissangel.

Sam has won several Canadian awards for excellence in playwriting. She completed the Young Writers Programme at the Royal Court Theatre in London in 2004. Her play Hush premiered at the Edinburgh Festival in 2005, and received a Fringe First nomination. Hush later transferred to London, and her current play, The Fetch, was workshopped on the Stratford Fringe, then won the Theatre BC Playwriting Contest Special Merit Award in 2006, and is consequently being mounted in London in April and BC in May.

As an actress, Sam has performed in Toronto, London and New York. She is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts’ Acting Shakespeare course and appeared in the feature film Lie Still.
Getting a well known actor to star in The Viewing Room was a key element of Practicum’s strategy. “Leonard got involved because since we’d secured a West End venue, we needed a star name to sell the show,” said Sam. “Myself and my colleagues spent the better part of two months contacting all of these LA agents and Leonard was interested in doing it and came out as our top choice.”
The experience was surreal, she noted. “I was a secretary by day, and calling top LA agents by night.” It didn’t hurt that Leonard Roberts had a personal link with the play, added Sam. “He participated in a development workshop for the play 10 years ago at Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago, but when the actual performance at Steppenwolf came along, he was too young to play the role. Now, of course, he’s perfect for it.”

The Viewing Room is a psychological thriller set in the not too distant future, when an overcrowded penal system results in an initiative, part of the government’s ‘War on Violent Crime,’ requiring citizens to act as prison guards in their own homes. In a country which has the world’s large concentration of surveillance cameras and displays an increasing tendency towards government interference in private lives, this dystopian tale has particular resonance.

Amnesty International has selected Practicum Theatre’s production of The Viewing Room to be part of the program of events celebrating its 60th anniversary and is planning a charity gala for the opening night, with all proceeds going to support Amnesty. The play runs until March 29.

REVIEWS OF HOSTAGE : BLEACH : BURN

Review: Hostage/ Bleach / Burn - Camden Fringe
Review by Hazel Tsoi

Published in Londonist, 3 August, 2007

Having seen and enjoyed Room 110 in the Camden Fringe Festival yesterday, we continue with our non-Scottish fringe theatre foray with some more new writing. Consisting of three consecutive monologues, Hostage/ Bleach / Burn has only half as many scripts as Room 110 but is equal in power and fringe theatre spirit.

Canadian writer Heather Taylor, director Gareth Corke and the three cracking actors Peter Henderson (Hostage), Samantha Wright (Bleach) and Matthew Bulgo (Burn) present the three monologues on one set with seamless ‘handovers’ so that it feels like a single unified hour of theatre.

Hostage is the bleak and bewildered rambling of a battered man held captive for undisclosed reasons, addressing his absent wife while reliving the last days of their troubled marriage. Bleach is a family tale told by a young woman caught between her father and her uncle who is keeping a secret. Burn is the complex recollection of a young man bullied as a child for having no father which then develops subtly into commentary on Quebec’s attempts at independence, a mother’s lies and the legacy that leads Pierre to drastic and shocking actions. Influences and references range from international politics to delicate domestic details, maintaining relevance successfully for contemporary audiences.

Despite the stark differences in the stories told and the characters who tell them, recurring themes and the consistent intensity of emotional recall unify this theatrical experience. Parallels and oppositions across all three monologues enrich the ideas and effects of each individual piece; they are companions and presented well together.

In the spirit of fringe theatre festivals, a lot is packed into the hour. This is an intense and involving hour, intimate as all monologues tend to be and made more so in the tiny space of The Etcetera Theatre. It is interesting to see how the quality of writing changes from the first to the third monologue – the third was by far the best, showing sophistication and a better understanding of how text translates to performance; the first which was presented last year at Theatre 503 lacks this awareness in some awkward phrases probably best enjoyed as poetry on the page.

Corke’s direction was committed and consistent across all three monologues but lacked the nuance these monologues required. This is writing that is more sophisticated and demanding than the actors and director were capable of matching though not for lack of trying. Monologues are tricky for audience, director and actors – to be so involved in one person’s speech / story requires skills, techniques and depth that even the most accomplished, years-in-the-business actors and directors would have to work very hard to develop. The potential for spellbinding and extra-special grade performances of the Conor McPherson / The Weir scale is present in the writing, the direction and acting in Hostage/ Bleach/ Burn – as with many things that flourish on the fringe, a year or two more to mature and develop and this could be a fine medley of monologues for a main stage.

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Hostage / Bleach / Burn
at Etcetera Theatre, in Camden (Fringe)
Review by Chloe Preece
31 July 2007

Published in London Theatre Guide, 1 August, 2007

This Practicum production is an enigmatic set of three one-person shows playing as part of the Camden Fringe. The trilogy gives us a glimpse into the minds of three very different personalities as we discover first-hand a profound internal struggle that they share, a fight, both physical and metaphorical, to be set free. As we follow their journey, each grappling with their past and their future, we are made to feel the presence of the ghosts that haunt each of them, the force, partly imaginative but also incredibly real, that keeps them trapped in their claustrophobic realities. There is a real weight to this piece but despite it’s sombre tone, certain slight moments of humour ease the tension for a few seconds (such as when writer Heather Taylor, makes use of her Canadian heritage and reveals the “curse of the Canadian country,” “plaid”), before plunging us back into the dark depths of the human spirit.

Touching on issues such as terrorism and AIDS this is a bit of a theatrical Babel, just as thought-provoking and just as bleak. The simple set and small theatre allow for the actors to show their true abilities without all the trappings. The tension builds throughout the evening, climaxing with Pierre (Matthew Bulgo doing “Burn”), who although not entirely convincing as a Quebecois separatist, had great stage presence and was more than a little threatening when addressing the audience. At one hour, the play is just long enough to leave us wanting more and goes to show that you do not need a massive budget when there is a solid script, good direction and admirable performances. If you can’t make it to Edinburgh, this is the London alternative: an hour of engaging drama, with enough suspense and twists to keep you absorbed and in a contemplative mood for the rest of the night.

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Hostage: Bleach: Burn by Heather Taylor - a review
By Naomi Woddis

Published in Metaroar, 31 July, 2007.

Anyone familiar with Heather Taylor’s writing will know her as a consummate poet and performer whose writing has a strong sense of story and character. Hostage: Bleach: Burn is a trilogy of hard-hitting monologues where the deftness of Taylors poetry skills shine through. It does not make comfortable viewing, instead the audience is asked to reappraise their ideas on what makes a suicide bomber, how AIDS in still seen as a taboo topic in many communities and why being consciously apolitical does not protect one from an extreme political act.

Peter Henderson is finely cast as the fidgety and angry Harold in “Hostage”. Harold is being held prisoner in an unknown place. He recalls earlier losses and how he was “Dreamless, restless, sleepless” in his previous life. “Hostage” is a moving tapestry of recollections where Harold is condemned to be a prisoner of his own thoughts. Describing himself as “..not political. I’ve never cared who runs things…It didn’t seem to matter somehow”. It is Harold’s political apathy, his inability to take responsibility for the tragic events that have happened to his family, that finally are his undoing. Taylor marries the personal and political forcing us to question our own moral standing. I found myself simultaneously sympathetic to Harold’s plight and also angry at hearing of his sons accident and how he determined to say that it was not his fault. Ultimately Harold is held hostage to his own thoughts as he plummets in to his own very personal hell. “Hostage” is brave and finely tuned writing deliberately offering no easy solution to some very difficult and topical questions.

By contrast Melinda, Samantha Wright, in “Bleach” is dealing with her beloved Uncle’s death from AIDS. Melinda staggers on stage a bottle of half drunk white wine in one hand, giddy with grief and alcohol. Wright portrays the desperate and lonely Melinda with a finely pitched sensitivity. It soon becomes apparent that Uncle Tom was Melinda’s friend, confidente and soul mate. Picturing an imaginary future with three children she says ” I can’t see who I’d be with but I can see the rest”. The sense of erasure haunts this skillfully written piece, not only is Uncle Tom’s death still taboo but even his home feels absent of his larger than life character. “The house has this graininess…like all the rooms have forgotten to live” Melinda tells us. It is finally her father who acts as a cipher for the continuing ugliness of homophobia “my dad said burn it, I would not step in that house if it was disinfected with bleach” and it is this determination to wipe out even the memory of Tom that breaks Melinda’s heart.

Finally in “Burn” Matthew Bulgo as Pierre talks about the famous father, Pierre Laporte, who he never knew but was apparently named after. This is the most complex of all the trilogy. The illustration of Pierre’s mother, a woman holding on to a life long fantasy, is both repugnant and engaging. Pierre appears as a man whose own sense of identity has been erased, he is a no one living in the shadow of the stories his mother has told him about his inception “It was our little secret, I was raised on those clippings, like a fairy tale”. When the truth about Pierres father is finally revealed his sense of isolation deepens. “I am silent, I feel myself drift away, everything turns to nothing”. His mother refuses to acknowledge who he is and Pierre is left with one final attempt to express his desolation.

All three plays reach a climax of painful self expression. At just over an hour in length it is astounding to witness such a fierce emotional trajectory - a must see for anyone who wants to experience fearless and honest writing and for any poets working on solo shows Taylor’s mature understanding of character and narrative is essential viewing

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Review of Breaking News: The Rachel Corrie Ban
By Decca Aitkenhead

Tough Love from Breaking News, May 2006

WHEN a New York production of My Name is Rachel Corrie was abruptly halted in March, the play’s supporters were dismayed. The American theatre company had reportedly been scared off by the “political content” of the piece, which was based on the writings of a peace activist crushed to death by Israeli bulldozers. The cancellation provoked Practicum Theatre in London to commission a dozen short new plays, all to be written, cast and performed back-to-back in less than 4 weeks.

Loosely inspired by ideas in the original play, and expressed as a protest against censorship, the result – Breaking News: The Rachel Corrie Ban – was an evening of such fresh intelligence and passion, you could almost feel grateful for New York’s catalytic loss of nerve.

Though never overly polemical, Breaking News: The Rachel Corrie Ban was certainly not afraid of political content. The politics in some of the pieces were explicit – such as Press Conference, a satirical parody of a US presidential press conference – and in others more oblique, such as A Decision, featuring two women comically overwhelmed by the choice of coffee for sale in Starbucks. Lie Detector, a stylishly quick-witted piece, managed to evoke shades both of Guantanamo Bay and modern corporate culture, and was as funny as it was cutting. But the outstanding highlight of the night was Tough Love, a one woman work by Elise Hearst, performed by Vanessa Ackerman. Like most of the 24 actors and 12 writers, Ackerman is a relative newcomer, but she delivered a performance so spellbinding, it alone would have justified the entire production.

Having come together at such speed, the mix could at moments feel unpolished, but the improvised sense of urgency felt perfectly at ease in the context of a work titled Breaking News. An astonishing showcase of what can be produced by new young talent at short notice, The Rachel Corrie Ban has established Breaking News as a production to watch.