Reviews / More unforgettable drama productions at the Garrison
THREE unforgettable productions were performed at the Garrison last night (Wednesday), and they all undoubtedly provided a unique sense of fun and humour, write Shetland News reviewer Bertie Summers.
The evening kicked off with pupils from Sandwick Junior High School putting on a ‘haunted house’ production of Are You There? It saw a spooky and scary visit to a haunted house turn comedic.
What brought a light-hearted tone into this show was the over-the-top flatulence and the childish bickering among the group of teenagers in this house.
Greg (Holly Wright) gets told he has an ego the size of Jupiter and gets embroiled in a row where the phrase ‘shut up’ keeps being tossed around.
Priya Stephen plays the part of the protagonist, called Stevie. The wooing sound that she puts on is just amazingly funny.
Before this show ended with the entire group of girls going missing, these youngsters hilariously think that they have brought somebody back from the dead.
Next were Ronas Drama Group who performed Spice Up Your Sandwiches, a Shetland section tale by Willie Robertson.
Ruth Archer played the role of the excited owner (Thelma) of a newly refurbished cafe (Thelma’s Café). However, things go far from what she and her assistant Olive (Lorraine Peterson) had expected.
While Thelma’s plumber husband Donnie (Walter Leask) reluctantly agrees to help her with advertising, he leaves his bag of tools in the middle of the floor.
This only causes one of their first customers Tom (Ewen Balfour) to trip and fall over them. He hurts his knee and is forcefully sat down and given tea by Olive.
To add humour to this uncomfortable situation, Olive cannot see that that is the last thing he is needing, as he is finally able to scarper off to the toilet behind her back after Holly (Barbara Hall) and Molly (Sandra Mason) arrive.
These women only make the situation more stressful by constantly changing their minds over what they would like to eat. Olive remarks (behind their backs) that they are ‘fruitcakes’.
Thelma, Olive and Donnie start to panic that they will be sued for Tom’s injury, especially as it could easily be the case that a cyclist, Clive (John Irvine), who was in there earlier was his nephew and a lawyer.
But they are quickly relieved when it becomes clear that they were mistaken, and Clive’s uncle is really a dead man with his ashes in Clive’s rucksack.
After Tom booked a table for his family for dinner at 7pm, the highlight of this show came at the very end. Donnie re-emerged in a hilarious clown costume, in the hope of advertising for the cafe.
The whole crowd erupted into laughter as he obviously looked and sounded completely ridiculous.
Finally, the Westside Players performed the plot-twisting tale Waiting, Just Waiting.
Thomas Merrett plays a young man called Emile, who started to ride his bicycle around a disused bus stop.
This is where he meets Luca (Donald Anderson). While Luca appears to be a typical elderly man who takes things way too seriously, he shocks Emile by declaring his knowledge of TikTok.
Things get even more suspicious when Luca surprisingly backs up Emile in a fierce argument with another elderly person, Jean (Margaret Forrest).
It is then revealed by scientists Paul (Doug Forrest) and Sandy (Izzy Swanson) that Luca is simply a robot and Emile has just shut him down.
What made this debacle hysterically funny was when Luca woke up at the very end of this story and began fantastically rapping and saying Yeah, dis is my scene in a clear and plummy voice.
Last night was a pleasure to watch from beginning to end and there is more to come on Thursday and Friday night.
