2011 Junior Play Review
by Kezia Wright
The 2011 Junior Play, Gizmo, was a production that displayed hard work, dedication, skill and at the same time was extremely humorous. Gizmo by English playwright Alan Ayckbourn is a one-act play, telling the story of Ben Mason, who, having been paralysed from witnessing a shooting, is aided by a new technological device called “Gizmo”. This Gizmo comes in the form of a rather chunky wrist-watch, yet this gadget enables Ben to move. However, he can only move in sync with the wearer of the wristwatch. Thus trouble comes about, as the wrist-watch falls into the wrong hands and is misused; poor Ben is at its mercy.
The play was a challenging one as the blocking was extremely technical, due to the synchronisation of movements being central to the plot. I think that it is a great tribute to the actors to have been able to convey both the humorous nature of the play yet still have performed with such great skill.
The play opened with Eleanor Dolphin, Catie McGonagle and Ludo Stewart playing the rather professional, intelligent team behind the Gizmo invention. Eleanor began with introducing the Gizmo and explaining its use and later we saw Catie expanding on this revolutionary new device: undoubtedly both actresses conveyed the smart entrepreneurs who they were acting very well.
Next, on came Mark Agar, the leading actor, playing the paralysed Ben. Ludo, pipe in hand and looking wise, then gave a demonstration to the audience about how the Gizmo worked by means of synchronising his movements with Marks. This really absorbed the audience into the humorous side of the play and generated roars of laughter from the audience.
Next we saw the setting change and the lights came up to show us Mark and his helper Ted Wilkins, as played by Hugo Hollis. Hugo really portrayed the fed-up, chain-smoking male nurse fantastically well, and greatly amused the audience with his dull personality and dislike of his patient. However, the scene was interrupted by the ever so lively Nerys Potter, played by Marta Perez-Pla, the highly enthusiastic physiotherapist who tried to revive Ben and get him active and fit.
The scenery then changed as Ben was taken into the park having desperately persuaded Ted to allow him a walk. While Hugo had his usual fag and Mark reluctantly imitated his actions, the pair were approached by a rather sour bunch of youths, clad in Adidas tracksuits and gold hooped ear-rings. This gang led by “Rust”, played by Ben Traill, consisted of Sam and John Clarke, Molly Dunne and Rachel Rogers and the mere appearance of the typical, uncouth crew was enough to get the audience going. Ben acted with a certain adolescent-like belligerence and spoke with a Cockney accent, as his role entitled him to, and to me, really dominated the stage with ease and a great confidence that held the audience’s attention.
Likewise both Sam and John really seemed to fit right in to the skin of their boorish, troublesome characters and Molly and Rachel, as well portrayed their melodramatic, unmannerly characters excellently. In this scene Hugo really evoked sympathy from the audience as he was continuously hassled by the group and eventually beaten down by the Clarke twins who were only up to his shoulder yet still hilariously aggressive.
It was here that the Gizmo was taken off the unconscious Hugo and adopted by “Rust”, consequently causing disorder. Due to the gang’s ignorance about the real use of the watch, Mark was mercilessly picked upon and questioned as to why he ceaselessly mimicked Rust’s actions, a funny use of dramatic irony.
In the midst of the uproar of a rather comic knife-fight Manny Rice (Zac Stephenson) entered, austere and grave-looking, causing both the audience and actors to fall silent. He strode onto stage, accompanied by his two body guards, Jamie Boyd and Brendan Dickerson, and wearing his black suit and white tie captured every one’s attention almost immediately. Having, shooed away the nasty gang with his calm, deep and serious British accent, he took the wrist-watch from Rust and discovered the rather worn out Mark, lying motionless on the ground, the puppet of ignorance.
After throwing Mark over his shoulder and with the wrist-watch, the trio exited the stage, soon to reappear in a new setting. This new set saw the introduction of the character Cevril Teese, as portrayed by Siobhan Brady. She was introduced dressed lavishly, positioned in an elegant manner on the sofa and after a few rather suggestive, inappropriate yet funny comments from Zac, he gave her the Gizmo. However, unlike the other characters, Cevril was smart and witty and listened to Mark as he explained Gizmo’s function. Siobhan seemed to execute this role perfectly and really suited the character well, as she held the stage with a great confidence. This scene evoked laughter from the crowd as Mark's movements were synchronized with Siobhan's.
After some trouble from Manny and his boys and the scandalous Siobhan revealing her true identity as an undercover police agent, investigating the ever so sly, dark and evil Lando (Ugo Onwurah), an assassin out to kill Ben, the play concluded back in the Gizmo boardroom, with the team of specialists, including Annika Franz playing Perkins, the Chief Constable. In the end, having been the subject to a wrist-watch and its troubles, Mark became able to move, yet the tables turned and Cevril became wheel-chair bound.
Undoubtedly, the play proved to be a huge success, with fantastic acting from the likes of the lead, Mark, to the effective costumes. It was clear that a lot of hard work and effort was put in by students, from the likes of directors Mr Jameson and Dr Stone and from all the other helpers in areas such as set design, costumes, lighting and sound. I found it extremely enjoyable, humorous and rather quirky and due to the huge amount of effort put into it, everyone involved deserves big congratulations.