Bringing together twenty-eight young people aged between ten and sixteen and producing two plays in six days you think would be impossible. However, two quite talented women have succeeded in doing just that. Michelle Nightingale directed The Day the Internet Died by Ian McWethy & Jason Pizzarello.
Alicia Zorkovic directed How to Survive Being in a Shakespeare Play by Don Zolidis. The choice of these plays was ideal for this type of theatre.
The Day the Internet Died portrays a town which is sidelined by a cyber blackout and depicts how young people of today believe they cannot survive without all the social media platforms which they have come to rely on. There were many samples of this throughout and one particular vignette was when a parcel was taken to the Post Office and asked to be sent to an email address.
There are so many worthy performers in this play it would be a travesty to highlight any individual as they all portrayed the humour needed for the success of this play. Needless to say all the voices, timing and actions deserved the warm reception they earned from the audience.
How to Survive Being in a Shakespeare Play shows that almost all characters in one of the Bard’s plays die. This play produces nine vignettes’ on how to change the endings so that nobody dies. Each of these were introduced by a trumpeter played by Flynn Doyle who demonstrated his ability with not only the trumpet but many other roles within the play.
Milly Willcox and Ashlee Rawson as the Narrators were perfect for this as their voice articulation and expression made it clear as to what was happening.
Once again, all the actors played their many parts admirably with some memorable moments from Byron Jeffery as Hamlet, Marcus Murdoch as Caesar and Lily Williams as Cleopatra.
The simple sets with multiple scene changes that ensured continuity were a credit to all led by the Stage Manager Heather Jones. The lights and sound by Matt Ralph added to the production but did not distract from the performers.
Wings 2 Fly Theatre are to be congratulated on the opportunities they give to young people by developing their artistic creativity with their productions during school holidays. We look forward to their July and October productions.
The Day the Internet Died | How to Survive Being in a Shakespeare Play
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