The first thing that greets you as you enter the auditorium is an impressive set, undergrowth and a beach spill out from the proscenium arch, but the eye is immediately drawn to a piece of plane fuselage that will provide space for the cast to move about, climb and slide around.
The play is ostensibly set in the modern day, one of the children wields a selfie stick and there’s a painfully drawn out section of dialogue where the kids talk about “banter” that may have been copied from the comments section of Lad Bible. It’s a smart move to engage the teens in the audience who are there because they’re studying the book for their GCSEs, but it seems anachronistic alongside the rest of the script that has a distinctly 1950’s air about it, as if the cast of Skins meet the Famous Five.
Thankfully the impressively energetic cast more than make up for it. They tirelessly leap, clamber and run about the stage and while there is a noticeable lack of subtlety about many of the performances, there are also moments of startling pathos. The deaths of two of the boys hit home, not least because Keenan Munn-Francis as the intelligent but withdrawn Simon and Anthony Roberts as poor, beleaguered Piggy give two of the most rounded (pardon the pun) performances.
Luke Ward-Wilkinson is equally impressive as Ralph, his pain as he has to decide between being right and being popular is all too familiar to anyone who remembers their teenage years.
This is a fine production and, if there’s any justice, one that will attract a generation of young people to their local theatres and tempt them to come back again in the future. The script mars what could have been something brilliant, but it doesn’t hide the wonderful performances!
"I'm just focused on getting that third trophy and enjoying the rest of my time with the guys here." David Goodwin on preparing for Playoff Finals Weekend
photo courtesy of William Cherry, Press Eye It’s EIHL playoff final weekend! After eight months of toil, four teams will face off for the chance to lift the last silverware of the season. First up Belfast Giants take on Cardiff Devils so I caught up with David Goodwin to see how the team are feeling after a battle against Dundee Stars and how ready they are for the games ahead. It was, I suggest, an intense weekend for the team. “Yeah, I mean it was. It always is. The quarterfinals… you never know what you're going to get.” Goodwin replies. “On one hand, you have us, the Giants, who are coming off a league title win, so we're on a high. But then you got Dundee, who don't want to go away quietly. They were fighting and scratching and clawing for every inch and it lead to two feisty games. “I give Dundee a lot of credit. They threw everything they had at us. But ultimately, I think our consistent play, maybe some of our higher skill was able to shine through and get the...
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