JB is presenting another potpourri of new, short stage plays by writers who work in broadcast media covering a number of styles and subjects, although politics and death stand out as recurring themes, one on each side of the interval. While all six plays and an interval take place within two hours, most, if not all, could probably be improved by some pruning and tightening up.
The opening piece stands out as by far the most accomplished and entertaining, so perhaps could have been a good one to end on. Joyce Branagh has written and stars as the title character in Isobel Openshaw Saves the Day, directed at breakneck pace by Alyx Tole, which begins looking like something that Victoria Wood might have created but injects some Monty Python surrealism into the mix, particularly with the establishment characters.
Annoyed by the current government, Isobel, with the help of her friend Jenny Legohead (Joanne Dakin) and the encouragement of Scouse Cath from the caff (Callum Sim), forms her own party to stand against cartoonish Tory boy Rory Cheese Bog (Sim again). In order to become popular, she has to get on Strictly, but to get on she needs to be a celebrity, so she gets a part as Bella the Barmaid on Corrie and appears on Mastermind (Sim as the "Clive Myrie substitute"). It works, giving Dakin the chance to give a brilliant turn as Claudia before the audience is asked to vote on the winner—of the election, not Strictly.
While the speech-making about our current government's policies does go on a bit at the end, it looked like it came from Branagh's own passion and anger, not just her character's, and if the Tories had any friends in the audience on press night, they were keeping very quiet. But a very funny and well-performed piece to kick off.
Maz Hedgehog's Aftercare, directed by Justina Aina, brings the atmosphere right down, set outside a sex party where Bree (Meg Narongchai) is having a smoke, upset after beating someone called Aaron even though he wanted it, while Tobi (Trayvaughn Robins) reclines on a bench throwing in sassy and sometimes comforting comments. Macaulay Cooper occasionally enters as Calvin, an annoying person from the party. This piece doesn't really have much to say, although I couldn't always hear what was being said.
The next piece, Food Fight by Lindsay Williams and Cathy Crabb, directed by Miranda Parker, struggles to raise the mood again, but this is another comedy with a serious political point to make. Set in a food bank, Davina (Jenny Williams, but played by Nancy Monoghan on 10 and 11 May) is showing new volunteer Amy (Jessica Ellis) around and laying down rules, but Davina isn't in charge—she's a volunteer like the rest of them, just a bossy, middle class one. Also helping are Chris Brett as nervy, eager-to-please vicar Foggy and Emily Ash, who creates a great comic character of Lila who isn't entirely with us but loves tins.
There are more quirky comic touches like this, but things come to a head when Amy puts some 'basic extra' items in the 'basic' bags, and then challenges Davina on why she should decide who gets extras. While it could be tightened up as a play, it raises an important issue in a light-hearted way—now that we've voted Isobel Openshaw in, perhaps she can solve the problems for us.
Dave Simpson's Life is no Joke, directed by Robert Marsden, brings us back after the interval with John Henshaw perfectly cast as a retired '70s stand-up comic, but it centres on his son, Mike (Darren Jeffries), initially telling the story of how he got together with his wife, Kathy (Any Du Quesne), and then flashing back to how he became an accountant because his dad persuaded him not to follow in his footsteps. But he still has the hankering to make an audience laugh, so his dad agrees to make a comeback, sharing the bill with his son. However this doesn't have a happy ending.
There are some old-fashioned but funny comedy routines to enjoy, but Kathy's narration rather over-explains the plot; in fact I'm not sure it is needed at all. I wonder whether coming at the story from a different angle might have made it more effective, but it still tells a moving tale and raises plenty of laughs.
This is not a Play by James Quinn and Trevor Suthers, directed by Quinn, throws ideas of Magritte (hence the character names and the title), the myth of the Orson Welles radio broadcast of War of the Worlds, ChatGPT and perhaps a touch of Pirandello into a scene where actor Rene (John Tueart) is going over some lines for a part while his sister Margarete (Victoria Tunnah) is fixing an old valve radio for their father. When Margarete receives on her iPad a photo of Rene in a compromising position, he tells an elaborate story of how AI can be used to fake these pictures and how the person whose part he took over as the vicar in Emmerdale has always had a grudge against him.
While there is plenty of clever and witty dialogue, it can become overly verbose, and in fact the most effective moment is Rene's sequence of facial expressions when Margarete suggests how he could have explained away the photo in a way she might have believed, but this is followed by a metatheatrical, surreal twist.
The evening ends on a sombre if hopeful note with Mrs Proops by Debbie Oates, directed by Ellie Rose. Isabel Ford is Kathy, waiting in her flat after her funeral for her brother, Gaz (Toby Hadoke). She has left the flat to her cat, the Mrs Proops of the title—a lovely looking puppet made by Marc Parrett and operated by Kery Elly—but her brother will inherit it after the cat's death. He has brought a fish for the cat, bought from his bitter ex at the chippy, but threatens to lace it with poison so he can sell the flat and go travelling, but can he go through with it?
This tender but slow-moving story is well performed, but perhaps not the ideal piece to end the night; perhaps it might have been better to send the audience out on more of a high.
However, it's great to see JB still going strong and, along with Vignettes, providing a regular outlet for new, short plays in Manchester, as well as an entertaining, varied and pretty cheap night out for audiences.