The future shines bright in the hands of these young playwrights.
In its third edition, the Union Theatre presents Union Shorts. This evening showcases eight emerging playwrights, all vying to pique our interests with a short piece to show their stuff. The standard is impeccably high this year with writing that ranges from the comedic to dramatic, the political to the personal.
We’re Boiling Alfred Baynes a self-serious journalist from London covering all things cartel in Mexico City. Its mix of telenovela plot points and monologues with dry British humour makes for a surprisingly harmonious blend. The hot-headed, bleeding heart proclamations by Ewan Bruce in the titular role and Mackie Reyes (who is also the playwright) are charmingly absurd, all while Shona Graham is brilliant as Baynes’ wife, a toffy English expat, being grilled by the thickly accented policia. Gloriously grandiose stuff. Sex on the Beach finds a pair of lovelorn strangers speaking aloud their thoughts while sun-bathing near each other on Brighton beach. Their primary concern is whether the other is interested in each other. The parallel dialogue is clever, and neatly shows Robert Frew’s unconventional approach.
Invader shines with a megawatt performance from Ben Watts as the charming, albeit hammered, beau of an heiress. His drunken antics and mop-like physicality breathe life to what is an otherwise totally mismatched work from Aaron Rooney. That’s All the Questions We Have is welcomingly absurdist and clownish, with the flustered trio swapping roles like an especially anxiety-inducing game of corporate musical chairs. Richard A Horn (pen name for Andrew Friedman) has a sense of palpable world-weariness but never overtly whiny. It’s cheeky, Gen Z nihilism never bogs down the antics too hard.
Isabelle Tyner’s Something Only We Know manages to capture the art of simply speaking, the moments of awkwardness found in extreme situations. Undoubtedly the simplest of the eight works on show this evening, and certainly effective. Netta Walker’s sci-fi drama Nordica is effectively cold and clinical, discomforting to watch. It’s got some of the strongest performances from Siana Cooper and Julia Florimo in the medical interrogation chamber. The twist is apparent as the action proceeds, but Walker shows promise in her tension building. Georga De La Cour also keeps things simple in her very funny morsel of work Sisterland. Conversational and snappy, and with great performances from Albertine Sins and Tabitha Kenworthy as the drunken girls who find unity in the ladies’ room. Cameron Corcoran’s Rat has clear influences from Martin McDonagh and Quentin Tarantino, and for the most part keeps up with those giants in this twisting and turning gangster tale. It pulls you in when it is dramatic, but really soars when it embraces its absurdity.