“Makes you want more”
En Route Theatre Company made their scratch night debut at the Golden Goose Theatre in Camberwell back in May, to showcase the talent involved in their instalment of the Setting Sail scratch night, offering a range of different and unique pieces of theatre to be showcased. There were many performances to enjoy and speculate about what could happen next within these writings; however, there was one piece that was not to be missed that evening out of the ensemble of fresh and creative ideas.
Following the story of a writer seeking feedback from one of their favourite authors, Writer’s Retreat, a short piece of theatre written by Avouleance was performed at the Setting Sail scratch night in Camberwell earlier this year with the cast of Michael Ohren, Mia Pincekova and Rebecca Finch. Avouleance is known for their work experimenting with audience participation along with interpretation through improvising. Within this piece, we are introduced to a mentor and student dynamic between our author, Mr Guthrie Knight played by Ohren and fan Zoe, played by Pincekova.
The acting between the pair was brilliant, Ohren’s character was able to come across as someone who knows what he’s talking about, which gave him this confident energy around him as a highly established author, whilst contrasting with Pincekova’s Zoe having confident, determined energy for her character to receive feedback from what she has written, despite the twist when Finch enters the scene.
Although Finch appears for a short time, her character Zara contributes to a shift in the storyline upon entering, which makes me want to know more about this choice from the writer for the plot. As a scratch performance, the plot has led me to want to know more about the piece, a mystery taking on the slight never meet your idols vibe in some form. This piece of writing from Avouleance is intriguing, with a surprise that has led me to wonder about Zoe’s actions for Zara and what would have happened instead if Zara had met with the author instead. With exploration throughout of gender, ego, and authorship, the cast did a brilliant job showcasing not only this writing, however their talent throughout the short performance. It was a joy to watch, and I look forward to seeing what comes of the creatives involved further down the line in their careers.