The Bristol Old Vic Theatre School is one of the most successful drama schools in the country and we are incredibly lucky to have them on our doorstep. Past students are among the most famous and celebrated. This year alumni Olivia Colman and Josh O’Connor won the lead actress and lead actor awards respectively at the Emmys for their performances in the Netflix hit, The Crown.

The Directors’ Festival season is a programme of contemporary theatre presented by the eight graduating MA Drama Directing students from Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and featuring work by acting, design and production students.

Now in its 16th year and coming with a strong reputation for showcasing the emerging talent in the UK arts scene, the BOVTS Directors’ Festival is a well-established part of Bristol’s fringe theatre landscape.

HAMLET

HAMLET, Shakespeare’s iconic play about revenge and madness is directed by Yuxuan Liu and designed by Fiona McKeon and they demonstrate that the strong tradition for acting, and production brilliance is maintained.

Over just one hour five actors present nine characters within an inventive context. There is a temptation for a showcase event to put all your tricks on display and run the risk of both dazzling and confusing an audience and ending up with something less than precise and instead rather pretentious. Yuxuan Liu does not fall for this.

Within the Wardrobe’s small stage separate spaces have been established with two ‘walls’ made of taut red bungee rope strung across in a sort of cat’s cradle pattern. Behind this we see the actors preparing, stretching, doing their vocal warm up and otherwise larking about. Visible on the front part of the stage, Hamlet, played with convincing rising mental anguish by Shivam Pallana, is progressively caught up in the tension of the ropes.

The piece develops with in particular a strong performance by Archie Fisher as Gertrude who is very convincingly portrayed as a powerful woman unbowed by her son’s demands. No mean feat for an actor playing across gender. Both Alexander Uzoka and Taylor Uttley have a fine way with comic touches, but these act as a good counterpoint to the serious matter in hand. Yazmin Kayani’s depiction of Ophelia’s descent into suicide is well handled and her watery death is both dramatic and poignant.

With a mixture of text, evocative music and movement, as well as an inspired use of an overhead projector, the piece is effective, engaging and exciting to watch.

Shivan Pallana’s Hamlet captured the psychological torment extremely convincingly, but at times was a little one paced and there was a tendency for some of the text to be rushed.

The makeup needs a special mention, with smudges of different colours around the performer’s eyes being successful in differentiating them as well as accentuating the eye contact.

A superb production with a bold but not overplayed inventiveness.

PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK

PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK is directed by Lowri Mathias and designed by Mathew Cassar, adapted by Tom Wright from the Australian novel by Joan Lindsay and the 1975 movie directed by Peter Weir

On St Valentines Day in 1900 a group of schoolgirls set out on a picnic, but three of them never returned. The story picks up the pieces to try to discover what went wrong on that fateful trip and how the mystery spiralled out of control in the aftermath, sending shock waves of depression and chaos into the community.

Lowri Mathias comes fresh from assisting Ed Viney on the Bristol Old Vic’s production of the Patrick Marber play The Red Lion, which I reviewed and the experience of working on a busy set has clearly helped her development.

Again, five actors play an array of characters and genders, and all of them superbly well. The choice of costumes was spot on; Victorian schoolgirl white blouses, an array of petticoats, boaters and high heeled black boots add an element of laced up repressed sexuality to the piece. The girls are first seen behind their desks confronted by a blackboard reading ‘Silence is Golden’ and the clash of rebelliousness and conformity are well observed.

The brilliance of the physical theatre is emphasised by the way the girls clamber over the upturned school desks as they manoeuvre the Australian outback and the use of Aboriginal chalk drawings across the stage transform what is a small, sometimes cramped space into an entire landscape.

The continued use of chalk on the backdrop of the blackboard and on desktops continues to convey a message of increasing tension and menace. Where did the girls go?

The entire company were superb, but special mention must be made for Rebecca Hyde’s powerful scolding and hectoring Miss Appleyard. Her directly focussed lecturing of members of the audience paid dividends and she is already clearly an extremely accomplished and watchable actor.

This was a wonderful ensemble piece with genuine humour, menace and sense of eerie strangeness, over which there was a superbly evocative soundscape by Hannah Bracegirdle.

Lowri Mathias directs the one hour piece with a delicious blend of set movement, all of which is executed with fluidity and guile.

A wonderful production, with sharp interchanges, great use of the space and well delineated characterisation.  

Both of these shows were fabulous, and I look forward to seeing two more next week.

For more details about the BOVTS including the wide ranges of production, acting and specialist courses on offer as well as upcoming shows, visit their website at: https://www.oldvic.ac.uk/

★★★★☆ Bryan Mason 8th May

Photo credit:  Craig Fuller