Review: Storyhouse Young Company presents Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat

The very existence of Storyhouse Young Company is something to treasure and be thankful for in the way it provides priceless opportunities for budding actors from all backgrounds throughout the Chester area to nurture their talents during six month programmes which culminate in a full scale production.

The fact Storyhouse provides this programme for free is just one of its remarkable aspects - another is the challenging subjects chosen for the young performers to ultimately show audiences what they are capable of.

Last year it was The Trials by Dawn King in which young people ended up sitting in judgment on older generations which had destroyed the planet they were supposed to be preserving for their offspring. It turned out to be one of the best things I saw in a theatre in 2023.

To be blunt, The Trials was a cosy domestic sit com in comparison with this year’s choice - Mark Ravenhill’s epic but intimate study of the impact of war and all of its consequences which has flashes of dark humour but is otherwise relentlessly grim.

The entire work consists of 16 short plays plus an epilogue and would apparently last more than six hours if staged in full. Thankfully the young Chester company and their director Jen Tan have put together an 85 minute version (with no interval) which is slightly less likely to leave you completely despairing for the future of humanity.

Putting its themes to one side for a moment, this is actually a perfect choice for a project keen to give the greatest number of performers maximum chance to make an impression and every member of the cast of 13 absolutely makes the most of this opportunity whether they get to play a major role or remain slightly more peripheral to the action.

Most of the cast are already silently motionless in place on stage at the Garret as everyone takes their seats prior to an extended opening which is dealt with very much as an ensemble piece as we get snatches of an assortment of characters ranging from a middle class mum fussing over her impressionable children (Francesca Davidson who is such an incredibly natural and confident stage presence) to a young man grieving for a mother he hated (Harry Peaker delivering his lines with searing intensity) but all of them apologetically addressing the audience as slaughtered victims of warfare.

But as things progress, we are presented with more self-contained and quite frankly utterly shattering individual stories, two of which stood out as the undoubted highlights of a consistently admirable piece of work.

The first was a two hander featuring Hannah Rose Curtis as an aid worker in a war zone trying to write a report with the help of Catriona Keep as a refugee from her war torn country who is on the brink of starvation.

Keep was extraordinary in the way she conveyed an undiminished sense of indignation at being asked pointless questions when all she really wanted was her first meal in weeks while Curtis successfully showed her character’s development from self-righteous arrogance to real empathy and understanding as she genuinely tried to do what was right for someone who had been through such torment.

Surpassing even this, though, was a sequence set in Britain when two soldiers played by Omar Hussein and Kayleigh Coleman arrive to break the news of her son’s death to a foul-mouthed mother portrayed with such incredible power and fury by the remarkable Francesca Hughes.

Hussein and Coleman manage to stay incredibly stoic for much of the scene as all they are able to do is continually repeat the mother’s name as they are constantly interrupted by a tirade of obscenities from Hughes who refuses to allow them to do their jobs for fear of having to face what they are there to tell her until a shocking act of violence by the mother changes the dynamic of the scene completely.

Hughes is genuinely breathtaking in this sequence, not only when engaging in a marathon session of expletives but also right at the end when she is alone once more watching breakfast television and finally gives in to her overwhelming grief.

But there is such strength in depth with the rest of the cast as Tyler Clark, Ioan Hedd O’Neill, Cai Gruffudd, Conor Hinchcliffe and Ali Dodds all capitalise on their breakout moments while youngest performer Rex Dorman arrives to deliver some of the play’s final lines with ghostly poignancy that sends a chill down the spine.

I have no idea how much experience any of these people had when they started their Storyhouse journey six months ago but what I do know is that every single one of them demonstrated the kind of talent and expertise that would enable any of them to step on to a professional stage tomorrow and acquit themselves brilliantly.

So it was exciting to briefly speak with fellow audience member and renowned director John Young (Romeo and Juliet, Chester Mystery Plays) to hear that not only is he about to start rehearsals for Gangs of New York at Chester’s Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre this summer but that some members of this Storyhouse Young Company will be among that production’s cast.

Storyhouse Young Company's production of Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat can be seen on Friday, May 31 and Saturday, June 1 at 7.45pm.

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