It’s One-Act Week

Feb 19 2020 | By More

SCDA One Act Festival returns to Church Hill

The SCDA’s One Act Festival returns to the Church Hill Theatre this week with a dozen plays set to be performed over the four night run.

Adjudication will be by theatre director Ben Humphrey, artistic director at the Swan Theatre in Worcester, who has just been nominated for best director in the Great British Pantomime Awards for his work on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

The SCDA One-Act Festival runs from Weds to Sat at the Church Hill Theatre.

This year there are five entries in the Open category. Two each from the Edinburgh Makars and Leitheatre and one from the grads, EGTG.

The Makars have entered a new play by Mike Appleby, The Tide Is Coming In, which is also eligible for the separate Scott Salver competition for best new play entered in all the first rounds of the One-Act competition nationally.

Their second entry is rather longer in the tooth as they turn to J.M. Barrie’s 1914 script, The Twelve Pound Look, which was made into a silent movie in 1920. Both plays will be staged on Saturday 22.

Leitheatre have Alan Arkin’s 1998 two-handed comedy, Virtual Reality on Friday 21, which combines the “testy, silly one-upmanship of Abbott and Costello with the menacing ambiguity of Harold Pinter” according to one New York Times review.

On Saturday, Leitheatre take on a little-known 1987 Arthur Millar, Clara, in which a grieving father is questioned about the recent murder of his daughter – with growing questions concerning his culpability and also the detective’s own identity.

A comedy tip…

EGTG is going for a comedy tip with its offering – David Foxton’s 2002 comedy of manners set in 1895, Breakfast For One. The five-hander will be final play on opening night, Wednesday 19.

The cast of EGTG’s Breakfast for One squeeze in tight. Pic: EGTG.

The seven entries to the youth category come from just two companies. St. Kentigern’s Youth Theatre, which has three entries, and Mill Youth Theatre, with three offerings from its North Berwick group and one from its Haddington group.

St. Kentigern`s Youth Theatre Seniors get the whole festival off to something of a modern classic start with John Godber’s brilliant Bouncers. The “Upper” group take on Bill Torduff’s adaptation of Shakespeare with his 30 Minute Julius Caesar on Thursday and the Lower group bring David Greig’s The Monster In The Hall on Friday.

The Mill Youth Theatre company’s three North Berwick groups all take on NT Connections pieces. The Seniors 1 do Gargantua by Carl Grose on Wednesday, the Juniors have Frantic Assembly’s It Snows on Thursday and the Seniors 2 group have Tom Wells’ Stuff on Friday.

The Haddington group from Mill Youth Theatre are also performing on Friday with Red by Somalia Seaton, an “unflinching and bold exploration of the internal lives of young women” which was written as part of an initiative to address gender imbalance in theatre.

Curtain up for all evenings is 7pm, sharp. Adjudication for the youth festival takes place after the third performance on Friday. The open section adjudication is on Saturday.

Tickets are available on the door, priced £12 adult nightly with a season ticket for all four shows at £36. Youth tickets are £8 nightly, with a four-night season ticket £24.

Listings

SCDA Edinburgh One Act Play Festival 2020
Adjudicator Ben Humphrey
Church Hill Theatre, 33 Morningside Road, EH10, 4DR
Wednesday 19 – Saturday 22 February 2020
Evenings: 7pm
Tickets and details: Book here. Or on the door £12/£8.

Wednesday 19 February

St. Kentigern’s Youth Theatre Seniors: Bouncers by John Godber.
Mill Youth Theatre North Berwick Seniors: Gargantua by Carl Grose.
EGTG: Breakfast For One by David Foxton.

Thursday 20th February

Mill Youth Theatre North Berwick Juniors: It Snows by Bryony Lavery And Frantic Assembly.
St. Kentigern’s Youth Theatre Upper: 30 Minute Julius Caesar by Bill Torduff.
Mill Youth Theatre North Berwick Seniors 2: Stuff by Tom Wells.

Friday 21st February

St. Kentigern’s Youth Theatre Lower: The Monster In The Hall by David Greig.
Mill Youth Theatre Haddington: Red by Somalia Seton.
Leitheatre Kirkgate: Virtual Reality by Alan Arkin.

Saturday 22nd February

Edinburgh Makars Contemporaries: The Tide Is Coming In by Mike Appleby.
Leitheatre Sunnyside: Clara by Arthur Miller.
Edinburgh Makars Historicals: The Twelve Pound Look by J.M. Barrie.

ENDS

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