REVIEWS...

Hello.

Okay, here are our reviews... I've left in the crap one too, mainly because the gentleman in question seems to have renamed one of the characters for us and he also accuses me on being not as good at writing plays as Harold Pinter.

NOT AS GOOD AS WRITING PLAYS AS HAROLD PINTER, YOU SAY? Christ, my twelve year old nephew could piss out a play better than the Birthday Party in a matter of moments...

I'm not bitter, I just get on with it.

So, yeah, I'll do a top ten of reviews. Only there's just four...

In at one:

Donal Fleet: A Confessional

(4 stars)

By Kevin Bourke

IN a unique play on my emotions, writer Sean Gregson claims in the programme notes to be waiting on the M.E.N. review to see how much better his script has been made by the contributions of director Frances Piper and the actors in his intense drama.

I don’t know if this counts as more or less than the 72 per cent improvement he’s calculated so far but this is gripping stuff, a play about memory, about deep dark secrets and lies, and also about the very act of writing.

Lloyd Peters plays Donal, an older man desperate to exorcise his past, with James French as the menacing Lad and Szilvi Naray-Davey as the woman whose relationship with the pair of them is as gratifying but harmful as their relationship with the alcohol that fuels this fascinating play’s revelations.

Reviewed: Wed, 22 July, 2009

And at two:

Donal Fleet: A Confessional (24:7 Festival)
Date Reviewed: 21 July 2009
WOS Rating:

New Century: 2, Manchester

It’s not terribly clear at the conclusion of this one act play running as part of Manchester’s 24:7 Festival as to exactly what Donal Fleet’s confession actually is and this is a shame as the piece has the makings of a very interesting insight into the complexity of dysfunctional relationships and the repercussions of past mistakes.

Lloyd Peters plays Donal Fleet, a writer on the brink of moving, whose flat is unceremoniously invaded by the Lad (James French) and the Woman (Szilvi Naray-Davey). Mystery shrouds the two guests and Donal is clearly deeply uncomfortable in their presence. Who they are and why they are there is explored quite cleverly through a dangerous opening of closets that, by the conclusion, leaves all three emotionally drained and shocked.

Peters is excellent as Fleet, managing to avoid many of the clichéd mannerisms associated with the portrayal of struggling writers. French, who is still a student, shows real potential as a dramatic actor and he and Peters work well together. Naray-Davey takes time to warm up but as she settles into the role her confidence grows and thus her performance becomes stronger.

Ian Sculley’s stage design is basic and functional but a little crowded and I certainly got the impression that director Frances Piper would have appreciated a larger stage.

Although there is no live band, original music by Anton Hunter serves to enhance the atmosphere. Using original music in a play on a scale as small as this is definitely to be applauded.

- Malcolm Wallace

Down one place to three:

(www.uktheatre.tv)

Caroline May

Donal Fleet: A Confessional by Sean Gregson is what you’d probably get if Harold Pinter had written a play set in Wythenshawe. The intriguing mise-en-scène - a mosaic of ill-matched second-hand furniture, piles of loose manuscripts, and a drinks trolley, Dansette record-player and antique typewriter - might once have passed for a sinister and seedy bedsit, but these days has the intellectual ambience of a Writer’s Room feature in an aspirational Sunday broadsheet culture supplement.

Donal Fleet, a middle-aged impoverished Bohemian living in self-imposed isolation and very good tweeds, is awoken by The Lad, a vaguely threatening presence from his past. Then The Lad’s wife, The Woman, arrives; a sexual temptress who reminds one of Ruth in The Homecoming, only with the added intrigue of a European accent.

It has to be said that, as in most Pinter plays, you’re never really sure what has brought such diverse people together, and they don’t behave like real people but like characters out of a Pinter play.


And keeping up the rear at four:

Donal Fleet: A Confessional

By Sean Gregson
24:7 Theatre Festival
New Century House, Manchester

Review by David Chadderton (2009)

Sean Gregson's 'first proper play' is set in a run-down flat where title character Don (Lloyd Peters), on an old typewriter, has churned out thousands of pages of his memoirs, which litter the place amongst the spirit bottles, suitcases and the portable record player.

Into this claustrophobic environment comes young man Tim (James French) – just called 'The Lad' in the programme – whose relationship with Don is uncertain, as they seem to exercise an uneasy friendship until there are hints of blackmail, but when Tim's girlfriend (Szivi Naray-Davey) appears unexpectedly after following Tim, it seems that she might have a link to Don that Tim never suspected.

The situation has a definite feeling of Pinter with the run-down, domestic, male-dominated environment, constant feeling of menace and the vagueness of the relationships between the characters. However the dialogue doesn't come close to that carefully-honed, hyper-real speech that Pinter always achieved, and lines that are obviously meant to sound mysterious or profound are just meaningless.

There is some fussiness in the direction and the delivery of the lines, when lines that could be effective as throwaways are given too much emphasis. For all the talk of stories in the script, the play itself never finds one and just meanders between mysterious conflict and confessional monologues.

Anymore, I'll throw 'em up here.

Running theme? If you're not sure, yell Pinter, it's what I do. (I like the one where she kind of forgets it's not a Pinter play. You know, 'as in most Pinter plays'... not though, is it?)

Cheers all who have come down, especially those who have a fondness for the name Tim.