A strange sense of deja view...
Our last show of 2023 takes us back to the Jack Studio Theatre, our own local (Brockley Jack) pub theatre, for ‘Oh no it isn’t’.
Following on from our ‘local’ panto, this play (written by Luke Adamson) takes us backstage as two actors prepare to go on as Cinderella’s Ugly Sisters, and follows them in their dressing room and then through their scenes (or at least some of them).
This two hander (with a third voice from the stage manager’s Tanoy) allows the (actual) actors both to perform creditably (in the main) as Ugly Sisters whilst coping with a frayed and further fraying backstage relationship. It manages to be funny, dramatic and poignant.
The bits of the panto we see are not that great (part of the plot) but they are very realistic, and performed as we might expect. A ‘back-stage’ play is also quite compelling, as we see, under the greasepaint, real people, with real issues.
And we actually even get, in the panto elements, community singing, the audience happy to enter into the fantasy.
This is a one act play, relatively short, but it, perhaps, manages to punch above its weight. Worth seeing (and perhaps particularly if you’ve recently seen a panto!)