Unreal

In June 2009 Cloud Nine launched its three year New Writing partnership with The Customs House, by presenting three brand new one-act plays from aspiring Northern writers.

Second Most Disappointing, by Alison Carr

is set at the foot of The Angel of the North where a bickering step-father and -daughter are on a day out.

Double Nuts, by Louise Gallagher

is located in a mental health institute where a patient plans her escape.
Read Louise Gallagher's account of the development of this play in our July 2009 newsletter

Mind Games, by Joe Gallagher

takes place in a gents' toilet during an engagement party, when an unexpected guest turns up.

In all three contrasting plays, appearances can be deceptive.

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Reviews in the press...

The Customs House has linked up with Tyneside production company Cloud Nine for a three-year writing partnership that gives hopeful writers the chance to shine.

Director Jackie Fielding is always worth checking out, and she puts her stamp of quality on Unreal, which comprises three one-act plays from aspiring Northern writers.

There's such promise here we could easily be witnessing tomorrow's theatrical big hitters.

First up was Alison Carr's contribution, Second Most Disappointing. Having seen another piece by Carr a few weeks ago, it's obvious she has talent in abundance. Set at the foot of The Angel of the North, during a bickering stepfather and daughter's day out, it is a surreal story that provides plenty of laughs and a life lesson that will resonate with many.

Double Nuts, by Louise Gallagher, is located in a mental health institute where a patient plans her escape. Again, there is a lovely twist to this sombre romantic tale.

Joe McLaughlin makes his profession writing debut here and Mind Games is a dark piece that takes place in a gents' toilet during an engagement party. An unexpected guest turns up (Chris Connel) to haunt the fiancé (Louis Roberts).

Connel features in all three plays but it is Mind Games in particular where we see what an exceptional actor he is. While a consummate comedy performer, his dark side is superb and he brings Roberts' talents out accordingly. Tracy Gillman and Christina Berriman Dawson complete the quartet of actors who make this a cracking night out.

Ed Waugh, The Northern Echo

Unreal is the first fruit of a new three year new writing collaboration between North Tyneside's Cloud Nine theatre company and South Shields' Customs House, three new short plays by northern writers.

New writing - especially new writing which is limited geographically - is always a risky business, but Cloud Nine has considerably reduced the risk by being involved in the plays' development almost since the start. All three have been workshopped by the company and given script-in-hand performances (with the same director, Jackie Fielding) over a two year period before receiving this full-scale production. It's a process which has paid off handsomely, for, by last night's opening, each piece had clearly been refined, problems ironed out, characters well developed and dialogue tight and to the point.

They are performed by a cast of four - Christopher Connel (taking on this piece in the gap between playing in Pitmen Painters at the National and taking it on a national tour), Christina Berriman Dawson, Tracy Gillman and Louis Roberts.

First up is Alison Carr's Second Most Disappointing, set at the foot of the Angel of the North as newly remarried Alan (Connel) attempts to establish a relationship with teenage step-daughter Louise (Dawson). They are pushed into rather more honesty than either has expressed to date by the very enigmatic figure of Pamela (Gillman) who runs a kiosk and could be con-woman, angel, a figment of their imaginations, or all of these. It's funny but very touching as Carr, deftly and with a light touch, reveals the layers of emotion felt by Alan and Louise. It requires sensitive playing on the part of the cast, for at times Alan and Louise verge on the stereotypical but never actually step over the edge, either in the writing or the playing. What follows is almost a mini-play in itself. Rather than bring up the house lights as the stage crew change the set for the second play, Fielding has stage manager Martin Hogg make the changes under the direction of Pamela: a short but amusing interlude which enables the audience to remain focused rather than being distracted into the usual whispered conversations or straining to see what is happening through the semi-darkness. A nice touch.

Louise Gallagher's Double Nuts follows. There seems to be something in the theatrical zeitgeist at the moment which focuses on mental health issues. After Unlimited's The Moon The Moon, on tour at Northern Stage, and the North East Theatre Consortium's Queen Bee which premiered at the Customs House, now Gallagher's first play takes the same subject, approaching it from a different angle, of course.

Like the other two plays - in fact, one might say, like the other two sets of plays: the others in this programme and the two mentioned in the last paragraph - there is a blurring of what constitutes reality. Set in a residential psychiatric clinic, it focuses on Tanya (Dawson) and Paul (Roberts) and seen primarily from Tanya's point of view, it's a sympathetic and gentle piece examining damaged minds. Again, the direction and playing are very low key, which actually allows Tanya's desperation to come through more clearly than a more strongly emotional performance might effect. We are left saddened and with a deeper understanding.

The emotional heights are reached in Joe McLaughlan's Mind Games as Sam (Roberts) struggles to come to terms with a traumatic part of his past. He is forced into confronting his demons by The Man - a very powerful performance by Connel. Again reality (in the form of fiancée Nikki, played by Dawson) and unreality (The Man) come into conflict, but this time the anguish is strong and palpable, and the unlikely setting (a gent's toilet in a pub) simply adds to the power of the piece.

Fielding's tight direction and a very talented cast, together with some clearly very promising writers (although it has to be said that, although Gallagher and McLaughlan are new writers, Carr already has a good track record), combine to make this first part of the three year collaboration an undoubted huge success - and a hard act to follow.

Peter Lathan The British Theatre Guide

All is not what it seems at the Customs House this week. Unreal signals the launch of Cloud Nine Theatre Company's three-year New Writing partnership with The Customs House and there will be three one-act plays from aspiring Northern writers.

Alison Carr's Second Most Disappointing is set at the foot of the Angel of the North, where Alan and his step-daughter Louise are bickering during a day out.

Mysterious kiosk attendant Pamela (Tracy Gillman) charges them £15 seemingly for nothing but, as some brutally honest home truths come tumbling out, it seems like paying the charge may have been worth it after all.

This is a bittersweet play about the modern family. Carr's writing doesn't sugar-coat the truth, but it's refreshing to see such an honest account.

Double Nuts, by Louise Gallagher, is set in a mental institution where paranoid schizophrenic Tanya (Christina Dawson) is planning her escape. She knows she needs someone with a permanent home address to take her in under a conditional release, so she decides to find a boyfriend.

It seems easy as she starts chatting to the window cleaner (played by Louis Roberts), telling him she is the doctor's assistant and a romance quickly blossoms as they meet daily on their supposed tea breaks.

Dawson and Roberts display some great chemistry and you genuinely believe they are two people falling in love.

Finally, Mind Games sees Sam (Louis Roberts) get talking to a guy in the gents' toilets during his engagement party.

The man (played by Chris Connel), who never gives Sam his name, explains he is an old friend of Sam's fiancée, Nikki (Christina Dawson), but he is the last person Sam expected to see.

Joe McLaughlin's play features a moving story of best friends and tragedy. It's funny in places yet truly disturbing in others.

All in all, these three plays - all directed by Jackie Fielding and featuring the same four actors - are engaging and witty.

They tackle some really difficult subject matters with intelligence and sensitivity. Cloud Nine's partnership with The Customs House has unveiled some unreal talent.

Victoria Watson, Evening Chronicle

EVEN SCENE CHANGES HERE ARE ENTERTAINING

First seen in workshops and then as a script-in-hand performance in Hexham in 2007, the three short plays that make up Unreal were given their first full airing here [at the Customs House] on Tuesday.

The launch of Cloud Nine's latest trilogy marks the start of a three-year new writing partnership between the theatre company and the South Shields venue. It offers playwrights in the North East the chance to develop an idea for the stage through mentoring and writing weekends.

Unreal, an impressive showcase of the region's talent, is characterised by thoughtful, concise scripts, strong performances and even entertaining scene changes. Despite a maximum running time of 25 minutes, each play delves successfully into a relationship or complex condition of the human psyche.

We see a teenager and her stepdad wrestle with their insecurities at the foot of the Angel of the North in Second Most Disappointing by Alison Carr; a mental health patient plans her escape with a so-called window cleaner in Double Nuts by Louise Gallagher; and, in Joe McLaughlin's Mind Games, a guilt-ridden fiancé whose engagement party is spoilt by an uninvited guest.

Jackie Fielding's unfussy direction and a group of highly watchable actors bring out the humour and sensitivities in each play.

Chris Connel, who is soon to return to a national tour of The Pitmen Painters, makes an effortless transition from one character to another, while Cloud Nine debutante Tracy Gillman is weirdly wonderful as the perhaps not so crazy kiosk owner in Second Most Disappointing.

Louis Roberts and Christina Berriman Dawson also put in notable performances. Mention must also be made of Molly Barrett's simple but effective set, with changes cleverly linked by the cast.

Emily Taylor, The Journal, 4 June 2009

Following the decision of two leading new writing producers, The Customs House and Cloud Nine Productions, to join forces in a three year partnership, the first product of this exciting collaboration is Unreal - a show which comprises three brand new one-act plays.

The theme at the heart of each piece is that things aren't always as they first seem to be, that appearances can sometimes be deceptive. All three plays are directed by Jackie Fielding and are performed by Chris Connel, Tracy Gillman, Louis Roberts and Christina Berriman Dawson.

SECOND MOST DISAPPOINTING by Alison Carr

Set at the foot of The Angel of the North, the audience are introduced to Alan and Louise on a day out. The step-father and his teenage step-daughter are sharing some 'quality time' in an effort to form a relationship that will, at the very least, end up becoming mutually civil. However, as the pair bicker and snipe an enigmatic kiosk attendant, Pamela Frisbee, appears and informs them that an entrance fee is now applicable before they can absorb the cultural enlightenment that the monument has to offer. Apparently, the thinking behind this decision is that people will make more of an effort to enjoy themselves if they have paid for the privilege.

Superficially, the woman appears to be an eccentric charlatan who is out to con as many people as possible before she is rumbled. What transpires, though, is quite different and her bizarre interference actually initiates a real connection between Alan and Louise.

To begin with, I was sceptical about the piece and assumed that the playwright's intentions were to be as off-the-wall, wacky and quirky as possible in an attempt to be seen as 'cutting edge'. I have to admit that I was wrong. Carr's writing is punchy, honest and believable and the performances are first-rate. Chris Connel and Christina Berriman Dawson, as Alan and Louise, are completely convincing and beautifully understated, whilst Tracy Gillman is the perfect foil as barmy Pamela.

DOUBLE NUTS by Louise Gallagher

The second piece is located in a mental health institute where Tanya, a paranoid schizophrenic patient, is planning her escape. Attempting to convince her doctor that a break from the institute would be beneficial to her treatment programme, she is informed that an appropriate adult with a fixed home address is required to act as a carer and take responsibility for her well-being. As she digests this information, a chance encounter with an affable window-cleaner, Paul, seems to present the perfect solution. Claiming to be PA to the doctor, a romance burgeons between the pair as they meet regularly on their 'tea breaks'. What Tanya doesn't realise is that she is not the only one who has not been entirely honest about who and what she really is.

Christina Berriman Dawson (Tanya) and Louis Roberts (Paul) are a delight to watch and the scenes that they share are genuinely touching. The script and the performances compel the audience to reconsider their initial conceptions of people who are affected by mental health issues.

MIND GAMES by Joe McLaughlin

Perhaps the strangest setting of the evening is that of a gents' toilet. During his engagement party, Sam (Louis Roberts) sneaks off to the loo for a sly ciggie and makes small talk with another man (Chris Connel). But how does this apparent stranger know so much about Sam? And how does he seem so anonymous, yet so familiar? The ensuing conversation develops into a taut, psychological thriller that has the audience on the edge of their seats throughout.

Focusing on themes of friendship, jealousy, tragedy and retribution, McLaughlin's script is magnificent. The dialogue goes back and forth like a game of verbal tennis and, as is the case throughout the three plays, the performances are stunning.

The Customs House and Cloud Nine Productions are to be commended for their determination in showcasing the work of upcoming new playwrights and their foresight looks set to ensure that live theatre in the North East has an exciting and vibrant future ahead.

Ian Cain, The Public Reviews

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