Acting Company at Cranleigh Arts Centre

Once again, Ezra and his committed band of actors brought their own kind of dramatic challenge and stillness to the stage of Cranleigh Arts Centre, with two demanding short plays examining the challenges of the human condition. The outcome of three terms of extracurricular commitment to drama, this impressively talented company (see their names at the end) worked together seamlessly and professionally to create provocative, often uncomfortable, but always stimulating, entertainment.

The first piece, John Proctor is a Villain, by Kimberley Belflower, offered a modern rethinking of Arthur Miller’s classic play The Crucible, one that challenged certain presumptions, political and societal, about both masculinity and femininity in our contemporary world. The Long Road, by Shelagh Stephenson, was a more intimate examination of the repercussions of a senseless murder on both the victim’s family as well as the perpetrator, raising questions about nurture, neglect and outcome.

Both were entertaining company pieces in very different ways. The former was more collectively celebratory in giving direct voice to female perspectives, exploring that energy through interactive dance and sound. The latter, a discomfiting exploration of human alienation and isolation, used finely spliced interludes of clashing family responses, presenting the passage of grief as indeed a very long road.

Both plays, however, hinted at the ultimate dawning of some kind of acceptance, the awareness of different ways of seeing the world, through the eyes of others, which is surely the aim of theatre itself. As ever, the students worked across changing roles with a professional integrity that belied their years and the considerable demands of their A Level studies. Bravo to Ezra, George, Ali, and Chris and all the Hurtwood crew for bringing this to the intimate stage of our local Arts Centre (which was originally the village school) And hurrah indeed for all the truly impressive young actors for inviting us to enlarge, just a little, our understanding of a complex and frustrating world.

Cast list

John Proctor is the Villain

Zach Fattouki, Bea Potts, Victoria Striegler, Tabitha Louw, Joah Jacobs, Amelia Skelton, Sofya Chechkina, Ioanna Apostolou, Boris Mihaylov

The Long Road

Finlay Gilbert, Bea Potts, Louisa England, Eliana Scarborough, Joah Jacobs