The perfect night at the theatre
Regular theatregoers are excited about the return of Union Shorts, an annual feature of Union Theatre’s programme in The Noughties and known as one of the best season of short plays on the Fringe, writes Michael Holland.
It became a victim of Covid and has only just been resuscitated by the originator Sasha Regan who has once more brought together actors, writers, directors all pulling the same way for each other in the hope that one, some or all hit the big time – or at least make a living from the thing they love the most.
The beauty of Shorts is that if you don’t like one then another will be along very soon, but with this selection there was nothing so bad you wanted it to end. In fact, for me, most of the plays were tasters of something more, teasers for ‘but what if…?’; so good I wanted them to be beefed up and developed into a rounded, satisfying whole, and not just be given a short scene from the main event. They left me salivating for more, and perhaps that is a good thing.
Among the most interesting was Released on Licence(Paul McNally) where a Just Stop Oil university student from a good background was let out of jail on the same day as a loud and proud sex worker. On the train back to the city the good time girl convinced the other one – with her “librarian vibe” – to join her industry instead of throwing paint over works of art. I wanted the entire back stories of these two women; I wanted to feel the anger and trauma that made these two do what they did.
Another one – Six Pack(Amelia Pike) – created more questions than answers when a young man was found chained to the wall in his girlfriend’s flat by the girlfriend’s brother and they share a few beers together. The end. There were some excellent comic lines in this.
Photo Finish(Guy Newsham) gave us two sisters going through their recently deceased mother’s things and realising that she had been cheating on their father for years. With who? Why? The Pandora’s Box of photos also opened up an intriguing sibling rivalry laced with subterfuge…
The undercurrent of comedy and misery blended well in this.
Responsible, Like(Kieran O’Flaherty) took us into a world of the gay son finding his long-lost gay dad and discussing their gay relationships and the possibility of both couples adopting children. My head was blown when the WTF twist was dropped and struggled to work out who was who after that bombshell.
Boyfriend Material(Martina Cohen) was a multifaceted, complex piece of work involving a cast of eight and revolving around several relationships that constantly changed from one to the other, leaving you no time to process what was going on. And then it ends.
But on the journey home it all settles into place. Those people and their situations were a microcosm of the Western World; life as we try to know it was on display for us to look at and point at the bits we can relate to: “Yes, that’s me right there… I know that person… I’ve done that too…” A mirror was held up to us and what it reflected wasn’t always what we wanted to see.
In this selection of Union Shorts we saw some excellent acting and several great characters who I hope to see return in longer pieces, but until then this evening of shorts is the perfect night at the theatre.
Union Theatre, Old Union Arches, 229 Union Street, SE1 0LR until 11th April. Tickets: £15, £12. 7.30pm.
Booking and Full Details: www.uniontheatre.biz
