|
|
|
|
National
Award-Winning Playwright brings Madness, Murder and Mystery to Girton
Girton will see the
premier of two new works from award-winning playwright Gytha Lodge. Gytha, never
one to typecast herself as a playwright, is offering two widely different tales,
linked only by a rather dark brand of humour and a love of overturning
expectations. The
Death of Arnold Balham is a
late 20s murder-mystery, but one with a difference. We meet at its start three
people decided on murder: the dominating but soon-to-be-divorced wife, the
prickly, sarcastic Fabia and the hapless song-writer Lawrence. They want to kill
for three very ordinary reasons. But the complex relationships of Sir Arnold and
his family and a series of increasingly chaotic incidents begin to get in the
way. It gradually becomes apparent that one of the three will become more of a
victim than Arnold. By turns comic,
gripping and unsettling, The Death of
Arnold has a lot to say about the fiction it mimics, while always going
beyond it. Certain to be liked by murder mystery fanatics, and those who want
something with more depth in their dramas. Otherwise,
the second play in the double-bill, has its mysteries as well, but these
mysteries are a lot less straight-forward to untangle. The play opens with Harry
Holland being interviewed in a police cell. It is the morning after a heavy
night, one that Harry can’t quite remember. He isn’t sure what he’s done,
but in re-telling the parts he can still recall, he tries desperately to control
his account of events and ensure that he gets away with whatever he’s done.
But his battle for control is doomed to failure as everything unravels, and he
finds that he is fighting with his own memory for the life of the woman he
loves. Gytha is fresh from
collecting the Geoffrey Whitworth Trophy, the prestigious prize awarded to the
best new play from all the drama festivals across Britain each year. Her winning
piece was The Funeral of Macie Loverett, also
premiered in Girton. It was tagged as a play about “Death, relationships,
feuding families, potato salad… and a bit more death.” A running theme, even
across three such different plays? “It isn’t just
about death, and it certainly isn’t about gore,” Gytha says. “My last
full-scale production achieved a body count of thirteen, but I deliberately kept
six of those off-stage, and it was Renaissance Italy. Really, it’s just that I
love taking characters and putting them into strange situations. Everything has
been caused by people and their different aims, desires, frustrations and
secrets. But the events end up controlling them in return, and it’s extremes
and breaking-points that interest me the most. I always wonder what I would do
if something horrific happened and I felt like I was to blame, or if someone
betrayed me totally.” The
Death of Arnold Balham/Otherwise are showing at Girton Glebe
School, Friday
9th and Saturday
10th October. Tickets are
available from girtonplayers@yahoo.co.uk,
from Girton Post Office and Walkers’ Newsagents.
Tickets £8, concessions £6
|
|
Copyright© Girton Players 2002-2008 |
