Since their first collaboration in July last year director James Savin and playwright David K. O’Hara have been popping up at various Oxford venues. On Monday and Wednesday they were upstairs at the Jericho Tavern with two one-act plays.
Finland, the opening piece, is a new work on its first outing. Laura Penneycard and Paul Ansdell play a couple (Abigail and Alex) waiting anxiously in a hospital where their young son is critically ill. Alex is an optimist convinced everything will turn out all right. Abigail imagines the worst. They argue, share memories, and ponder how they came to be where they are.
Details never quite add up and issues remain unresolved. I enjoyed it but didn’t feel the tension was quite there. This was the opening night, though. This is the most naturalistic play O’Hara has written so far.
Bookends, first seen last year, is in contrast a witty play about narrative where nothing is quite what it seems. Karina Sugden is hilarious as the zany bookshop assistant, Regine, and Russell Woodhead equally good as the nerdy customer. The play explores the way we invent fictions about ourselves and others, and how these are informed by and influence our reading.
Ideas of plot and character are cleverly subverted. In the final scene Jeremy metamorphoses into a bookshop assistant and Regine into a customer. There are many funny moments in the piece.
Bookends features in the Lost Theatre One Act Festival in London tomorrow.
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