The biannual JB Shorts showcase of new writing has, impressively, now hit its 25th edition, fifteen years after its launch as a one-off event in the cellar at Joshua Brooks pub in Manchester, and is still a cheap but rewarding night out at the theatre (if you want to hear about its origins and history, listen to my chat with Trevor Suthers and James Quinn for the BTG podcast). There are now 144 short plays that wouldn't have existed but for this event, which is quite an achievement.
This time, the front section of the audience in front of the raked bench seating are around cabaret-style tables, which on the one hand gives a more casual feel but on the other creates a barrier between the performers and the majority of the audience.
The opening piece, Railway Sleepers by Peter Kerry, directed by Reuben Johnson, is set in the first class carriage of a train on its way to London. The trip for Frank (Will Travis) and Esther (Sue McCardle) has been paid for by his boss, Johnny—probably not his real name as he is Chinese, Frank says—to do something important that they don't seem sure about. He is pondering how to reply to his good luck text from Johnny and is a little cynical about fellow passenger Cheryl's (Rosa Brooks) offer to help as, though a professional writer, she looks too young. This is occasionally interrupted by train manager Siobhan's (Emma Grace Arends) announcements, to which she always has to add a witty comment.
While it could do with some tightening up in places and there are some story elements that lead nowhere except to a gag, the sudden and perhaps odd ending fits as the ground has been laid well for it to work, so you are expecting if not this exact ending then something like it.
The Exact Spot by Trevor Suthers, directed by Helen Parry, takes us to Ireland and the exact spot where an awful incident occurred in 1895. We only see a lamp post, but we are told there used to be a path from which you shouldn't stray as there is a bog on one side and a fairy fort on the other, now concreted over. The event is a real one from history: the death of Bridget Boland, the last woman to be burned as a witch in Ireland, and the two men, Jack (John Joyce-O'Keefe) and Michael (Brandon McCaffrey), are here to commemorate or investigate the incident. Bridget (Stephanie Wallace) is passing by looking for something it seems Jack has found but is denying doing so, but then they accuse her of actually being Bridget Boland and a witch.
There are some excellent performances and some moments that grip, though other parts are left ambiguous, including perhaps the ending, and the significance of some things, such as the bread and jam, may only really be fully understood by someone who knows the original story.
The first half ends with JB's first ever one-person show, as Zoe Iqbal performs her own piece, Erotic Novel Gone Wrong, directed by Paris Rogers, as an author who has recently quit her job as a primary school teacher after having some success as a blogger under the name Flange Gasket. The audience is cast in the role of the attendees at the launch of her first erotic novel, called Erotic Novel Gone Wrong, which seems more like a memoir of her encounter with good-looking masseuse Marcello, who diagnoses a blockage in her sexual energy and offers to help her to release it.
For a play that is almost a character stand-up comedy piece, there's plenty about the character and the script that works well and is very funny, but on press night it felt like she was struggling to reach past the tables to get a rapport with the audience and so the comic timing could have been better, though I'm sure she will get this as she settles into the run, and it is still a piece to enjoy.
Rebekah Harrison makes her JB debut after the interval with You Can't Kill the Spirit, directed by Martha Simon. In a week that the BBC is re-showing Threads, a film that still gives those of us who were forced to watch it at school in the early '80s nightmares, this play thrusts us back into a time when we were growing up genuinely believing that nuclear war with the Russians was a strong possibility. Chantal Amber Rose is Helen, who leaves her five kids with her reluctant husband to march from Cardiff to Greenham Common in 1981 to begin what became a famous protest against American nuclear missiles on British soil that went on for years.
The story is told mostly in narration, with Megan Hickie and Michelle Ashton, both billed as 'Storyteller', filling in both with plot description and with playing other female and male characters in Helen's story, in which she suffers great personal loss to fight for something she believes is of great importance to her kids' future. Perhaps it is partly because I was around at the time, but I found the piece quite moving.
Who's the Dummy by Dave Simpson, co-directed by James Quinn and Amelia Griffiths, is a rare stage outing of that familiar horror film trope of the ventriloquist dummy who may be controlling the ventriloquist, though that is kept nicely ambiguous here. Daniel Brennan is mild-mannered ventriloquist Jack, while Vicky Binns is terrifyingly good as foul-mouthed, offensive dummy Sunny. Jack's partner Polly (Yemisi Oyinloye) tells him that a TV producer is interested in putting him on Britain's Got Talent, but he would have to clean up the language in the act for a family audience, which may mean getting rid of Sunny. If you've seen the films that are a bit like this, you'll know it can't end well. And what did happen to Jack's first wife...?
Perhaps the ending could be a little tighter as it feels drawn-out, but this a strong, very well performed piece with both laughs and chills that may give you nightmares.
Fortunately, Diane Whitley and Lindsay Williams provide something considerably lighter to end on with Hens, directed by Joyce Branagh with her usual fast pace and energy. Mia (Haylie Jones) has arranged this hen do in Barcelona for her mother Susie (Jo Dakin), hitting the museums before the bars, but her mum would have preferred Benidorm. Accompanying them are Susie's shy friend Mo (Krissie Bohn) and loud Susie (Verity Henry), who wasn't strictly speaking invited, plus a life-sized inflatable man who stands in for a few characters as they tell us their story—well, they're actually telling it to the Spanish police.
There is a visit to an escape room set in Chernobyl, arranged by Mia but that interests no one else, and some stolen or lost passports that may not actually have been stolen or lost, but all of this is packed into a short running time in a way that somehow makes sense and provides a fun and lively finale to send the audience on their way.
Another mixed bag of styles, moods and subject matter from JB means there is something for most people to enjoy in the friendly atmosphere of 53two, so as always it's well worth a visit.