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Theatre listings > Class Act 2005. Writers - On 30 Nov there were 13 Plays by pupils from Musselburgh Grammar School. Details. Other schools partcipating were West Calder High School, Peebles High School, The Royal High School and The James Young High School. Script Workshop Leader - Alan Wilkins. Directors - Lorne Campbell, Kate Nelson and Clare Prenton. Company - Traverse Theatre Company Company Website. Cast - here . Venue - Traverse Theatre Cambridge Street Edinburgh. 0131 228 1404.. Dates - 29 & 30 Nov, 1 Dec 2005 at 7.30pm. Run Time - 110 minutes including an interval. Reviewer - Lorna Lythgoe. Overall sophisticated and impressive. It's the second night of performances springing from the Traverse Theatre's annual flagship education project, Class Act. During the four month project, children from Lothian schools write five minute plays that are workshopped by professional playwrights and actors. Taking to the main stage tonight is Mussleburgh Grammar School's Advanced Higher English group. Switching roles every few minutes, the eleven professional actors give consistently stella performances. With no costume changes, and sets and props kept to a minimum, these versatile performers are variously chilling, human or sinister, with great comic delivery and body language. Their reading from scripts soon ceases to be a distraction, and in fact becomes a point of praise - it is testimony to their skill that they perform unmemorised scripts without missing a beat. It is clear the actors contributed immensely to the success of the plays with their interpretations. With no thematic restraints, the thirteen plays by sixteen pupils are diverse (some oddball, others astute or intense), revealing the individuality of these 16 and 17 year old playwrights. The Hazards of Friendship, by Alan Grant, is a particular success, getting a roaring audience response to its witty and fresh dialogue. Grant knows how to write believable characters, and his ability to smoothly introduce a dark and ominous atmosphere is a credit to him. Suzanne Quinn's powerful piece, The Riverbank, is instantly dangerous and intimidating. The main character's vulnerability, emphasised by her pregnancy, makes the spiral into disaster seem inescapable. Not that the ending is predictable. Far from it - it is an imaginative result of domestic violence. Apart from a few unnecessary lines at the very end, The Riverbank hit the nail on the head. An undeniable hit is The Revolution Will Not Have An Itinerary by Aidan Simpson, a playwright who clearly knows his stuff. Adopting every kind of humour, from clever jibes to comic portrayals of exasperating everyday human behaviour, Simpson appeals to the full spectrum of audience members, young and old, from Little Britain viewer to Have I Got News For You viewer. Mark Lambert's A Dinner to Remember is particularly memorable. The subject of an ex-couple accidentally being reunited at dinner by mutual friends and the ensuing bickering seems to strike a chord with the adult audience, whose knowing chuckles reveal, oh, how true it is! Lambert does well to portray this unfortunate relationship type so convincingly. There are some short-comings with certain plays, but the overall results are sophisticated and impressive. All I can say is you'd better keep an eye out for some of these playwrights names in the theatre listings of tomorrow. © Lorna Lythgoe 30 November 2005 - Published on EdinburghGuide.com Article about the Class Act Project. Cast - Ross Allan, Katrina Bryan, Ewan Donald, Simon Donaldson, Elaine Mckenzie Ellis, David Fitzgerald, Lesley Hart, John Kazek, Alasdair Lay, Kirsten McLean, and Laura Smales. Details of the Plays. Medical Mishap by Lianne Cairns & Rachel Sim. Breakdown by Emma Louden & Lauren Burr. Sisterly Love by Suzanne Tough. Bold Soldier Boy by Dean Mohammad & Eve McDonald. The Riverbank by Suzanne Quinn. The Hazards of Friendship by Alan Grant. Only Fools and Pharmacists by Alison Perry. A Dinner to Remember by Mark Lambert. Purgatory by Amanda Keppie. Silence by Emma Arnott. The Search for Intelligent Life by John Surtees. Inside by Emma Warnock. The Revolution Will Not Have an Itinerary by Aidan Simpson. Theatre Editor, Thelma Good's e-mail is thelma@edinburghguide.com Although every effort has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the information presented in these pages, no responsibility can be accepted for any errors or omissions. Theatre listings >
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