Samantha O’Rourke Archives - North West End UK

Our Town Needs a Nandos – theSpace on the Mile

10Aug

By Jessie MartinNo Comments

Scotland

Our Town Needs a Nandos – theSpace on the Mile

Up and coming Edinburgh-based theatre company Hot Mess Productions, brings their rendition of Samantha O’Rourke’s, Our Town Needs a Nandos to the Edinburgh Fringe. The play sees a group of young girls in high school work on creating a devised piece for their drama exam. In a run-down town with not much to do, this is a coming-of-age story where friendships are tested, sexuality is explored, and the girls shared experience of sexual violence is at the forefront. Each girl faces a sense of displacement, whether that be down to emigration, isolation, or repression. The cast of five work well together, clearly taking their strong bonds from the rehearsal room to the stage. Each cast member is believable as an unruly teenager finding their feet in the world, hitting ...

Sleeping Beauty – Storyhouse Chester

Back for their 8th Christmas Season, we have another Storyhouse original production, this time the classic Sleeping Beauty, but as usual, done in their own way. This year, Storyhouse have tried something different and produced their show on the proscenium stage rather than the thrust stage. This gives them more scope to include a bigger set and more stage magic including flying and pyrotechnics. It does feel like it loses a little bit of magic not having the cast as close as usual as in the past, with the audience surrounding the stage and the cast entering through the audience at times but what they have done with this year’s set and storytelling makes up for that. Written by Samantha O’Rourke who also wrote last year Cinderella, we are taken on a journey of love, self-discovery and be...

Our Town Needs a Nando’s – Everyman Theatre

Teenage girls deserve epic stories. These girls certainly do. The young cast, many making their professional debuts, look incredibly comfortable on stage. Talented, charismatic, and appropriately self-assured, these girls *did* deserve an epic story. I’m sad to say unfortunately they did not find one in Our Town Needs A Nando’s. Samantha O’Rourke’s script has a great humorous sensibility which is delivered with expert precision by Nadia Anim, Chloe Hughes, Mali O’Donnell, Kalli Tant and Jada-Li Warrican. Its comedy is its strongest asset. Mocking the clichéd banality of GCSE Drama shows about drugs justly earns raucous laughter from the audience. However, whilst it may be funny, O’Rourke’s text is missing too many key components of story to hold our interest. The script meanders thro...