Review: The Losters

‘The Losters’ is good, but would be better with a second draft and some tightening.

The opening to the show went on for far too long. With only the entrance of four people, in the darkness, with a boring song playing, it felt slow and awkward. Fortunately this picked up.

After the opening I liked the characterisation of the four chavs from the council estate, and the slight but well-chosen colours in the costumes made for a nice image on the stage.

At points, some of the actions were overplayed. The excessive inhaling of cigarettes and the over enthusiastic ‘drinking from cans’ felt uncomfortable, but the use of props did improve slightly as the show went on particularly with the entrance of the body.

Amber Page-Moss gave a lovely performance as Stella, with lots of emotion in all the right places. However, the original script (Thomas Folley), whilst allowing for dramatic tension in isolated moments, failed to build up to the drama, and often some of the sudden outbursts by the characters felt out of place and random.

Katherine Scorer also gave a wonderful performance. Vocally she was strong, and I would have liked to have seen more of her. Her final scene with Page-Moss was lovely, and one of the highlights of the show. Aditya Balasubramanian provided good comedy and had refreshingly believable chemistry with Scorer.

Robinson’s ‘Brickhouse Theatre Company’ offers a solid outing with new student writing by Folley.

Whilst I found it hard to connect with Elliot Wright as Clash, he did well to carry such a heavy story line, and I think he too suffered a little from the script. That said, his screaming toward the end of the play was chilling and incredibly effective, and he must taken credit for the intensity he managed.

Despite ups and downs in the quality of the script, including when some of audience appeared confused as ‘it all got so dark so quickly’, the actors as a whole drove through. The entrance of Mihai Bica , with his impressively consistent accent, brought a new energy to the piece which was definitely needed, even if the story did get a little lost here and there.

The switch from comedy to sincerity was perhaps too fast and some of the more thought-provoking moments were lost because of this. This was not helped by the scene changes. Although they were clearly organised there was just not enough urgency. With no music or dialogue over the top they fractured the drama, and took away from the tension and suspense. However, the lighting, whilst simple, was nice and effective.

This play was good. As isolated moments of drama the script was great, but as a full play it was a little disjointed. This will no doubt improve as the run goes on, and it should not take away from what is a good piece of new student writing.

I would recommend seeing this piece and would suggest keeping your eyes open for more of Folley’s work.

62% – a 2:1

The Losters, Brickhouse Theatre Company, Robinson College Auditorium, 11th-13th February 19.00 – 21.30; 14th February 14.00 – 16.30. Tickets: £6 / £5.