By John Gibson. Venue 295 – Central Hall – Auditorium

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This is a show presented by Greenhill School.  Greenhill is an award-winning private school with specialisms in film and athletics.  Watching this play was akin to a sales pitch of those elements of the curriculum.  Some of the students had acting prowess whilst others look more at home on the track. The major problem lies with the choice of venue which (for the festival) is one of the grandest and hardest to justify.  The cast’s performances could not fill the space consistently and the varying sound effects and volume (as well as the delivery from the actors) made the first act hard to follow.  

Finally, the story about a game of tag with water-guns, which culminates in the real-life shooting of one of the students (because he was masked and his gun was taped to look real) is an insult to real victims of gun violence.  The blame for this lies with whoever decided to remove the obvious issue of race from the argument and instead created a safe (but ultimately pointless) space for the students to inhabit.