Review – Four by Four present The Ripple Effect by David Pollard – Thank you to Suzanne Hawkes for this guest review.
Four by Four is a collaboration of four East Anglian playwrights who work together to bring their productions to the stage, and I want to say from the start that anyone who finishes a play and manages to get it up and running is to be applauded ( pun intended!)
The plot centres around the fictitious Bracegirdle college, which was established and run by the Hardy family. The college is financially on its knees, and is built on a secret that is likely to sink it if it gets out in the open.
The current master, Evan Hardy, and his brother Julian are soliciting a wealthy American, Edwina Slattery, and her tame lawyer, who have been tasked by her father’s will to find an English college for his ‘Americana’ Archive. Bracegirdle College was established on its own significant archive of one Thomas Wyatt. Unfortunately, as the Hardy brothers know, it’s all a fake.
They need the American’s money, and they need the secret to remain hidden. Unfortunately for them Evan’s daughter Kathy is going out with a post grad student, Tom, who she has allowed access to the fake archive for his thesis, which if published will expose the whole deceit.
As a work in progress there are a lot of good ideas in the play, and it is always interesting to explore a moral dilemma. However, at the moment the play is just too static and wordy. The characters need to find their own voice and a back story, as they are all a bit two dimensional, and their motivations are unclear or unbelievable. If we don’t care about the characters how can the audience be invested in them?
There also needs to be a dramatic arc. None of the characters seem to have anything to gain or lose in spite of the complicated plot. There needs to be jeopardy to bring it all to life.
The cast did their best with the material. Probably the best fleshed out character is Evan Hardy played by Rob Aldous and Elizabeth Elliott gave the character of Helen some animation.
I do think it would be worth going back to the drawing board with this one. The play has potential but could do with some more work.
Suzanne Hawkes
The Ripple Effect is at The Studio at Eastern Angles until Saturday 27th September – to book tickets visit their website Eastern Angles
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