The Old Hairdressers, 13th-15th November
I am glad to have attended the opening and closing nights of STAG Nights: Shadows. The third night followed the same structure, with a double drag act moderating three plays written, directed, and performed by students, with the theme of ‘Shadows’.
This drag act was by two men, whose jokes made most of the audience laugh, but made me feel uncomfortable in their profanity and insensitivity to sexism. I also had trouble understanding them, due to a lack of projection over the audience’s laughter.
The first play was Like Rabbits, a horrific play about two people locked in a room in a zombie-virus dystopia governed by artificial intelligence. I am amazed at how much horror the bed, two actors, voice from the off, and lighting could create in such a short time.
Although wrapped in Betty Swollocks and Maggie Suff’s obscene jokes, this night’s plays were less upbeat than the first night’s, and touched deeper emotionally as well as. The second play, Shadow Cabinet, was a satire of the British Shadow Cabinet system, as well as a criticism of sexism in politics. Ridiculed by her cabinet, the Shadow Minister of Foreign Affair tries to be productively politically engaged, while her cabinet, consisting of men, parties. The play ends with her colleague telling her to just keep her head down and stay in the background.
Saboteur closed the festival on a high. I am impressed at the writer having come up with such an intensely thrilling plot in which four friends had to escape a spooky castle by solving riddles. With crazy jumps, an actor was a creature in the house. Not only was their speed and athleticism impressive, but through the sounds they made and the way they moved they seemed not human, but creature-like. The play ended with two of the women admitting their feeling to each other. This made me very happy, because it was a sweet, honest, and realistic portrayal of women loving women.
Just like after the first night, I was in awe at what students had created within a month. I had a lot of fun attending STAG Nights and will do so next year as well!
Click here to see our review of night one of STaG Nights: Shadows.
[Leilo Albrecht @Leilo34601343]
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