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Ambitious plays in need of directorial editing
(L to R) Jade Ogugua as Vi, Joe Barber as Laurie and Tim Treloar as Mick [The Other Richard]

 

 

O, Island
★★★
Ivy Tiller, Vicar’s Daughter, Squirrel Killer

The Other Place
Stratford-Upon-Avon

THE post-Covid re-emergence of the RSC’s Mischief Festival in its Stratford studio theatre, designed to introduce new writing, features a double bill of two ambitious short plays full of topical references, both in need of directorial editing.

O, Island by Nina Seagal is a dystopian parable set in a Home Counties village not a million miles from Ambridge, isolated by river floodwaters.

It moves from knock-about comedy, with the local Tory MP determined at all costs to snatch a publicity photograph of his heroic rescuing performance, being rejected by the villagers, who establish an independent islet state led by the articulate, grandmotherly Margaret.

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