It was an absolute delight to return to the Isle of Man as the adjudicator for the 2016 One Act Play Festival this February.
The event takes place in a first class setting, the Erin Arts Centre; the town is blessed to have such an excellent facility. What also impressed me was the enthusiasm of the groups, youth and adult, to bring to the stage a range of challenging and entertaining plays. There were five youth entries involving over thirty, talented young people. All those young performers were totally committed to their roles and fully understood how to bring to stage life complex ideas and sensitive issues. They used a range of performance styles and it was clear that the directors involved in shaping the work had brought the best out of those young performers from St Ninian’s School, Broadway Theatre Company, Stage One Drama and the Youth Arts Centre. Sometimes young actors are not given sufficiently engaging material to work with; that is certainly not true of the Isle of Man. I was able to see the width of the talent pool when judging the first round of The Young Actor of Man; trying to achieve the almost impossible in selecting eight finalists from a crop of 21 very fine performers.
The adult drama scene is also thriving. What a range of plays! Spoofs of ‘Strictly’, original dramas drawing on stories about the coming of Christianity, tales of injustice and broken hearts as well as reminiscences on age, the horror of war and the pain of separation: the full gamut was presented by talented directors, designers and actors.
It was also good to see full houses supporting the work of the local groups; all absorbed and engaged, keen to share their own views and opinions on what they had watched on the stage. I very much enjoyed sharing my thoughts about the productions with the audiences throughout the week.
Finally, it was a friendly festival. There was tremendous kindness and hospitality extended by all involved in running the event so efficiently. I very much enjoyed my visit.
- Robert Meadows, GoDA