Gregory's Girl
16th Sept 2014
Based on the 80s film by Bill Forsyth but brought up to date
and set the north east of England, this is a light hearted look at teenage
angst – all the things that teenagers worry about – love, sex and football!
The boys are either obsessed with girls or football or both,
and the girls are obsessed with boys. The play follows a group of final year
students as they navigate their way through puberty – discovering the joys and
horrors of changing bodies, emotions, hormones and the opposite sex. It’s a
combination guaranteed to create comic situations and indeed it does.
The comedy is a given, and this young cast definitely
provided the one liners. The teenage shrugs and sighs and the youthful lust was
well portrayed by the gang of hormone ridden boys. The romantic aspect was less
obvious. This is quite subtle in comparison and was the weakest part of the production
for me. The key relationship is the ‘almost’
love triangle of Gregory (Simon Stuart), Dorothy (Alex Carmichael) and Susan
(Anna Robinson). Susan likes Gregory, Gregory likes Dorothy, and Dorothy likes
football. The Gregory –Dorothy attraction, and the Dorothy-football attraction
were obvious, but it took me quite a while to suss out the Susan-Gregory link. I’d
have liked Susan to have had a much
stronger presence in the play.
Overall it was a good evening with plenty of laughs from the
audience, which is always a good sign, and some good performances – Simon Stuart
in the lead role as the awkward Gregory, Arthur Thorpe as his much put-upon
mate Andy, and Colin Jeffrey as Phil the football coach in particular, but
everyone put in a great effort. The set was simple, with some very smooth prop
changes by the cast (I thought it was just me who was impressed by such things
but Lynn spotted them too!) though I am a little concerned that the goal posts might
not have lasted the week!
And of course some great music!
Gregory’s Girl plays till tomorrow night (Sat 20th
Sept).
Denise Sparrowhawk
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