ADC
Dir: Scarlett Creme
Three and a half stars

Week Eight is a strange time for Cambridge theatre. Potential lateshow goers are perhaps distracted by thoughts of home, ‘lash’ and ‘Woods’. And it seemed that ‘DAD’, the final lateshow of term suffered as a result, as it opened tonight to a relatively empty house. A great shame, because this, the (probably) deserved winner of the Harry Potter Prize, in this, the 125th year of the Cambridge Footlights, was a charming and provocative piece of theatre. Kudos must be given to Team Creme (sorry), who have had little over two weeks to cast and rehearse, as the first performance occasionally evinced. There were moments of hesitation and mistiming, line stumbles, incongruous gesturing and intonation and ostensibly unintended stasis, but a lack of time to prepare didn’t detract significantly from the overall quality of the piece and what the cast lacked in readiness, they made up for in pure dynanism and chemistry, which the small crowd relished.

After a stumbling start, the whole thing picked up pace and ran nicely. It was carried, or at least led along by the performance of Ellie Ross, who seemed comfortable and in control from the off. She played ‘Alex’ - Scarlett Creme’s best drawn and most convincing character – with great skill. The most memorable moment of Ross’ performance, and of the play as a whole, came as she played to the object of her ambivalence, Louis (Ben Hayward), a Drum & Bass track produced by her friend (‘the bassline represents the banging of the headboard’). The combination of these two, both as characters and actors, was engaging and often hilarious. I wish I had space enough to praise each actor in suitable depth: Lowri Amies (Grandma) and Tamara Waxman (Aunty J) were both predictably zealous and consistently amusing. Hayley Richardson and Lauren Cooney seemed more restricted by their characters – playing Shel and Caro respectively – but both performances were commendable.

The direction was competent, with a suitable amount of freedom given to the actors, and in the most part, Crème’s script was impressive. Aside from a few minor weaknesses – including the defalcation of Sylvia Plath’s ‘Daddy’, which in this context just seemed somewhat bathetic – it worked very well. Funny and touching to its chaotic and cacophonous end, it was punctured by a suitably sobering denouement. Given time, and the bigger audience that it deserves, this could become a really remarkable show. See it.

Liam Williams

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