VERNON GOD LITTLE
Court Theatre Pub Charity Studio, Christchurch
28/06/2018 - 30/06/2018
Production Details
YOUNG ACTORS TAKE THE STAGE IN SOLD-OUT SHOW AT THE COURT THEATRE
The Court Theatre’s Youth Company will be tackling a terrifyingly relevant, comic and playful story this June when they take to the stage to perform Vernon God Little.
The Court Youth Company is a training and performance company for young performers aged 17 – 21. Members audition in November to spend the following year at The Court with the company, meeting twice a week for three hours to learn and practise skills that help them produce two plays over the course of the year. Vernon God Little is their first performance as a company.
The play follows teenager Vernon after his best friend instigates a school shooting, murdering sixteen of his classmates before turning the gun on himself. This leaves Vernon as the scapegoat for a tragedy that quickly gathers the attention of television reporter Eulalio “Lally” Ledesma.
“It’s a crazy, whirlwind story,” said Rachel Sears, The Court’s Programmes Manager (Education, Training and Jesters), who has been overseeing the project.
“The Court Youth Company is made up of some of Canterbury’s most talented young actors. They’re all creative performers who want to stretch themselves – and the way they’ve approached this story and have gotten into the characters makes me feel like it’s the right play for them to be doing,” she said.
William Burns, a Court Youth Company alumni, has re-joined the company in a new capacity for Vernon God Little. He is co-directing the play alongside director and performer Tom Eason, who is one half of Canterbury theatre company Two Productions.
For Burns, his previous experience with The Court Youth Company has been invaluable.
“I was in The Court Youth Company over the last two years and did four shows with the company. I met Tom Eason through the Company who is co-directing this show with me now and I also teach younger kids drama at The Court, which all started through being selected for The Court Youth Company and getting those connections.”
Coming back to the company as a director, rather than an actor, has been an exciting challenge for Burns.
“It’s been a really good creative challenge for me being back in the room in a different position. What’s exciting about this show is how fast-paced it is – it’s the fastest script I’ve ever read. Every actor in the company gets a place to shine and their moment in the spot-light.”
With over twenty characters, The Court Youth Company have their work cut out for them bringing Vernon God Little to life. Based on the Booker Prize winning novel by DBC Pierre, Sears thinks it has been a fantastic opportunity for the company’s young actors – as well as the professional practitioners at The Court.
“These young performers remind us why we got into theatre because they’ve got a huge amount of passion for the project. It’s a learning opportunity for them, but also for the professionals that they’re working with. It connects us with the emerging performers of the future, which is invaluable for a theatre.”
One such performer, Miriam Qualls, who will be playing a range of characters in Vernon God Little, has already made the jump from The Court Youth Company to The Court Theatre’s mainstage, having played Lavinia in Titus Andronicus earlier this year.
As for what audiences can expect from this fast-paced, black comedy, Burns promises a thrilling and topical performance that he thinks will resonate strongly with its connection to the spate of school shootings in America.
“Audiences can expect a fast-paced and exciting comedy with young people really pushing themselves to their limits.”
With performances already sold out, keen viewers will have to wait until The Court Youth Company’s next performance, Children of the Night, in December.
Vernon God Little
The Pub Charity Studio at The Court Theatre
28 – 30 June 2018
Thursday 28 June & Friday 30 June: 6:00pm
Saturday 30 June: 3pm & 7pm
Students & Seniors: $15
General Admission: $20
ALL SOLD OUT
Cast
Vernon: Sam Bowler
Jesus: Tane Patterson
Mom: Paris Thornley
Lally: Anaru Shadbolt
Taylor Figueroa: Rongopai Tickell
Ella Keeter: Grace Newton
Vaine: Freddy Thornton
Leona: Alex Wright
Sheriff Porkorney, Heavy and Jonesy: Todd Anderson
Brad and Brian: Conor Hill
Dr Goosens: Harrison Searancke
Pam and Judge: Alice Cheersmith
Vernon’s Attorney and Mr Deutschman: Felix Elliott
Kid in Braces, Bartender and Lally’s Mum: Joanna Fan
Mr Keeter: Holly Fraser Devenny
Court Officer, Pelayo’s Wife, Bus Driver & Chrissie: Ruby Pledge
Eileena, Con #1 and Spanish Voiceover: Meg Wikitoria Fulton
Judge Helen Gurie, Old Lady and Media Court Officer: Miriam Qualls
Silas, Border Guard and Con #2: Ocean Pearl Jones
Team Leader, Pelayo and Lasalle: Anita Mapukata
Pastor Gibbons and Prosecutor: Lillian Fata
Creatives
Director/Sound Designer: Tom Eason
Director: William Burns
Lighting Designer: Giles Tanner
Stage Manager: Rachel Pugh
Youth , Theatre ,
Exuberance, vivacity and focus
Review by Grant Hindin Miller 29th Jun 2018
A bare set backed by cardboard cartons greets the audience as the Court Youth Company opens this production in an air of verve and energy (21 actors play 37 characters). We’re immediately pitched into an explosive scene, the aftermath of a Texan high school shooting in which 17 students have lost their lives.
Fifteen year-old Vernon Little is in the wrong place at the wrong time, particularly since his best friend, a Mexican student, was the shooter (who then took his own life). Small town Texas is not the safest place for Vernon to be taken in for questioning and he struggles to survive the muddy waters which harbour bulldog cops, a paedophile psychiatrist, a devious cameraman, a deceitful teenage vamp, and a charge of aiding and abetting a mass murderer.
Vernon God Little, the novel, written by D.B.C. Pierre, won the Booker Prize in 2003, and the Judges described it as ‘a coruscating black comedy reflecting our alarm but also our fascination with America’. Twice adapted as a stage-play, this rendering is by English actress turned playwright, Tanya Ronder.
A satirical romp, the play is populated by caricatures: Texan cops, Mexicans, preachers, a pernicious medical practitioner, dipsy mothers and girls (in fact most of the female characters are two dimensional: promiscuous, vacuous, or both). The one exception is Vernon and perhaps this is why the cast of characters, being filtered through his eyes, appears surreal, exaggerated and grotesque. He’s the only one who can see and name things as they are.
The subject matter is heavy but the rendering of the play is light and often comical. This incongruity works for and against it. Nowhere do we really feel the impact of the deaths of the high school students, or even outrage at Vernon’s wrongful conviction. This is because the writer is preoccupied with lampooning the Justice system, media, religion, and small town mores at the expense of the personal tragedy.
The media advise Vernon to “get out and tell your story”, “you need to paint your paradigm before someone else paints it for you”, “you need positioning, Vern”.
Life often copies art. The commercialisation of crime is one of the play’s themes and The Making of a Murderer and The Staircase (both airing on Netflix) are not that far removed from the world of Vernon in tone, location, and, perhaps surprisingly, character.
The commitment of the young company is terrific. Sam Bowler who, as Vernon, has a significant role to carry, settles into his part and grows as the play evolves; he is at his strongest at the finale.
I love the inventiveness of the simple props which are skilfully choreographed to represent Police Interview rooms, Courthouses, squad cars, bedrooms, schoolyards, a Customs border. The physical representation of the story is excellent.
Audibility, in part because of assumed American accents, is at times an issue. I commend Paris Thornley (as Vernon’s Mom), Grace Newton (as Ella), Miriam Qualls (as Judge Helen Gurie and two other parts), Alice Cheersmith (as Pam and Judge), Harrison Searancke (as Dr Goosens) and Conor Hill (Defence Attorney) for their volume and clarity.
The players have a lot to assimilate in two hours (with a ten minute interval) but the production zings along. Some of the set scenes warrant more time and weight, especially the one towards the end in which the play’s moral compass is defined, but in general the cast succeeds with exuberance, vivacity and focus. The Court Youth Company do a great job and Vernon God Little deserves a longer run.
Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer
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