Angel
by Kevin Dyer
A story of unexpected friendship for audiences aged 10 years and above
Imagine a world made of paper. Imagine a world lived in then and now. Imagine a collision of two lives and a friendship that defies age and time.
This is how the play is described on the “Theatre Hullabaloo” website, the group that performed the play at the Square Chapel Theatre.
The theatre is situated just accross the road from the railway station in Halifax and in close proximity to several carparks. As you enter the building around the back, you are brought into a cafe area where you can purchase refreshments before the show. Apart from a rather over officious volunteer (who was supposedly helping get into the venue), everyone smoothly entered the theatre and there was no problems finding seats.
As an adult, I really enjoyed the play. The audience was small and the theatre intimate, which allowed the bitter-sweet feel of the play chance to be felt. There were children in the audience and several of them were highly amused by some of the funnier bits of the dialogue, but I’m not sure that age 10 was old enough to appreciate the subtle themes that were included. This is maybe not fair to the children though, as the play was meant to increase awareness for young people, of the difficulties faced by ageing people and hence was supported by Age UK. That is not to say that the play was not suitable for children, as I’ve said there were some amusing parts and there was nothing adult themed or controversial.
The acting was impeccable and both the actresses who played the main parts were convincing and word-perfect.
The limited scenery was cleverly put together, and along with the lighting and sound gave the feel of many different indoor and outdoor areas and times of day. The scenes were changed by the actresses and all went smoothly and effortlessly.
Overall, I really enjoyed the play; my attention was held throughout and I was really touched at the end with a tear in my eye!
You can catch Angel at many other venues, details are on their website here
The “What’s on?” page of the Square Chapel site has many other different types of event to interest a wide range of tastes.
