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The Ignorance had its Fringe premiere on November 23, 2004 at the Etcetera Theatre, London.
The show had good reviews from The Stage and especially the Ham and High, and had good houses every night making sure that no shows were cancelled, something practically unheard of for a three-week run for a Fringe show. My writing partner, Stephen Hancocks, and I were both delighted by the show, and are working on how it can develop in the future.
"With a cast of five and a one-room set, Fortress Productions's premiere production is a fine vehicle for the talents of its performers-come-producers and its fledgling writers.
Full of studied performances and high stakes, the show boasts the pleasures of a good story well told.
The debut of writers Declan Hill and Stephen Hancocks reveals a distinctive wit and a strong sense of what makes dark drama. Social ambitions gone awry fuel an intriguing plot of botched theft and confused passions. The narrative itself is full of bluff and double bluff, revolving around three mini cab drivers' curious decision to betray each other.
It all takes place in the firm's office one fateful afternoon. In fact it is the set - a functional synthesis of desk, couch, magazines, telephones and wall maps - that is the real strength of this well honed production. Within these parameters the most mundane of happenings becomes intriguing.
The sense of claustraphobia builds as the room itself crumbles beneath the pressure of one dying body, a gun and a knife.
The performers are also perfectly cast. Sarah Strong makes a feisty Yasmin and an amusing foil to Abbey Stirling's aspiring underling.
Stirling's seeming desire to please is enough to ingratiate her with the audience, while Ciara Dooley is transfixing as the class conscious Annie. What really convinces, however, is the complicity shared between all on stage."
Helena Thompson, Ham and High |
