This is excellent theatre (From Salisbury Journal)

This is excellent theatre

12:34pm Thursday 11th September 2008 in Entertainments

LAST EYES BLINDED, NO ANSWER THEATRE COMPANY, SALBERG STUDIO

STAGE 65 are, of course, well known to Salisbury audiences for their enthusiasm, vitality and professionalism and, when members leave, they often do remarkable things.

In this case, they formed a theatre company.

Although the excellent production team of Jake Anders, Ryan Cooper and Amber Chappell is credited in the programme, there is no director listed, which is significant. This is a collection of mostly teenage students who have listened to each other, pooled their creative talents and produced powerful and provocative theatre.

Last Eyes Blinded is the second of two linked plays written by 19-year-old Joz Norris for the company. The drama begins with ominous sustained chords and much swirling smoke.

When the smoke clears it reveals Miracle (Frith Taylor), a young woman whose bloodstained clothing and tortured movements speak to us of some recent shocking events - nothing less than apparent world destruction and the brutal destruction of her own unborn child. Miracle and her brother Beaujolais (Oliver Malam) have managed to rescue three other survivors.

Anguish (Steve Bennett) is dying and wheelchair-bound, while Bridget, his wife (Sam Scott) has lost her son in the conflagration.

When Bella (Alice Phelps), the lonely bride-widow, joins the group, it is the women who dominate the action until the second half, in which the mysterious figure of Mundane (Joz Norris) from Paperwork, the first play of the series, emerges and Last Eyes Blinded reaches its sensational conclusion. There are many questions we would like to ask about the fate of these characters, and we are promised a third play, Lady Justice, to complete the trilogy in 2009, in which they may be answered.

Such are the qualities of this play and its performance, I am sure we will all be there to find out.

- Anne Hill