News Archive

Henley Fringe 2009

After a very successful 2008 – the website is now undergoing changes in preparation for 2009.

If you are a performer the application form will be online towards the end of November.

If you are venue, sponsor or volunteer – please contact us by emailing info@henleyfringefestival.com

Henley Fringe Awards 2008

The following awards have been selected by the Henley Fringe Festival panel of theatre professionals.

Gold Standard – Production
The Rivals
The Merchant of Venice
Bash
Jubilate !
Not About Heroes

Gold Standard – New writing
Zoe Cooper – Unidentified Baggage

Gold Standard – Directing
Leon Trayman – The Rivals
Yvie Magee – Shakers Re-Stirred

Gold Standard – Performance
Dominic Goodwin – Not About Heroes
Glen Conroy – Bash
Ros Adler – Jubilate !
Jonathan Lewis – Not About Heroes
Jamie Maclachlan – Unidentified Baggage
Stacey Evans – The Merchant of Venice

Lend us a Tenor were not eligible for adudication

Gold Standard – Best new Comedian
Rob Simister

Gold Standard – Comedian of Year
Charlie Baker

Reviews - BASH

REVIEW FROM HENLEY STANDARD

BASH
The Kings Road Barn

Audiences are coming away from BASH in a state of grace. And little wonder because this is writing and performing of high and engaging intensity.
BASH is produced by Jo Southwell who also takes a part. The direction is stunning with thought, compassion and empathy.
The work is based around two monologues and one duologue by US writer Neil LaBute and it turns out to be the ultimate showcase for an actor. These are dark pieces and a warning that everyone has a secret but some are much much worse than others.
One audience member said as she emerged:”I was so locked into the stories, I couldn’t take my eyes off the actors.”
There aren’t many laughs in BASH but it is a very rewarding experience.

REVIEW FROM STEWART COLLINS – HENLEY FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

‘Bash’ was billed as a collection of ‘three darkly brilliant plays’ and this was right on both accounts – a modest but very appreciative audience at the audience did indeed experience playwrite Neil LaBute at his darkest and best. Wherever you can catch this guy’s work, go along. You won’t come out humming or smiling, but you’ll have picked up on something pretty profound
and quite possibly disturbing somewhere along the line. The theme in these three 30 minute plus playlets is that the ordinary can quickly be seen to be the horrific; a clever argument and a plausible personality and you justify or explain anything. but not quite.

The brilliance was not only in the writing but also in the direction – stand up Maggie Inchley. LaBute’s dialogue is not easy stuff to translate from the page but when done like this you would hardly know you were watching actors. You might as well be sitting in a room having a very natural conversation. The illusion only slips when the accents slip, and this was the only real
area where Bash failed to score five stars. Glenn Conroy’s American accent was impeccable, those of Benjamin Kissel, Jennifer Page and Jo Southwell guilty of just enough lapses to make one aware that you are listening to someone who has nearly mastered an accent, and thus momentarily taking your
mind of the play. But basically, this was a superb Fringe highlight.

BASH has also been awarded The Gold Production Award and actor Glenn Conroy has been awarded the Gold Performers Award.

Reviews - Mark Allen Edinburgh Preview

Mark Allen – 23rd July

In order to laugh at a comedian you’ve got to like him or her – or at least like something about them, and Mark Allen immediately scores here. He’s very personable and warm and he seems entirely at home bantering off the cuff with the slightly curious heckling that he initially has to contend with. Actually heckling’s the wrong word. It isn’t nearly that aggressive…

The big leap for any comedian though is going from ‘the best 12 minutes’ that they normally have to do at a comedy club, to the kind of full, hour long show that they will need if they want to do Edinburgh or if they want to graduate to the next level. Mark Allen certainly understands his craft and his animal orientated show generated a good deal of good solid laughter, but it didn’t quite match up against the material of the top guys – all killer and no filler. Similarly, although there was a clear plot to the evening in the shape of the various headings digitally projected to illustrate his set, the show didn’t build and we didn’t benefit from the kind of rolling set pieces where wave on wave of laughter gradually build as the stories move to their punch line.

This show probably won’t win prizes in Edinburgh, and Allen would be wise to drop a few of the ‘my girl friend thinks I’m mad’ riffs, but this is certainly a man who knows how to work an audience and has some very nicely crafted material with which to charm them.

Stewart Collins

Review - Unidentified Baggage

Unidentified Baggage – 23rd July

What do you look for in a new play? The same as you look for in any play basically; good story telling by the author, well told by the actors. After that come the deeper questions such as what is the play really talking about, and are we seeing something said and done in a new way? So: Unidentified Baggae by Zoe Alyssa Cooper. To a certain extent we’re in soap territory. We’re talking about love, life and relationships, and of course this makes it tricky territory as we’re all experts and we’ve seen plenty of plays on the stage and on telly on the subject already. But Zoe’s clearly very good at it. The situations are very well laid out, and the language is recognizably the contemporary language of twenty-something angst. Educated angst, but an angst that the audience at the Hotel du Vin could clearly identify with.

Well told? Yes. Very good and convincing. Occasionally emotions surfaced and subsided just a little too quickly, and some of the text was rattled off just a little too quickly but this was convincing stuff. What is the play telling us? Well nothing we don’t know already, but there’s no doubt that it is doing the sort of thing that Fringe Festivals absolutely should be doing: allowing talent to cut its teeth and to find its form and its personality. Zoe Alyssa Cooper is good and will find many an outlet for her very naturalistic dialogue and understanding of situation. Next she’ll just need a narrative and an angle that will take her somewhere new.