Brewery Youth Theatre, Abi Morgan's play and the bright lights of London

4:26pm Friday 18th July 2008

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RISING stars from the Brewery Arts Centre shone extremely brightly in London.

Flying the flag for the region, the Kendal arts centre’s youth drama and dance groups, lit up the South Bank with stunning performances at two of the capital’s illustrious theatres.

And the Mullens were there to see a little bit of Kendal history, unfold.

Although, we didn’t see Helen Moffitt’s excellent dancers perform Oribody at the Peacock Theatre the previous night – we did see our youngest daughter Hannah take to the National Theatre stage with Trish Gordon’s Brewery Youth Theatre.

It was an opportunity of a lifetime for the young players.

And there was plenty of support from family and friends who had bobbed down to the capital to watch.

As I’ve said on several occasions, Fugee is probably the best piece of youth drama I’ve seen.

I’ve already reviewed the play, so I won’t go down that road again.

Suffice to say that Fugee, is about Kojo, a young orphan from Africa.

He sees his parents killed at the tender age of 11 and is forced into being a boy soldier.

However, his uncle gets him out of the country and he heads for British shores.

The action flicks from his present day dilemma in a city refuge – and subsequent hostel - to days in his homeland before his family was shot.

Joe Greenwood played Kojo like a true professional actor.

He portrayed the lad’s confusion, hopelessness, and frustrations at communicating in a strange country unbelievably well, creating just the right amount of emotion, never over the top.

Kojo’s befriended by Ara, from Baghdad, one of several displaced youngsters he comes in contact with.

The confidence displayed by all the cast was quite staggering, particularly Rachel Thomas as Roza; Joe Jamieson, in the role of Hassan; and Josh Hawkins, assured as young Chinese guy Cheung.

Sammi Moorhouse was another whose role, although a small one as the woman with the buggy, played a significant and entertaining part of the play.

It was an ensemble piece with many dimensions, written by Abi Morgan, who’s turning into one of the UK’s hottest playwrights.

Now, I’ve got to say, that seeing Fugee a second time around was even better.

I know BYT worked on the play with one of NT’s staff directors James Grieve, which added even more polish and professionalism to the production.

In fact, the whole show went up a level, particularly, for me, Natalie Morgan’s performance as Ara, which was dazzling.

On the NT stage she had a real presence, which surpassed anything I’d seen her do before.

Whether they had a few lines or a principal part all the young and gifted actors rose to the occasion in real style.

It was also a magical moment for the Kendal arts centre’s inspirational drama development officer Trish and her backstage team.

Which, I’m really chuffed about.

Abi’s challenging 60-minute play was commissioned as part of the National Theatre’s New Connections Festival earlier this year and the NT organisers were so impressed by the young actors’ performance of Fugee at the Brewery, during the nationwide event, that they were invited to perform the play on the world-famous Olivier Stage of the NT.

The kids received a standing ovation.

And at the end when the soft sounds of the piano drifted across the theatre and Josh, Natalie, both Joes, and Rachel lined-up at the edge of the stage, the emotion of it all kicked in and sent a massive tingle up the back of my neck.

This is Kojo’s story, they each exclaimed.

It might well be, but it was theirs - and all the 24-strong cast’s – night, without doubt! For those who haven’t ventured to the South Bank and the National, do so at the earliest opportunity.

We stayed at the Park Riverbank Plaza about 20 minutes walk to the theatre by the Thames embankment.

A fine hotel, modern, comfortable, and for us, well placed for central London.

However, we treated ourselves to dinner in the splendid NT Mezzanine Restaurant. We can highly recommend the lemon sole, for pudding the pana cotta with raspberries, all washed down with a fine Sancerre.

I can hear those taste buds explode from here.