Pinter & SMarts

Really good work from 2nd years Danny, Sam and Rowan who put up four Pinter shorts as part of the SMarts festival, which rolled across campus this weekend. The boys mined right into the texts and by keeping it simple managed to bring some hideous moments of menace and malevolence to the surface. It was very sophisticated work, a formal study of rhythm, tempo and presence, carefully nuanced moment to moment. I knew Victoria Station and The New World Order, but hadn't read or seen Precisely, which was chilling or That's Your Trouble, which was wonderfully good fun.

Unfortunately, as with the rest of the festival, the show was poorly attended. It's more timing than anything and I've yet to hear a really good argument for not running SMarts alongside induction week, adding to the vibrancy and craziness of the start of term. Squeezed in at the end attendance and enthusiasm suffers from freshers exhaustion and the fact that many of the students go home at weekends.

We're going to re run the bill on Tuesday lunchtime. It's work the rest of the cohort should see.

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