Manchester University Drama Festival In-Fringe 2008
Club Underground
Tuesday 26th–Thursday 28th February
Tuesday night’s performance of How Hard it Happens (How it Hardly Seems to Happen) at Club Underground was impressive. The creator, Claire Urwin, said to prepare for the “darkly comic” and this performance certainly didn’t disappoint.
How Hard it Happens explores the lives of two pairs of individuals in times of crisis. Beth (Libby Hopper) and Miss (Caitlin Albery Beavan) appear to be the survivors of a horrific school bus collision. Meanwhile, Sally (Hannah Levy) and Jim (Rob Ward) are dealing with the suicide of their convicted son. These couples are linked, somewhat tenuously, by the character of Jack (Alex Knox), a friend of Sally’s dead son, who decides to find the missing Beth and Miss.
The dingy Club Underground made the perfect venue for this sinister tale. The small and intimate staging in the traverse left the audience feeling suitably awkward. As a result of this proximity the audience were able to involve in the guilty pleasure of observing the characters’ demise. Unusually, these dark observations were made all the more poignant by the play’s comedic interludes. The audience laughed nervously whilst Jim, as a result of his breakdown, stole pot plants from his elderly neighbour. As the result of the fast pace of the play, these moments of light relief never lasted long and the audience were rarely given the chance to relax.
The company of How Hard it Happens were exceptionally well cast and carried the dialogue energetically. On speaking with the writer, she described how “The character of Sally belongs to Hannah, Beth belongs to Libby and so on”. Evidently being involved in the first performance of this script enabled the cast to claim their characters as their own. The superb individual performances and fluid dialogue of How Hard it Happens allowed the audience to become completely immersed in this moving piece of innovative drama.
8/10
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