Final thoughts..... Sat here on the 4.10 train home from Edinburgh to Manchester, we begin to reflect on our week at the fringe festival. I have been unanimously nominated to write the final blog so here goes. When we arrived last Sunday, thrust head first into the chaotic bustle of festival fever it was both exciting and overwhelming. I felt out of place, as if we were embarking on an impossible mission, one tiny show amongst the thousands of others. How would we get noticed, make our mark, hold our own on this international stage. Now, a week later, Edinburgh feels like home, festival life normal and our unlikely little ‘Split Second’ family feels like part of the furniture or the Edinburgh landscape. A little corner of the mad, noisy, multicoloured tapestry of the fringe, little old us.
The experience has been amazing, our hopes for the piece fulfilled, the show a success. Yes, we’d have liked bigger audiences, more marketing support, but let’s pause for a moment. This time last year, The Split Second was little more than an idea, a scribbled first draft at most. I don’t think any of us could have imagined being here a year later. I have experienced an amazing range of emotions this week. I have laughed until the tears rolled down my face and cried until the tears dried up. I have had my creativity reawakened and been reminded yet again why I do this job and why I am so lucky to do a job I love, a job that matters and sometimes makes a difference.
Forgive the arty, cheesy indulgence but weeks like this are life changing, they really are. To re-write a speech from the play; it’s not about where we went. It’s nothing to do with the Edinburgh trip. It’s what it represented. A really special group of people united in trying to make something matter to people, making people care enough to change.
As we rattle through the Cumbrian countryside every moment closer to home to our adventure being over, I am left with a strange mix of emotions. I wish more than anything that we weren’t here, that none of this had happened, that I was never asked to write this piece. That I never met Becca and Chantel and Charlotte. That young men (and women) didn’t show off in cars and end up killing people, but sadly they do. My other resounding feeling is an overwhelming sense of pride in a fantastic project. A pride in working with the young people of Oldham, in its amazing youth council and its brilliant Theatre Workshop. I know I speak on behalf of the whole Split Second team when I say how proud we all are to have represented Oldham at the Edinburgh festival, with a piece of work that holds a very special place in all our hearts.
Review by Imogen O'Sullivan
The impressive and striking set as the piece opened showcased polished production values that are rarely budgeted for in student productions. Four cut-out walls set each scene, shaped like they could slot together as the lives of the four characters are woven into each other. However, as each block swivels to reveal a mirrored backing, you begin to realise that they don’t represent unity, but the shattered fragments of a glass windshield and the shattered lives that are left behind following ‘the split second’ of impact.
“'an honest performance of a funny and thought-provoking script'”I couldn’t avoid a sense of slight apprehension as I noted the section of wall plastered with ‘lad’s mag’ images, fearing a poorly written, Skins-inspired piece on teenage ‘issues’ and the hedonism of youth. I was pleasantly surprised by an honest performance of a funny and thought-provoking script that, although a few false notes were sounded along the way, in general rang true throughout.
Occasionally, particularly at the beginning, the piece did stray into slightly awkward and contrived ‘look what teenagers lives are like’ moments, but the split second the climax of the story was reached, each actor showed impressive emotional depth, engaging an unfortunately small audience and genuinely encouraging them to think differently about mass mourning.
Rob Mallard put in a performance of impressive emotional depth and maturity as the protagonist Jake, posing the very relevant question of who is to blame for fatal accidents and whether the label of ‘victim’ can be awarded to more than just the deceased. This question is highlighted by the effect the accident has on Jake’s friends and family; Mark Newsome’s Sean blaming the boy who walked out into the road, whilst Norah Lopez’s Hannah has to deal with her father placing the blame directly on her boyfriend whilst she is left feeling just as responsible.
Newsome shines throughout with exceptional comic timing succeeding in creating a likeable and recognisable character from what could have been a two-dimensional cliché, Lopez is also strong, particularly in conveying the naivety of young love. Her onstage relationship with Mallard’s Jake is undoubtedly difficult to portray realistically and occasionally feels somewhat awkward, though both actors throw themselves into a brave attempt. Sarah Nelson provides some nice comic moments and the mother/son interactions between her and Mallard are genuinely touching, though not as subtly nuanced as Nelson’s impressive show of confused grief and anger as the play concludes.
As a study of ‘the split second that changed everything’, this piece succeeds in cleverly changing the way you think about a bunch of flowers left by the side of the road and makes an interesting point about the outpourings of grief scattered around social networking sites that are used to vent anger and point blame. As the mirrors swivel to face the audience, we are made to stare at ourselves, the way we react to news stories, the assumptions we make, a powerful ending to a piece that allows us to truly see another side of the story and examine the possibility that ‘the split second’ could have occurred in any one of our own lives.
Review by Bethany Knibb
In a split second someone’s life can change. Oldham Theatre Workshop presents the split second in which one boy loses his life, and various characters' different perspectives before and after the event.
“The direction and casting of this production have produced a truly moving piece of drama”A boy, his mother, a friend, and a girlfriend – they’re all “people like us”. They live their lives as many do, keeping their heads down and assuming that that’s enough to get by. This is reflected in the often banal dialogue, which tries to be funny (for example, “I’m amazed I turned out normal with a mother like you" / "You’re adopted”). This sort of comment usually got titters from the audience but the flash-forwards showing the characters after the boy’s death kept the mood too sombre for anything more hearty.
The set was unusual but absolutely ingenious. Four rotating screens gave, at any given moment, either a mirror (actually quite distracting if you’re sitting directly in front of one) or a wall of a scene (kitchen, bedroom etc.). The screens worked very well with the nature of the script because they aided the fluidity of the production. It’s often difficult when a production jumps around in time to keep the action fluent, but this is something Oldham Theatre Workshop did very well.
On the surface, this is a story about a teenager. The boring bits are a wee bit boring, but are important for the development of the characters. As the production progresses it becomes more than a story about a boy and in fact, by the end of this piece of drama, I had to purposefully relax my face because of the power of the emotion conveyed. Afterwards, you think to yourself – this sort of thing can and DOES happen to normal people, and the effects are pretty devastating.
“The Split Second” is a piece of writing by award-winning Sarah Nelson, and the direction and casting of this production have produced a truly moving piece of drama, highlighting the transience of life.