Stone Cold Dead Serious, Drama Barn
Rating: 
Date: 15/02/07 - 18/02/07
Dysfunctionality, addiction, class, racism and religion are some of the ‘issues’ thrown up in this DramaSoc production of Stone Cold Dead Serious. Intertwined with the incredibly dark social situations which writer Adam Rapp raises is the story of 15-year-old Wynne Ledbetter (Ed Watson), who is desperate to win a Samurai competition. He perfects his hilarious mantras such as “when a snake drinks water it becomes poison”, much to the bemusement of his incapacitated father and irritation of his overworked, underpaid mother.
The Barn was transformed into the Ledbetters’ sitting room, a car and, finally, a hospital. Wynne’s desire to win the competition is the thread keeping the play together. The strong visual pictures ranged from tender scenes of Wynne and his girlfriend standing wrapped in a duvet to the riveting entrance of drug-addicted Shaylee (Niamh Walsh), unable to keep still for a minute as she rifles through her family home for money.
The ensemble cast gave some terrific performances. The rollercoaster of hilarity provided by the first act was enough to smoothly allow us to tolerate the sudden drop in tempo of the second.
Directed by William Bowry, this production has just been chosen for this year’s NSDF festival, and deservedly so.
