Review: Writers’ Platform ***

As part of the Emerge Festival, Red Ladder Theatre Company brought together new writers for a script-in-hand performance spotlighting the talents of West Yorkshire.

The four excerpts crossed cultures and borders and dealt with corruption, deception and secrecy in its many different guises, and explored the fears and insecurities of individuals.

Elise Rhode Hanssen’s intense and dramatic piece Whispers, set in German-occupied Norway in 1943, was outstanding.

An emotionally charged work about two life-long friends who meet to exchange secrets and rumours concerning the resistance movement, Hassen’s work is sensitively yet dramatically directed by Shakera Ahad, who also directs Tomorrow and Freeman with the same expertise and passion.

Tomorrow by Lorna Poustie is an hilarious black comedy full of gritty reality, showing the class boundaries that still exist today.

David Barlow’s Freeman brought the world of the political activist into perspective.

Although the initial flashbacks were confusing it showed us that even a cosy family life may be sacrificed for one man to follow his convictions.

The Joy by Ben Tagoe, directed by Rod Dixon, took us into the harsh world of prison. Tagoe used an ingenious piece of cross-cut dialogue about biscuits to trigger off Liam’s anger, leading to bullying threats and the darker side of prison.