ICE BABY

by Sarah Miller
performed by
The Ashton Group’s Apprenticed Actors Company
at DT3, The Dukes Education Centre,
Moor Lane, Lancaster.
1 June, 2007

Reviewed by Jane Sunderland

Ice Baby doesn’t make for comfortable watching – baby Ayesha’s relentless crying is nothing compared to when she gets taken for a joyride with her mum’s ‘friends’ while her mum is feeling the first effects of a date-rape drug….

The Barrow-based Apprenticed Actors Company, a multi-sponsored initiative “to give young people from Furness their first experience of working in professional theatre”, makes a welcome return to DT3 after last year’s ASBOy (also written by Sarah Miller and directed by Rachel Ashton).

The four young actors - Andrew Denison, Cheryl Lennon, Nick Hays and Hermione Pearson - play their multiple roles with energy and sensitivity. While the main story is the difficulties faced by a 17-year old mother, Leanne (Hermione Pearson) – including the temptation and risks of a night out – the parallel story is of three goblin s who set out to judge human mothers and steal their children if they are found wanting.

The two stories come together cleverly on the stage when the goblins become the police and social worker who visit and harangue Leanne – without removing their goblin noses. And the fantasy element allows the contrast of goblin language with that of northern working class teenagers in 2007.

The play ‘Contains strong language’ and is recommended for children over 14. This seems about right – though the issue here is presumably more about date-rape than swearing. The sex – first with Tysse (Andrew Dennison) and then Leanne’s presumed rape by Tone (Nick Hays) – is done well, through the symbolic use of the sheets drying in Leanne’s poky bedsit.

The play feels a little short – I had got involved and was ready for more. It may be that 50 minutes is not long enough to do justice to the themes of teenage pregnancy and date rape and the goblin sub-plot. Perhaps it was for this reason that I found watching it a less satisfying experience than ASBOy had been.

But the open-ended conclusion is spot-on: the baby’s father Tysse (Andrew Denison) – who, it turns out, had not gone away to sea but had been ‘protected’ from the news of his paternity by his mother – comes back to see Leanne after a visit from the police. And here the play refuses to stereotype – he neither starts washing nappies, nor promptly denies all responsibility and leaves. Rather, he is, entirely reasonably, confused.

This was the last performance of Ice Baby, which also played at Barrow, Ellesmere Port and Burnley. The young actors in Ice Baby may move on in theatre – they certainly deserve to - but the Apprenticed Actors Company is worth watching out for. I look forward to more.

© Jane Sunderland 1/6/07

LINKS

The Ashton Group

Read Jane Sunderaland's review for Virtual-Lancaster of ASBOy