BUCKFAST & THE DOG
April 1988
 

Cumbernauld News – April 6^th “Nightmare in a bottle”   1 | 2 | Top

Nicola knows what she is going to do with her life because her parents have told her.

She’s a bright girl doing well at school and soon she’ll be going to university. It’s what the family wants for her, but it’s not what she wants for herself.

Her dilemma provides the pivot around which Cumbernauld Youth Theatre’s latest production “Buckfast and the Dog” revolves.

The Youth Theatre has a tradition of eschewing the sage and cosy themes embraced by large sectors of the amateur drama fraternity.

The confront current social issues and this time have turned a penetrating spotlight on the problem of teenage drinking.

“Buckfast” take a mature look at the immaturity of youth.

Nicola played by Marie McGowan, becomes part of an aimless group of young people who look for their dreams at the bottom of a bottle.

In an outpouring of teenage angst she reaches for cheap wine in a bid to escape family pressures. Instead of finding an escape she finds herself imprisoned.

Nicola discovers there are no dreams at the bottom of a bottle, only nightmares.

“Buckfast”, written by director Christ Smith and 18-year-old Helen Blair, is a simple morality tale. It’s sombre motif is leavened by a generous measure of inventive comedy. The white-masked “Greek chorus” is a particularly effective device.

The play is perceptive and articulate, though it is, at times, marred by a self-conscious lyricism.

The impact of the production is blunted by the sanitised portrayal of Nicola’s decline which should expose the ugly and malign underbelly of this teenage subculture.

Instead, after a night on the tiles she appears with scarcely a hair out of place and, though supposedly smashed out of her skull, she launches into a deeply-analytical philosophical treatise.

STRUCTURE

The play’s structure though interesting, presents a difficult staging problem. Presumably borrowing from the technique of TV soaps, the story is told in a series of brief, episodic scenes. In the television studio, where scenes can be swiftly inter-cut at the push of a button, the technique appears seamless. On stage it appears clumsy.

To their great credit the constant scene changes did not destroy the coherence of the Youth Theatre’s production but it did interrupt the momentum.

The merits of the play, however, outweigh the negative aspects. It has a talented cast and excellent music to set the mood. Particularly effective are Marie as Nicola, Stephen Angellini as Bucky and the Gossips.

“Buckfast and the Dog” is energetic and thought-provoking, using laughter to make a very serious statement about the topical and disturbing issue.

Members of Cumbenrauld Youth Theatre are to take part in the National festival of Youth Theatre taking place at the Eden Court Theatre in Inverness next month.

They will present “Buckfast and the Dog” on the opening day, April 4.

“Buckfast and the Dog” is a new play, written wit the New Town Youth Theatre. It loos at the phenomenon of teenage drinking using dance, music and comedy.

Youth theatres from almost every region in Scotland will be performing over the six nights of the festival and they will participate is professionally-led workshops on all aspects of theatre.

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