Warwick Illuminated By The Bulbs

I went to see Operation Greenfield on Friday night because…well, quite simply because when I saw the flyer, I immediately thought it looked quite fun and cute. And that is exactly what it turned out to be: the young actors of the Little Bulb Theatre completely captured me as well as the rest of the audience, I’m sure. The thing that struck me as soon as I sat down was the set and the stage: it was strewn with props lying around everywhere. Musical instruments, a juice dispenser, a cut out cardboard figure of Elvis, flower pots, a toy dog on wheels, ladders, coloured flags… It all created a playful, warm atmosphere, almost magical.

So that started out positively already and I really couldn’t wait for the show to begin. When it did, it was impossible not to smile throughout the whole thing. The three actors, three girls and one boy, made the whole thing very enjoyable and funny through their facial expressions, their voices, the simple but effective script… It’s the story of four teenage friends who go to school in Stokely but will have to leave it soon to go to high school. We see Molly, Daniel, Alice and Violet as they deal with their feelings, their friendship, their relationship with God, the experience of first love, and their music. Yes, because this is also a musical with music being played and sung live by the actors, and I thought they were very talented in this aspect as well.

The protagonists are participating in the annual Stokely Young Talent Competition and will perform a song about the annunciation. In fact, that is what we see at the beginning of the play: a rather fast-paced and chaotic version of the annunciation, and that comes back when they perform their song at the competition, thus creating a circular plot.

The way in which they bickered during the rehearsals but then got along and played all together made me smile, as well as the shy way in which they sometimes addressed each other, because it realistically portrayed a group of teenagers in which we can easily identify ourselves in. We feel the confusing and awkward period of adolescence in the scene in which Alice and Violet kiss, and I thought the way in which it was represented was clever: the two girls were wearing cardboard masks, symbolizing their insecurity and fear of revealing their true feelings.

The naïve nature of these teenagers is reflected through their insecurities; which A levels they should choose, and their fears, for example leaving Stokeley to go to high school. They deal with all this through their close relationship with God, and that is also something which struck me, when Alice says she is sad to leave her town because it is where her relationship with God had started. It is not something we would hear every day, especially not coming from a teenager. That is why the lyrics of their song “Zachariah in the temple” left me with a feeling of hope at the end: it says “ you must have faith in every hour”.

The bubbly atmosphere full of positive energy, hopes and dreams left me feeling renewed when I left the theatre and I went up to the actors to congratulate them because I absolutely loved the play and thought they had been great.

It is not easy to pretend to be a teenager when you have already been to university, as in the case of our four actors, and to recreate that genuine feeling of innocence of a group of friends drinking “forest fruit squash”. The eclectic mix of music, including a banjo and a xylophone, created surprise and joy in me and the set was simply amazing and poetic and suited the play very well. The soap bubbles in the air, the colourful clothes, the oversized angel wings, the cardboard masks and eyeglasses and the cut out of Elvis perfectly represented the adolescent world of these four friends.

Two details which I thought were really nice were the hat with the light bulb on it, worn by Molly the drummer as well as the image on the drums: some flowers growing in the earth. This reinforced the message of hope they were trying to convey, as well as the tiny glow of the light bulb that stayed on after the lights went out at the end. A play definitely worth watching.