March 17, 2013
“Camp Rejuvenation”: Theatre Review
By: Tammy Yao
When you think about watching a 15-minute play performed and scripted by a bunch of teenagers, you expect cheesy comedy, love triangles or a cut-down, knock –off version of the famous “High School Musical”; predictable, clichéd and simply not organized. “Camp Rejuvenation”, however, performed beautifully by 6 drama pupils, completely took me by surprise with a fresh, imaginative play revolving around a group of distinct individuals, attending a “camp getaway” that is aimed to cleanse and, as the title says, rejuvenate the soul with the guidance of Guru Shanti (Andrew Melrose).
15-minute comedy plays are normally the ...view middle of the document...
The five characters in the play are entirely different which lead to some bumps along the road to rejuvenation. Firstly, the characters lose their belongings while trying to escape, and the campers start to create havoc, Sammy and Bill find out about one of their campmates past, while Guru Shanti is encouragingly pushing his customers to rejuvenation. (And that wasn’t even the half of it!) The plot was, at least in my opinion, entertaining, original and jam-packed with laughs.
The characters of “Camp Rejuvenation” were very well thought-out and most actors presented the characters superbly. One of the six characters, I believe really stood out to the audience and carried the play: Rosalind Pritchett (Amelia Wooster)! Amelia presented the old English woman character with effortless humour and showed us her dedication to the role with passion and grace. Her flamboyant actions and reactions to the other characters came out with ease. Chanelle Jackson (Ayesha Baloch) was another outstanding character, whom again presented her character quite believably. Her southern-Londoner accent was projected with flow as if it was really the way she spoke out of the play. However I found that she might have overdone the image of a spoilt, rich teenager, by shouting and complaining way too much. Also, I believed that Samuel Wilkinson (Jamie Young) was yet another well played role. Although it wasn’t the biggest part, it was safe to say that Mr. Young wonderfully presented Sammy Wilkinson (also known as Sammy Salamander) very realistically. His role of humour in the play was also rather prominent as it felt like he didn’t even try to be funny- he just was.
To every pro there has to be a con right? There was one role that I thought didn’t really perform at her best potential. Becky Johnson, played...