Apart from a wee bout of first-night nerves, Friday the 13th holds no fear for Laura Walker and other members of The UHI Inverness Student Drama Society.
For that’s the date the society has chosen to give its first performance, presenting The Grimm Tale of the Huntsman at the One Touch Theatre, Eden Court.
The one-night-only show, an original piece, is the result of a desire to allow those studying drama at the UHI, along with other students, to get together and form a drama society.
“Myself and my classmate Rachel Haston formed the society in September last year,” said Laura. “We are both in year two of a BA (Hons) Drama and Performance course and felt the college needed a drama group, so, during freshers week, we set up a stall asking people to register if they were interested in the formation of such a group.
“We had more than 120 sign-ups from students studying a variety of different subjects which was awesome.” said Laura.
“The group met regularly and because people had different levels of experience we began by playing games and doing improvisation.
“We came up with a few ideas for putting on an original play and in the end decided to do one based on either Grimm’s Fairytales, Scottish Mythology or Shakespeare.
“The vote was almost unanimous for Grimm’s Fairytales.
“Coming up with a story came really naturally, as after some improvisations we could see relationships forming within the characters, but it was very important to Rachel and myself that every decision taken about the play was made after discussion with the society members.”
The result of all that hard work is The Grimm Tale of The Huntsman. The Huntsman, played by Keiran Hall, has been murdered, shot with a poisoned arrow.
The audience is invited to enter a world of fairytales where the Grimm characters all come together.
However, not everything is the same as what was written down. The story, performed by a cast of 15, is set in a courtroom controlled by the Queen (Sophie Wink) and where Maleficent (Paulina Tomaszewicz) is the main suspect for the huntsman’s murder.
“The huntsman is already dead, but returns in flashback scenes, while everyone has a multiple role as a dwarf and part of the jury,” said Laura. A story of love, jealousy and change – shaken up by colourful characters and delinquent dwarves – unfolds.
“It is a dark tale but has a lot of comedy through it – people who know theatre will find it hilarious, and overall it is supposed to be fun,” said Laura, who hopes this is the first of many successful performances for society members.
The play starts at 7pm tomorrow, Friday, April 13. Tickets are priced at £6 for students/concessions and £8 for everyone else. Contact: 01463 234234.
