Ramona and Jim meet as teenagers in the Scottish Highlands. He's local, she's on a field trip from Englandshire. They are quirky, nerdy, articulate (in that weirdly teenage kinda way) and physically awkward (again, in that weirdly teenage kinda way)! Also, their hormones are clearly running riot, for it soon becomes apparent that they are immensely attracted to each other.Of course, as with all quirky teenagers, attraction naturally leads to a discussion about crustacea, meteorite showers and inevitably to wild dancing... Enya-stylee. Oh and first-foray sex.
Fifteen years pass and on the eve of a return visit from the aforementioned meteorite shower, Ramona (by now a bag of insecurities and weighed-down by guilt resulting from a bad lapse in judgement all those years ago), revisits Jim on his home turf.
Sophie Wu’s three-hander set in 1998 and then 2013 is a delightfully crafted beast, possessing razor sharp observational wit, interspersed with genuinely hilarious acts of physical humour. Bizarre inclusions, such as hermit crabs, mortgage advisers, the flow of the Orinoco, spider plants, and Pocahontas, all have their place and land perfectly. Mel Hillyard (who won the 2015 JP Morgan Emerging Director gong) guides her delightfully talented trio with a deft touch, managing to elicit stilted awkwardness whilst ensuring dialogue is delivered at a constant, Gatling gun pace.
It is rare for a newly-written piece to be delivered with such assuredness and aplomb; as an audience member, not once are you afforded a moment to consider boredom, never mind succumb to it. This is most definitely aided by Lucy Sierra's unfussy and effective set, which allows the audience to focus on dialogue and the performances and enables the actors to give full and free range to the mental and physical minutiae of their performances.
The result of everyone's efforts - particularly Ruby Bentall (Ramona), Joe Bannister (Jim) and Amy Lennox (Pocahontas - (I wasn't joking)) is simply a joy from beginning to end and redolent of natural skill and finely-honed preparedness.
I am conscious that much of our best new writing is performed at our fringe venues; I am also extremely conscious that this will be the first time I have ever asserted that such a fringe production is, in my opinion, most definitely deserving of a West End transfer. Given how rare they can be, I urge you not to leave matters to chance. Grab a ticket now, while you can. The run of Ramona Tells Jim continues at The Bush until 21st October.
Andrew Lloyd-Webber and Julian Fellowes (hardly the types generally associated with rebelliousness), are ‘the talent’ behind this stage adaptation of Richard Linklater’s 2003 film, in which a down-on-his-luck, guitar-playing slob, Dewey Finn (played with gusto in the West End by Gary Trainor), surreptitiously wangles a job as a supply teacher at a posh prep school, where he introduces his already musically talented young charges, to the joys of rock.