Congratulations to Lily Hardcastle on her Edinburgh Fringe debut with her production ‘Gloves’ which received impressive reviews across the board. The play is “a psychological thriller about a Scottish sociopath named William Campbell who believes his sole purpose in life is to fix the ‘damage’ of the world” says Lily. As the story unfolds William’s meetings with both old and new friends reveal that his own rather strange behaviour is the reason he cannot help other people. The audience eventually discovers that everything has been presented through William’s eyes and they are left to question quite how much they can believe.
Having written the play, Lily was grateful for the input of Hurtwood’s Performing Arts department and their help with props and spaces to audition and practise. Having held the auditions, she was delighted with the talent and commitment of her cast. The lead roles ‘William Campbell’ and ‘Woman’ were played by Kit Hannah and Kira Bulhakova and other major roles were played by Rupert Wade, Immi Brass, Ava Jager and Zack Harrison.
After much hard work, Lily eventually put the show on in front of a packed Hurtwood audience. Her belief in the show was vindicated by the positive reactions of her peers and her next step was to move the production up to the Fringe. She was following in footsteps of many Hurtwood students who had taken their plays and comedies to Edinburgh in the past. The most famous production remains ‘Bliss’ by Paul Sellar, which launched the career of Hollywood royalty Emily Blunt. Last year’s production of ‘These Days’ by a Hurtwood student Saoirse Reynolds was a triumph gaining5-star reviews.
Lily admitted that at times the process had been a stressful one, as the learning curve was so steep. Indeed, at the very beginning she had been suffering from writer’s block when she started to write ‘Gloves’ which began life as a monologue. However, once she started to write, the characters began to come alive and the story developed naturally through them. She found the entire process to be extremely rewarding and she is convinced that the students involved would be friends for life. Speaking to members of the cast they seemed to enjoy the entire process from rehearsals, to travelling to Edinburgh to perform and even the handing out of flyers to get an audience. Kit stated that the experience was “so much fun and absolutely transformative” and reflected that it gave the cast a taste of the process of acting in the real world.
Lily was delighted that they had sold out most days. She stated,“The experience and the atmosphere in Edinburgh wereelectric and I would recommend anyone to go there just for the chance to feel how supportive and creatively charged it is.”
The feedback was universally positive with reviewers stating‘Phenomenal performance. Maybe best seen twice to get everything from it. This team will go far when you remember that it is performed by such young people. Thought provoking, challenging, triggering, fast paced- greatwriting.’
Now that Lily, who is currently in her final year at Hurtwood, has learnt so much about the process and deadlines involved and has discovered quite how rewarding the experience can be, she is busy working on another script for next summer. With such positive reviews from Hurtwood and beyond, that is no surprise and we are delighted that she managed to overcome her writer’s block.
