Directors’ Cuts is returning to the Alma Tavern for another multifarious season of short plays. Steve Wright meets the young directors showcasing their skills this year.

Since its beginnings five years ago, we’ve waxed lyrical about Bristol Old Vic Theatre School’s annual Directors’ Cuts season. This is a far cry from the other public performances for which the school is best known: big, rumbustious ensemble settings of everything from Shakespeare to ‘Guys and Dolls’. No, the DC season sees the four students on that year’s BOVTS directors’ course each select and direct a powerful modern play in the intimate confines of the Alma Tavern Theatre.

It’s been a hugely successful formula, with some fine chamber renditions of modern masterpieces from Caryl Churchill, John Fowles, David Hare and others. Many of the directors have already gone on to greater things, too. One such, in fact, is Anna Girvan, a name already fairly familiar in Bristol theatre circles. A 2010 graduate, Anna chose Dennis Kelly’s ‘Debris’ for last year’s DC season at the Alma: since then she’s directed three plays in Bristol as well as directing one of the 24 Hour Plays at the Ustinov (Fri 29 May, see The Month Ahead on page 60); running a company, Juncture, to produce theatre in London and Bristol; and setting up Baba Yaga, a young people’s theatre company. She’s back at the Alma this May, filling in for one of the four directing students who didn’t complete the course.

Anna’s choice this time is ‘Contractions’, a short 2008 comedy by rising playwright Mike Bartlett. “It just leapt out at me,” she explains. “I need to be able to visualise a play while reading it; I’m also attracted to plays that not only cleverly observe an area of society but also involve an element of dark comedy or some slightly unhinged characters.”

She has some creative solutions to rehearsing and getting into character. “The play is set in an office, so we had a training day in character, and I got in several actors to play other office workers and a business training expert. It was five hours of pointless tasks, cringesome team-building exercises and mantras and the typical sandwich buffet lunch. It was a lot of fun and the actors got so much out of it, memories to go back to during rehearsals.

“My heart’s really in site-specific theatre, and this would actually be a great play to stage in an office. There is something about experiencing theatre in non-theatre environments that excites me more than anything else, which is useful considering theatres are getting less and less money and spaces like Bristol Old Vic are closing their doors for months on end.”

And what’s ‘Contractions’ actually about? “A lot of things – but mostly the fear that is pumped into society about the importance of a 9-to-5 job, of not having money, or not enough. Like Orwell's ‘1984’, Bartlett warns against the Big Brother society, churning out unquestioning drones.” Weighty messages aside, audiences are in for an entertaining evening. “We’ve all been crying with laughter during rehearsals.”

Elsewhere, Matt Grinter – a film directing graduate before his year on the Directors’ Cuts course – directs ‘Orphans’ by Dennis Kelly, a suspense story in which a married couple are thrown into disarray when her brother shows up in their home one evening, covered in another man's blood. “It’s dark, it’s engrossing and, like much of Kelly’s writing, it’s littered with black humour and a mix of tender and brutal dialogue,” says Matt. “It has elements of a thriller, but it’s essentially a beautiful, disturbing character study dealing with what happens when the lies we tell each other and ourselves begin to break down. And it keeps audiences guessing right until the last scene.”

Fellow graduate Emel Yilmaz is directing ‘Country Music’, a “story of crime and punishment” by Simon Stephens, he of the hugely-admired 7/7 drama ‘Pornography’. This one, Emel explains, follows 20 years in the life of one Jamie Carris. “He takes the wrong path at 18, which affects him throughout his life. He’s desperate to go back in time and adjust his past misdemeanours – but can he do it, can he change his history and become a loving brother, caring lover and proud father? Can his humanity triumph over his social upbringing? The audience must try to answer this question.”

Lastly, Ed Stambollouian directs ‘The Aliens’ (pictured top), Annie Baker’s play about a trio of New England slackers and dealing, says Ed, with “male friendship, coming-of-age, creative expression and frustrated genius”. “I read around 50 plays when looking for a show, but this was the only one I wanted to read again immediately after putting it down. It's an incredibly simple play on the surface but every time I read it I find another beautiful, funny, cleverly crafted little nugget. It’s all about character, language and detail: it's funny, poignant and full of heart and humanity. It's also about music; how music can entertain, strengthen relationships and even heal. It’s a funny play and it makes me smile, but it also packs a punch and I think there may be tears by the end of the night.”

BOV THEATRE SCHOOL’S DIRECTOR’S CUTS (‘COUNTRY MUSIC’, TUE 3-SAT 7 MAY/‘CONTRACTIONS’, TUE 10-SAT 14 MAY/‘THE ALIENS’, TUE 17-SAT 21 MAY/‘ORPHANS’, TUE 24-SAT 28 MAY) WERE AT THE ALMA TAVERN THEATRE, BRISTOL. WEB: WWW.OLDVIC.AC.UK/SHOWS.HTML

Copyright Steve Wright 2011