Susan Elkin: I’ve found a play that contains an advisory warning for prospective drama students | Opinion | The Stage

Originally posted in The Stage.

I write about drama schools. And training. And plays. But it isn’t often I see a play which actually discusses schools and training.

Last Friday I was lucky enough to catch Theatre Voliere’s Consolation by Mick Wood, part of a short French season at the Bridewell. And lucky is the operative word because it’s a fine two-hander which deserves more outings in the future.

One of the characters, Raymond (excellent work from Mountview-trained Danny Solomon), is an angry young Frenchman desperate to get to London for actor training. He finds an (imaginary) school based in an East London theatre which promises the earth and I’m sure, by now, you can see where this is going.

He is advised against the school by Carol (Holly Joyce) who has consulted her trainee theatre technician son via Skype. She tells him it’s low grade training which no one in the industry has heard of. Almost a scam, it exists just to take fees from overseas students, she says, adding that perhaps she and her son might help Raymond to apply for a proper school such as RADA, LAMDA or the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

Well I hope the young audience members – who might have similar aspirations to the character on stage in front of them – were paying attention. There are unscrupulous organisations out there, waiting vulture-like to…

via Susan Elkin: I’ve found a play that contains an advisory warning for prospective drama students | Opinion | The Stage.