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Prevenge Screening and Q&A with Alice Lowe

February 1, 2017 by Becca Moody Leave a Comment

Alice Lowe has been touring the country with preview screenings of Prevenge, including Chapter Arts Cardiff on January 24th. Hailing from the Midlands and having starred in comedies such as Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace, Hot Fuzz and Sightseers, Alice Lowe is an artist whose work I have always followed. Prevenge is the first feature film Lowe has directed, filmed over eleven days in Cardiff, and it is fair to say you won’t have seen anything like it before.

Ruth (Alice Lowe) is our protagonist. Her husband, and soon-to-be father of her baby, has been killed in a climbing ‘accident’. Prevenge begins under tragic circumstances with a bitter edge that becomes increasingly apparent, as Ruth and her unborn daughter crave vengeance. The setting is bleak, yet the cinematography is beautiful, and Lowe’s trademark sharp wit sends ripples of guilty laughter through the audience. Although this film will certainly satisfy fans of slasher horror, revenge movies and dark comedies, there is something else about Prevenge that makes it particularly unsettling. Yes, it is gory. Not your usual dimly lit hallways, full-moon horror, but  a far more vulnerable, open-air, broad-daylight violence.

© Alice Lowe

Though relatively short for a feature film, an impressive amount of action is compressed within its 90-or-so minutes. And not only this, Lowe’s aptitude for character development still takes precedence. Ruth and baby’s victims are often given limited screen time, yet audiences are given a well-rounded picture of who each of these people are and what they represent. We get an idea of their attitudes and personality traits deemed to be negative, thus meaning that their killings have particular comedic impact. And the faces of Ruth’s victims are recognisable, including the likes of Mike Wozniak, Tom Meeten and Dan Skinner.

The Q&A session after the screening proved valuable in aiding the audience’s understanding of the key issues of the film and artistic decisions in production. Alice herself is very astute in her creative thinking, as well as being relentlessly humble. She explains how she came up with the idea for Prevenge whilst six months pregnant, wrote the script in a matter of days and then, within a couple of months, they were filming.

An interesting discussion point that Alice raises following this regards Ruth’s antenatal nurse (played by This Is England and David Brent: Life on the Road‘s Jo Hartley), in that she is the only genuinely constant kind person who has Ruth’s interests at heart. Lowe makes it abundantly clear that worrying about whether audiences will like Ruth was never an item on her agenda, and it is empowering to hear her say this. The interesting thing, however, is that we do like Ruth, despite her sarcasm, callousness and brutality. We can each see an element of our own psyche within Ruth. Hearing Lowe’s perspective on various aspects of Prevenge‘s writing and production gives viewers much to think about. Audiences are left wondering who, or what, is the true source of our discomfort; is it Ruth’s actions or the fact they almost seem justified? Is Ruth alone or is she stifled? Is this baby an embodiment of innocence, or evil?

This film is an artistic triumph: an independent production that is definitely worth supporting. Prevenge will be returning to Chapter Arts Cardiff, as well as other cinemas across the UK, later this month.

Follow Alice Lowe and Prevenge on Twitter to keep up to date.

Posted in: Comedians, Films Tagged: Alice Lowe, British Comedy, Comedy, Dan Skinner, Jo Hartley, Mike Wozniak, Prevenge, Tom Davis, Tom Meeten

TV Review: The Kennedys

November 8, 2015 by Becca Moody Leave a Comment

An adaptation of her comedy memoir, The Tent, The Bucket and Me, Emma Kennedy’s latest project is a wonderfully vibrant revisit to a seemingly strange childhood. The Kennedys is a microcosm of 1970s Britain, packed full of cultural references that would no doubt delight anybody who was alive forty years ago, but alas I was not. Perhaps, then, it is the stereotypes that I can best associate with; the new-age lasagnas, the cheese and pineapple on cocktail sticks, the disco dancing, but this does not entail that The Kennedys as a piece comedy is lazy in its observations.

Kennedy’s ten-year-old self is reimagined in the form of young actress Lucy Hutchinson, who acts as a voice piece for the adults around her. Emma’s mother, Brenda (Katherine Parkinson) is a giddy, excitable lady with a likeable naivety and admirable ambition for the completion of relatively simple challenges that she often hopelessly fails at (such as booking of a driving test a few mere days in advance, despite never having learned to drive). She is an endless source of embarrassment for her daughter, as is Emma’s father, Tony (Dan Skinner), who so often succumbs to Brenda’s wild schemes, thus leading to some very tricky situations.

© BBC

© BBC

The Kennedys is one of those television sitcoms that has a recognisable face at every corner, overflowing with comedy talent which is enabled to shine through due to the fantastic script. Tim (Harry Peacock) and Jenny (Emma Pierson) live next door and the two couples naturally divide into two pairs of friends, the women and the men. The relatively young group on Jessop Square are incredibly hard-working and well-meaning people, making their quirky relationships a joy to watch, and the way in which they are written is honest and reflective; these characters and their relationships are certainly not tropes.

Visually, it has to be noted that The Kennedys is a very attractive production and the ‘1970s’ look has certainly been achieved, as well as additional humorous visuals being slotted in, such as David Palmer, another Jessop Square resident, being delegated to sitting on the poof at Brenda’s dinner party, meaning he sits at least a foot lower than all the other guests. These flourishes are what make it clear that this sitcom has been years in the making. The attitude behind every line and every scene is one of warmth, a fond memory of how things used to be, and this can be appreciated by anyone, regardless of age.

The Kennedys is silly and sharp-witted; the music is fantastic, the characters well-rounded and the entire production heart-warming, original and uplifting- surely a programme not to be missed.

CATCH SERIES ONE OF ‘THE KENNEDYS’ ON BBC IPLAYER

Posted in: Comedians, Television Shows Tagged: British Comedy, Comedy, Dan Skinner, Emma Kennedy, Harry Peacock, Katherine Parkinson, Sitcom

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