A Night On The Tiles (Manchester)

Surprising from the very beginning A Night on the Tiles opens with sharp suited gangsters meeting not to plan a heist but to play Scrabble- to the death. Writer Will Power not only creates a viable reality in which Scrabble is an eastern discipline in the style of Kung Fu he also delivers a coherent storyline full of laughs.

Much of the script is in the form of blank verse well performed by the cast who come from the Hip Hop culture. All are excellent, although Ali Gadema’s gravel-voiced gangster and Niven Ganner’s inscrutable underling are standouts. Lucidity enjoys one of the best, and most acrobatic, death scenes ever whilst Ben Mellor’s desperate Tyler pays tribute to the old style gambler movies and Martin Stannage is an almost robotic genius.
 
Montserrat Gili directs with pace and cheek resisting irony so that the fantastic elements of the play are delivered straight. Drawing influences from cinema and TV the inevitable Tarantino swipe provides a superbly funny scene change.

After a run of hosting guest productions, a new show from the Contact Theatre is welcome especially when it is as surprising and entertaining as A Night On the Tiles.
 
- Dave Cunningham