I'm far from an expert or critical reviewer, but I'd like to add my own views on the first two plays as an audience member on Tuesday night.

'Transformations' was for me, about rather more than just the fact that old people are different from young people. In addition to that, I think it portrayed the confusion in health and fitness advice that exists these days. For every item commented as being positive for you, the negative view isn't far away. I think this level of confusion came through in the section where the friends make their appearance and launch all their conflicting fitness terms. Taking this further, the point I saw in the conclusion was that much of this fitness analysis is irrelevant as long as you enjoy yourself. This isn't an approach I subscribe to as a Fitness Consultant dedicated to the over 50's, but is a view held by the Grandfather and was a 'punch line' of the play for me. That ranked equivalent to the 'young people are different from old people' punch line that Josh detected.

I found 'Kind' to be gripping, and hoped for more encounters between the characters during the play, and not wanting to reach the end. The outcome was guess-able from about half-way through, but that it was concealed that far is a tribute to the writing. I disagree with Josh's comments on Penny's role - she did not need to be more disagreeable to be believable; if she was less sympathetic as a character, then the development of the friendship between her and Richard would be less credible. One may be critical of the swiftness in which the relationship builds up - my view on this is that we are seeing only some of the exchanges between the characters. Days elapse which aren't portrayed; my evidence for this is that must be at least a week's gap between sending off a job application and receiving the invitation to interview. Allowing for those time gaps, with conversations taking place that aren't on stage, I found the interactions to be believable.

Last night saw Almost Random Theatre (ART) take over The Burton Taylor Studio for the second time this week as they presented another evening of three new plays (a different three to the Monday night). ART used basic props and no set to tell each of the three new plays, meaning that the quality of acting and writing had to carry the evening. This was to mixed results.

Transformation: The first play of the evening showed us a grandfather being involuntarily enlisted to help his granddaughter with an academic project on well being. However this is not enough for his granddaughter as she also uses the time to try and fundamentally change the grandfathers outlook on life. Chris Sivewrights script brims with wry observation, wit and satire, often to very comic effect. Lines such as "your grandmother and I never contemplated divorce. Murder, certainly, but never divorce" raised big laughs from the audience. However, there was only ever really one point to be made in this narrative which was just 'old people and young people are very different. Isn't that funny!'. This was not enough to run with for a full half an hour. Lack of structure to the play also took its toll on its actors. Richard Ward had some really nice moments as Grandfather, he added lots of dry sarcasm with a little twinkle in his eye, but he frequently forgot or stumbled over lines and had to receive several prompts from the wings. Rachel Eireann has a lot of potential for a young actress and she made the most of her thinly written Granddaughter character. Less can be said when the granddaughter's precocious and annoying university friends turn up. One of them even makes a light hearted joke about cancer, incredibly misjudged! Overall though, Transformation is a very sweet and very safe comedy about the differences between young and old, with plenty of touching and funny moments. The highlight of the evening.

Kind: Obnoxious young businessman Richard tells Penny, the homeless girl outside his flat to move on and beg somewhere else. They strike up an unlikely friendship. The problem with this play is it is simply impossible to believe in the actions of either character. I do not believe that anyone would ask a homeless person to move on in such an abrasive manner. Nor do I believe that a self-assured young bachelor and businessman would tell his innermost troubles to a homeless girl, almost completely unprompted. Simon Donahue does not show nearly enough panic or vulnerability in his character that would make him spill his guts to a homeless stranger. Rachel Eireann, The Granddaughter from Transformation, is severely miscast as the homeless Penny. The part warranted an actress with more threat and robustness for the audience to genuinely believe she had been sleeping rough. Neither actor depicted the high level of threat and stress that was engulfing the two characters. The ending also drips sanctimoniously in left wing politics in a very clichéd manner. Concluding in the style of After The End by Dennis Kelly would have been far more interesting. Jonathan Skinners script shows plenty of potential with some nice exchanges between the characters, but also the need for a rewrite.

Trinity: The final piece started promisingly, with a voice over informing us that we are in “The Retreat for The Terrifying League of Terror: a training camp for super-villains everywhere.” However neither play nor cast lived up to plays comic potential. It was very funny, but often not in the way that was intended. Steve Walker needed far more gags in his script for the outlandish concept to justify itself, and the quality of the acting all round was very much below an acceptable standard.

Overall, last night was an evening well spent enjoying new writing, despite many evident flaws. For anyone who goes to see and Almost Random Theatre production in the future: I cannot guarantee a well thought through professional production, but I can guarantee you will never be bored.