Play Date is as purposely uncomfortable a 12-minute film as you will find. Raw from beginning to end, Amberlee Colson and Laura Campbell have crafted a devastating piece of magic in this short film.
The host (Amberlee Colson) is prepping for her daughter’s birthday party when an unexpected guest (Laura Campbell) pops by in the hope of getting some answers about her daughter’s last play date.
Co-leads and directors Amberlee Colson and Laura Campbell blow you away with their film Play Date. This truly special film captivates you. This powerful short film resonates immensely; as the sombre tone continues, you are begging for comfort. But, like the topic of the aftermath on families of school shootings that it depicts, we have to wait for that moment to come, and even when it does, it feels like a placeholder. It isn’t a step forward for either woman. Still, a hopeful assurance that maybe one of them is not alone, however broken and tattered she may feel at this time.
The use of the characters’ names is also so telling. We only hear the daughters’ names, never the mothers’, giving us the feeling that this could be anyone at any time going through this severe trauma. It’s such a clever idea that sticks with you, and by keeping their names out of it, you can’t help but put yourself in their places, which makes it all the more difficult to watch.
The way the guest has been going through the mental and emotional ringer with the tragedy is perfectly depicted here, with her having to go through all forms of mental gymnastics to get by day to day. It is a reminder that this is almost an exact year after the event, so who knows what the previous 300-odd days were like for her? It’s at these moments that you realise how strong Gavin Broady’s script is. Little notes are added in here and there by Campbell and Colson, of course, but the spine of the short film is there, and its gut-wrenching power never subsides.
Laura Campbell’s performance is so powerful that it permeates through the screen, making it difficult to look away. Her rawness breaks your heart into a million pieces. When we reach the table scene, we know the floodgates of emotion are about to open; Colson and Campbell do not shy away from this fact. However, even though we anticipate it, that emotional release still shatters you. The actor’s work is simply astounding.
Contrast this with Amberlee Colson’s performance of a mother who doesn’t know what to say or, frankly, what to do with her guest. She wants to be there for her, but when the guest is so off-kilter with reality due to not having healed yet, all she can do is watch and effectively play along. Colson anchors Play Date to allow Campbell to devastate you, but she also has her own moments. It’s all told in her physicality as an actor, wordlessly telling us what she is thinking while having a fair amount of panic but also guilt that is etched on her face. She is the one who took both girls to school after the sleepover; her daughter is the one who survived, and for her to see what she would be like in the guest’s shoes is numbing.
Guilt also hangs over the film from the guest’s side as well: the guilt of leaving her daughter on her penultimate night alive, the guilt of knowing that the host’s daughter witnessed what she did and offering the GameBoy, it’s an olive branch to a friendship paused. Interestingly, as the host tries to apologise for taking Beth to school, the guest shuts it down. Whether she blames her or not is left up in the air, yet it gives us that unresolved feeling about Play Date. An event like this can never really be resolved for parents and family. Its presence will always be hoovering around, inescapable, so to leave the film in the way Colson and Campbell do is poignant as it is realistic, leaving a lingering emotional impact.
After viewing, you won’t shake Play Date from your mind for a long time. Everything about it sinks into your skin and sticks with you for far longer than you want it to, which is entirely the film’s point. It has to sink in, it has to be this horrific ongoing tragedy in your head – essential viewing.
★★★★★
For more of our coverage of the HollyShorts Film Festival, please check out our reviews below.
Wake
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