Tuesday, May 22, 2018
Soldierland
The Sky Theatre Group demonstrates how to say "war is hell" in the most self-indulgent, incoherent, incomprehensible and boring way possible.
Friday, May 18, 2018
True West
True West is one of the best things I have seen on a Vancouver stage in a long time. I was sorry to miss the production of the same play last December (but with a different cast and director) but was deterred by a heavy snowfall. This production from Sonder House more than made up for it.
Sharp performances by the two leads -- Joel Butler and Patrick Dodd -- were bang on.
I do wish the program had given some detail about these performers. Butler was a new face to me. Dodd was more familiar -- a positive remembrance from one of the short plays at the recent "Pull Festival".
More information about Sonder House would also have been welcome.
Sharp performances by the two leads -- Joel Butler and Patrick Dodd -- were bang on.
I do wish the program had given some detail about these performers. Butler was a new face to me. Dodd was more familiar -- a positive remembrance from one of the short plays at the recent "Pull Festival".
More information about Sonder House would also have been welcome.
Friday, May 11, 2018
Thursday, May 10, 2018
When Going Into the Woods It's Easy to Get Lost
It is hard to pass up a production of Sondheim's "Into the Woods" so I was quite looking forward to the North Shore Light Opera Society production that opened last night (May 9).
I came away disappointed. Not that it was a bad production but it was one that had great potential and promise but never quite lived up to it. All the leads had great voices and the characterizations were mostly spot on. So what was the problem?
Someone had a production design concept that may have seemed brilliant in theory but simply did not work in practice. I suspect the script went something like this:
"Hey! For the woods, instead of conventional scenery, lets put some actors in tree costumes and let them be the woods"
"Great idea - and its a big stage so we can populate it with more actors dressed to represent animals -- raccoons, deer and so on. Lets run with it."
The result was that for most of the show the stage was filled with a dozen actors with nothing to do except be in constant motion reacting to the main action between the principals. This was a huge distraction and a number of scenes lost their intimacy as a result.
Sound level was also a problem. The pit was good but tended to overwhelm the singers who, with one apparent exception, were unmiked and did not have any reinforcement to assist in making themselves heard.
A final problem was personal. I work hard to get seats that are front row centre so my view of the stage is unobstructed. The Centennial Theatre in North Vancouver seems to have a curse attached to it. About two years ago I attended a production of "Rent" there (my first visit to that venue since 1973) and, much to my chagrin, whoever makes these decisions placed a further row of temporary seats in front of me and seated some very large and rowdy adolescents in them. For Into the Woods the designer attached to the top outer edge of the pit large (12 to 18 inches high) letters spelling out "ONCE UPON A TYME" again obstructing the view of audience members in the first 3 or 4 rows.
Despite these annoyances I do not regard it as an evening wasted -- only one that had the potential to be so much better.
I came away disappointed. Not that it was a bad production but it was one that had great potential and promise but never quite lived up to it. All the leads had great voices and the characterizations were mostly spot on. So what was the problem?
Someone had a production design concept that may have seemed brilliant in theory but simply did not work in practice. I suspect the script went something like this:
"Hey! For the woods, instead of conventional scenery, lets put some actors in tree costumes and let them be the woods"
"Great idea - and its a big stage so we can populate it with more actors dressed to represent animals -- raccoons, deer and so on. Lets run with it."
The result was that for most of the show the stage was filled with a dozen actors with nothing to do except be in constant motion reacting to the main action between the principals. This was a huge distraction and a number of scenes lost their intimacy as a result.
Sound level was also a problem. The pit was good but tended to overwhelm the singers who, with one apparent exception, were unmiked and did not have any reinforcement to assist in making themselves heard.
A final problem was personal. I work hard to get seats that are front row centre so my view of the stage is unobstructed. The Centennial Theatre in North Vancouver seems to have a curse attached to it. About two years ago I attended a production of "Rent" there (my first visit to that venue since 1973) and, much to my chagrin, whoever makes these decisions placed a further row of temporary seats in front of me and seated some very large and rowdy adolescents in them. For Into the Woods the designer attached to the top outer edge of the pit large (12 to 18 inches high) letters spelling out "ONCE UPON A TYME" again obstructing the view of audience members in the first 3 or 4 rows.
Despite these annoyances I do not regard it as an evening wasted -- only one that had the potential to be so much better.
Wednesday, May 2, 2018
Misery -- Describes the Audience Experience
This is a disappointing production of a not-very-good play. A single idea dragged out to inordinate length yielded little more than tedium.
Part of the problem may be seeing it at the end of a relatively long tour, and the players have simply lost their edge.
But I am not sure that Andrew McNee had much edge to begin with. He has the unhappy tendency to simply "mug" his way through the parts he plays. This has been particularly evident in many Arts Club productions. Particularly embarrassing were his performances in
Boeing-Boeing, The Odd Couple and One Man, Two Guvnors. In the role of the author held captive by the crazed fan his histrionics reach new heights.
One function of the Arts Club's touring productions should be to attract audiences that it would not otherwise reach with material they would not otherwise see. Misery is a play best left to community theatres as the "thriller" entry in their season's program. These audiences deserve better from the Arts Club.
Part of the problem may be seeing it at the end of a relatively long tour, and the players have simply lost their edge.
But I am not sure that Andrew McNee had much edge to begin with. He has the unhappy tendency to simply "mug" his way through the parts he plays. This has been particularly evident in many Arts Club productions. Particularly embarrassing were his performances in
Boeing-Boeing, The Odd Couple and One Man, Two Guvnors. In the role of the author held captive by the crazed fan his histrionics reach new heights.
One function of the Arts Club's touring productions should be to attract audiences that it would not otherwise reach with material they would not otherwise see. Misery is a play best left to community theatres as the "thriller" entry in their season's program. These audiences deserve better from the Arts Club.
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