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Hello everyone.... it's been a while mostly since first my computer connections messed up, then I went on a two day vacation to Nova Scotia. So here's about my trip:
By nine-thirty Tuesday morning I was on the road with my mom heading off to Wolfville, Nova Scotia. I was set on seeing The Miracle Worker and The Taming of the Shrew at the Atlantic Theatre Festival. We drove straight through, making only a few quick stops- for gas, a map, some grub, and a drink (mmmm...sobe drinks....). We arrived in Wolfville before three o'clock and registered at our hotel- the Old Orchard Inn. We actually stayed in some crazy little cabin, which was all fine and dandy. Then we immediately went to the theatre to get our tickets for the shows (we hadn't actually reserved tickets, so I was getting aprehensive that we might not get good seats). Luckily we got awesome seats! (Row C and B, and positioned straight on to the stage and slightly audience right respectivly.) Now we had a few hours to waste before the show. My mother and I proceded to do corny mother/daughter vacation things... look around craft shops, shop... yadda yadda. We got supper at a wonderful homecooking resturant that had the most incrediable pie I have ever tasted in my life! MMMMM... I had a piece of butterscotch.... yum! Then we mellowed out at a coffee shop for about half an hour before the show. The Miracle Worker was wonderful! Immediately afterwards mom and I headed back to our hotel and to bed.
The next day was more of the same... quite relaxing and pointless, which is what I always hope for in a vacation. We returned to the resturant to try more pie... cherry-rasberry for breakfast.... coconut-cream for lunch. (I did eat more than pie but that part is unexciting.) However after this amout of pie my stomach was beginning to feel rather miserable. (Usually I eat very healthy and this sparatic splurging was a little much for it.) The Taming of the Shrew was a very, um, interesting production. The director definitely took a lot of artistic liberity to say the least. Some I liked about it, some I didn't... Then after the show we headed to Digby where we borded the eight forty-five ferry to come home. It was a good trip.... and I enjoyed very much the Atlantic Theatre Festival's productions.
The Miracle Worker at The Atlantic Theatre Festival **** This was an extremely amazing production. Haveing read the play before hand, and watched the movie, I was familiar with the piece and in fact knew some scenes word for word. The play tells the story of Helen Keller, a deaf, blind, and mute child. She is an uncontrollable child and her parents have no idea how to handle this child who is given to tantrums and violent outbreaks. They write to a school and Boston, and from the school they send a young governess, Annie Sullivan. Through the course of the play, which is based on the actual events of Helen's life, Annie teachs her language, and calms her and gets her to behave as a normal child. It is a moving story full of drama and tears, while laughs can be found as well.
This particular production was extremely well done. The acting was very focused and each of the characters were expresssed beautifully. Watching this I felt like I was watching real life. Marla McLean, an actress of, I'm guessing, late teens or early twenties in age, played the young child Helen Keller. There was such energy and frustration in the performance that if blew me away. Her unfocused eyes, and a makeup job around the eye made her blindness look so realistic my mother actually asked me "Is she really blind?" Tara Rosling was amazing as Annie Sullivan. Her energy matched that of Marla's and together their scenes involved such passion that the audience was entranced. As well, all the actors onstage kept extremely focused creating the intensity that climaxed to a point where I actually had tears ready to fall down my cheeks.
The production was done on a nice cosy set which embodied the feeling of a home. A round wood platform was center in the thrust stage, with one step leading up to it. There was the dining room table centre, and a few steps up from that was Annie's bedroom. Downstage right was where the water pump was located. It all had very wood and earth tones to it- the floor and furnature was all wood.
Oh, one really interesting aspect of the show was inclusion of two interreters. Through out the entire show two women, Louise Mussett and Mary Cunningham, signed all the text spoke in the show. They often stood or sat just outside of the action of the play in a dimly lit area. I thought this was interesting, and I noticed that some of the members of the audience were deaf and were using sing language to communicate. I liked how the director added this element so everyone can enjoy the story of Helen.
Overall, a magnificent story, and this production captured the heart and soul of Helen Keller.
The Taming of the Shrew at The Atlantic Theatre Festival ** Ohhhhh man. Where do I begin?! This was a, well, crazy production. Just imagine Petruccio singing Lady Marmalade (with the lyrics changed) to Katherine, at their wedding, whild dressed in drag. Hummm hum. Well. Yup. This was a modernized version of the Shakespeare play. Overall I did like the fact it was modernized... Bianca came out dressed in a yellow sundress and danced around the stage while listening to her disk-man, Katherine came out looking like a character from the Rocky Horror picture show, Petruccio was a biker dressed head to toe in leather, Lucentio was your preppy-university student, the maid went around smoking up the entire show and Baptista Minola toked many time through the play.... get the idea?
Okay this might of worked. However I found the downfall of this entire production was the fact that understudies were used.... umm... well, in fact Petruccio was an understudy. Plus, some scenes were on-book. I'm sorry, I'm really sorry, but I felt like I was watching a rehearsal for Petruccio. I really did. And this really ruined a lot for me. Plus, in general, I found this production was just really disconnected and had no focus or intensity. It seemed like sparatic craziness everywhere. Then they would break out in song every ten minutes. This I kind of like at times. Songs were incorporated into the text to display or emphasize the feelings of the characters. For instance Tranio sang a few lines of the Beatles "All You Need Is Love" to Lucentio in the beginning after he has spotted Bianca. Gremio (the old guy who loves Bianca) sang a few lines from Beatles "Fool on the Hill" once Baptista and Tranio (desguised as Lucentio...) had gone off after deteremining Tranio/Lucentio has more money for dowery. A wide assortment of Beatles and Elvis songs were used... so this was all very interesting. (Although the Moulin Rouge was toooooooo much.)
Enough about that.... some of the acting was good... former Saint Johner Graham Percy was Tranio, and he was great! :-) As was Andre French as Lucentio, Genevieve Steel as Bianca, Lawrence Hargert in multiple role including Grumio which he understudied. So some things were well done. My only problem was just how unfocused it was....
So it was entertaining, but some things were lacking....
posted by">Hayley @
5:04 AM
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Thursday, August 22, 2002  |
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