Seventeenth Doll - This IS A Reveiw
Sun, 13 Aug 2000, 02:04 pmLeah Maher20 posts in thread
Seventeenth Doll - This IS A Reveiw
Sun, 13 Aug 2000, 02:04 pmI'm sure this wil not be the only reveiw for this GRADS production but here is my two cents.
I must admit to not looking forward to seeing "Summer of the Seventeenth Doll" at the Dolphin last night. Being the philistine that I am, I had heard of the play but never read it, I assumed it would be boring by virtue of being Australian and not modern. (I don't know why I had these asumptions and am now quite ashamed of them.) Well I was pleasently surpirised. From the outset it held my attention, which is difficult to do when the first scene is quite long and consists of two characters chatting. I contributed this to the amazing performances, particularly by Tracey Wolridge (I'm sure I've spelled that wrong), but my companion was blown away by the writing. He said that the reason GRADS always put on a good show is that they always chose beautifully written plays. In this instance he was right. It's a fairly simple story of some fairly simple people but from start to finish they carry you along with them, in their simple lives. When they yell, you jump, when they cry, you're sad and when then laugh, you laugh too.
In terms of laughng the lady who played Emma was an absolute scream. Everytime she walked on stage you could feel the audience smile, waiting to see what she was going to do next. One of the group I went with (Rent-A-Laugh, reasonable rates, contact the President of the ITA!!) started laughing before she even spoke.
My few complaints thoguh, were with the technical side of things. I felt that the sound effects were intrusive and needed to be timed better. At one point I could not hear a very important and emotional speach beacause of the loud and unecessarily long sound of a car driving off, I swear it got from Melbourne to Bendigo before it died out. I also felt that the piano playing was distracting in a play where the charcters and dialouge were so natural. Was it possible to angle the piano so we could not see the players hands??
Well done to David for picking such a fabulous play and a brilliant cast. And for providing an entertaining interval game! When you get to the Dolphin, try to pick the director out of the crowd, I guartentee those of you who saw Assassins won't be able to do it. I would have said my personal congrat's David, if I knew the Kossak in the corner was you!!
I must admit to not looking forward to seeing "Summer of the Seventeenth Doll" at the Dolphin last night. Being the philistine that I am, I had heard of the play but never read it, I assumed it would be boring by virtue of being Australian and not modern. (I don't know why I had these asumptions and am now quite ashamed of them.) Well I was pleasently surpirised. From the outset it held my attention, which is difficult to do when the first scene is quite long and consists of two characters chatting. I contributed this to the amazing performances, particularly by Tracey Wolridge (I'm sure I've spelled that wrong), but my companion was blown away by the writing. He said that the reason GRADS always put on a good show is that they always chose beautifully written plays. In this instance he was right. It's a fairly simple story of some fairly simple people but from start to finish they carry you along with them, in their simple lives. When they yell, you jump, when they cry, you're sad and when then laugh, you laugh too.
In terms of laughng the lady who played Emma was an absolute scream. Everytime she walked on stage you could feel the audience smile, waiting to see what she was going to do next. One of the group I went with (Rent-A-Laugh, reasonable rates, contact the President of the ITA!!) started laughing before she even spoke.
My few complaints thoguh, were with the technical side of things. I felt that the sound effects were intrusive and needed to be timed better. At one point I could not hear a very important and emotional speach beacause of the loud and unecessarily long sound of a car driving off, I swear it got from Melbourne to Bendigo before it died out. I also felt that the piano playing was distracting in a play where the charcters and dialouge were so natural. Was it possible to angle the piano so we could not see the players hands??
Well done to David for picking such a fabulous play and a brilliant cast. And for providing an entertaining interval game! When you get to the Dolphin, try to pick the director out of the crowd, I guartentee those of you who saw Assassins won't be able to do it. I would have said my personal congrat's David, if I knew the Kossak in the corner was you!!
RE: Seventeenth Doll - This IS A Reveiw
Sat, 26 Aug 2000, 06:34 amWalter Plinge
Leah - Thank you for your review.
As S/M for this production I concur with all your comments and accept your criticisms. There are indeed some fine performances and it has been a great pleasure and a privilidge to witness the development of the characters by this group if fine and dedicated actors.
Director David Meadows deserves acclaim for the way he has put together this excellent cast and nurtured them through this difficult but immensely rewarding piece of writing. (I used to hate it too!)
If I might comment on the early technical problems. Grads, in common with other companies, has a great deal of trouble attracting technically-minded people (experienced or inexperienced) to its membership. This became a major headache - especially for me as S/M! Our earstwhile president and set builder extraordinaire Jonno Beckett volunteered at the last tick of the production clock to run the sound desk. With a 30 cue script this was no mean feat! Especially as he had no previous experience in this area! I had prepared the sound effects tape (through trial and error - at
a time when I should have been concentrating on other things (thank you Kelly & a tolerant cast!)) and we opened 10 minutes late for our opening performance largely because I was only able to drag Jonno away from finishing off painting the set at 7.45pm (only a 3 day bump-in)! So it was a necessarily "hasty" introductory lesson! And took some careful Q'ing
from the corner - which, associated with a naturally nervous and somewhat sleep deprived operator didn't always happen spot on time - and required 'on your feet' adjustments to sound levels as we went along!
But that's all part of Theatre, isn't it?
We'd just about got our act togetherd by the 2nd performance of course. But sadly any number of companies have had similar survival experiences.
WHERE ARE ALL THE TECHIES??? The Dolphin is a fabulous theatre to work, and offers splendid teching opportunities. So please don't be backward in coming forward and offering yourself - or pass this message to someone you know, who might enjoy the challenge. Carpenters, painters, electricians, sound and
lighting people, dressmakers, stage crew - we need you! Fiona Reed has done a great job with lighting - but is about to respond to the call of Sydney - and Lorraine Warnock has done magical things with costumes - but we won't always be able to rely on enticing her away from Garrick.
I look forward to hearing from anybody who is interested/able to help.
By the way if you haven't seen it yet you'll be lucky to get a seat - closing Saturday.
As S/M for this production I concur with all your comments and accept your criticisms. There are indeed some fine performances and it has been a great pleasure and a privilidge to witness the development of the characters by this group if fine and dedicated actors.
Director David Meadows deserves acclaim for the way he has put together this excellent cast and nurtured them through this difficult but immensely rewarding piece of writing. (I used to hate it too!)
If I might comment on the early technical problems. Grads, in common with other companies, has a great deal of trouble attracting technically-minded people (experienced or inexperienced) to its membership. This became a major headache - especially for me as S/M! Our earstwhile president and set builder extraordinaire Jonno Beckett volunteered at the last tick of the production clock to run the sound desk. With a 30 cue script this was no mean feat! Especially as he had no previous experience in this area! I had prepared the sound effects tape (through trial and error - at
a time when I should have been concentrating on other things (thank you Kelly & a tolerant cast!)) and we opened 10 minutes late for our opening performance largely because I was only able to drag Jonno away from finishing off painting the set at 7.45pm (only a 3 day bump-in)! So it was a necessarily "hasty" introductory lesson! And took some careful Q'ing
from the corner - which, associated with a naturally nervous and somewhat sleep deprived operator didn't always happen spot on time - and required 'on your feet' adjustments to sound levels as we went along!
But that's all part of Theatre, isn't it?
We'd just about got our act togetherd by the 2nd performance of course. But sadly any number of companies have had similar survival experiences.
WHERE ARE ALL THE TECHIES??? The Dolphin is a fabulous theatre to work, and offers splendid teching opportunities. So please don't be backward in coming forward and offering yourself - or pass this message to someone you know, who might enjoy the challenge. Carpenters, painters, electricians, sound and
lighting people, dressmakers, stage crew - we need you! Fiona Reed has done a great job with lighting - but is about to respond to the call of Sydney - and Lorraine Warnock has done magical things with costumes - but we won't always be able to rely on enticing her away from Garrick.
I look forward to hearing from anybody who is interested/able to help.
By the way if you haven't seen it yet you'll be lucky to get a seat - closing Saturday.
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