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, 06:37 amWalter Plinge
I would like to pass on my congratulations to GRADS for yet another very solid reading of an important play.
There is no excuse for not following the consistently good seasions at GRADS. Where else can you find examples of the classics being done in such an intellegent and informed way?
I still have very strong memories of both The Cherry Orchard and Doll's House.
On Pat's query "Where are all the Techies?" well from my exerpience most of them are busy working professionally.
And while on this subject: The reason most community theatre companies have such difficulties with their technicals is because they are so finnicky about them. I spend most of my time finding ways to make shows run more easily. The community theatre world seem to delight in stacking in 90 cues an act and then blaming the tech for not keeping up... "I'm off to catch a bus" doesn't need to be accompanied by the sound of a bus driving away - the audience aren't that stupid.
The audience is quite able to imagine an implied cue - but they are very unforgiving of a wrong one.
If an actor can't play the piano then cut the piano scene. Trying to time a piano being played with a cassette recording of a piano being played is a logistical nightmare. Certainly not worth the risks of embarrassing the audience and breaking the powerful spell created up till then.
A technician boasting about the huge amount of cues they have is like an actor boasting about the number of syllables in a speech - totally mindless; and from an audience perspective absolutely unimportant...
There is no excuse for not following the consistently good seasions at GRADS. Where else can you find examples of the classics being done in such an intellegent and informed way?
I still have very strong memories of both The Cherry Orchard and Doll's House.
On Pat's query "Where are all the Techies?" well from my exerpience most of them are busy working professionally.
And while on this subject: The reason most community theatre companies have such difficulties with their technicals is because they are so finnicky about them. I spend most of my time finding ways to make shows run more easily. The community theatre world seem to delight in stacking in 90 cues an act and then blaming the tech for not keeping up... "I'm off to catch a bus" doesn't need to be accompanied by the sound of a bus driving away - the audience aren't that stupid.
The audience is quite able to imagine an implied cue - but they are very unforgiving of a wrong one.
If an actor can't play the piano then cut the piano scene. Trying to time a piano being played with a cassette recording of a piano being played is a logistical nightmare. Certainly not worth the risks of embarrassing the audience and breaking the powerful spell created up till then.
A technician boasting about the huge amount of cues they have is like an actor boasting about the number of syllables in a speech - totally mindless; and from an audience perspective absolutely unimportant...
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