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 (tech crits)
Mon, 28 Aug 2000, 07:41 pmWalter Plinge
Malcolm Crisp wrote:
> "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.
Several dialogue cues in "Doll" were prompted by offstage SFX, such as Barney's line in the third act: "That'll be your taxi", or Olive's in the first "Ooh me beads, that's not them is it?" It was essential that these have SFX to prompt them, otherwise they would have come out of the blue and seemed absurd.
If you're going to have the horn, you need the car pulling up; if you're going to have the car pulling up, you need it driving away; if you're going to have the car pulling up and driving away for one scene, you need it for all scenes involving cars pulling up and driving away.
Consistency's a bugger, ain't it?
> If an actor can't play the piano then
> cut the piano scene...
Using that logic, if the actor playing Desdemona can't sing, you cut the willow song... no matter how much it adds to the mood of the final scene and the impending tragedy.
An actor's inability to perform a specialised skill must be weighed against their ability to play the role. Most people didn't care whether or not Thelma was miming the piano, or how well it was executed technically... they were so enamored of the character (and the actor) at that point that it truly was unimportant to them.
> ...certainly not worth the risks of
> embarrassing the audience and breaking the
> powerful spell created up till then.
I sat in the audience most nights (as you do, being the director), and on the comparatively few nights when the piano scene went technically skewiff, sure, the audience were a little embarrassed, but they were carried by the humour of the scene, were on the actor's side, and appeared to keep the same level of enthusiasm post as prior.
With no disrespect intended Malcolm, it truly isn't a big deal for anyone other than uber-techies such as yourself. Theatre audiences accept it as part of the experience... things go wrong... it happens... and they appreciate it if the actors have the skill to deal with it.
D.M.
> "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.
Several dialogue cues in "Doll" were prompted by offstage SFX, such as Barney's line in the third act: "That'll be your taxi", or Olive's in the first "Ooh me beads, that's not them is it?" It was essential that these have SFX to prompt them, otherwise they would have come out of the blue and seemed absurd.
If you're going to have the horn, you need the car pulling up; if you're going to have the car pulling up, you need it driving away; if you're going to have the car pulling up and driving away for one scene, you need it for all scenes involving cars pulling up and driving away.
Consistency's a bugger, ain't it?
> If an actor can't play the piano then
> cut the piano scene...
Using that logic, if the actor playing Desdemona can't sing, you cut the willow song... no matter how much it adds to the mood of the final scene and the impending tragedy.
An actor's inability to perform a specialised skill must be weighed against their ability to play the role. Most people didn't care whether or not Thelma was miming the piano, or how well it was executed technically... they were so enamored of the character (and the actor) at that point that it truly was unimportant to them.
> ...certainly not worth the risks of
> embarrassing the audience and breaking the
> powerful spell created up till then.
I sat in the audience most nights (as you do, being the director), and on the comparatively few nights when the piano scene went technically skewiff, sure, the audience were a little embarrassed, but they were carried by the humour of the scene, were on the actor's side, and appeared to keep the same level of enthusiasm post as prior.
With no disrespect intended Malcolm, it truly isn't a big deal for anyone other than uber-techies such as yourself. Theatre audiences accept it as part of the experience... things go wrong... it happens... and they appreciate it if the actors have the skill to deal with it.
D.M.
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