Travesties at Roleystone

Saw this production last week. Not being a Stoppard fan I was not that enthusiastic about going, but I found it quite enjoyable. Paul Treasure's interpretation was mostly understandable, the set was excellent (gave a whole new meaning to a flagstone floor), and Pear was brilliant.
There was, however, one thing which irritated me beyond measure. I could not understand one word uttered by the character playing James Joyce. Her acting and body language were quite good, but that is no good if the audience misses the lines written by the author. Because it is a long play, I got the impression that the cast were trying to speed up the lines, but shooting them like a machine gun at the audience is not the answer, especially if a broad accent is employed.
There are some very funny lines to keep the audience amused, I especially liked the idea of English literature being in the foreign lanuage section of a Zurich Library.
All in all a pleasant evening, apart from my one gripe

cheers
Stu

Being in the stage crew you get to know all of the actors fairly well. If I am not mistaken the actress playing James Joyce is Nicola Harrison, and she has a natural English (I think) accent. I also found it hard to get used to her interpretation of an Irish accent because of the English one, but after a while I could understand it. You just have to listen carefully, but don't let that turn you off seeing the show. I'd recommend it to anyone in the area.

I cannot beleive that the show I went and saw last night has sparked all this debate about walking out at interval. I can't beleive so many people have done so. The only thing I can think of is that Travesties is an unusal and very wordy play and that the traditional audience base at Roleystone is fairly conservative. I read all the "They just didn't understand it" posits from the cast and crew and must admit to a raised eyebrow. "Oh yeah" I thought "or it could just be.....".

To tell you the truth I went to Travesties because I have friends amoung the cast. I really expected it to be awful, and the tales of post 11pm finishes didn't help either. I was pleasently surprised. Yes it is long, but it doesn't feel like it. Yes it is wordy, but the actors, though some less accomplished than others are likable and, despite everything, really seem to enjoy and beleive in what they are doing. And it's very funny.

The setting is visually arresting but I would like to have seen it a little less rigid and a little more scewed in theme, in keeping with the quasi-Dadaist themes of chance and chaos. The physical theatre worked well and the costumes were well done.

I don't usually single actors out unless it is for praise but since it's already been said on these boards; you can't understand the woman who plays James Joyce. This is very very annoying and severely detracted from my enjoyment of the play. The most imporant aspect of Stoppard is to process the dialouge, if you can't do that, the play is lost on you. If the accent is a problem, lose it; the words are more important. A very funny question and answer scene was almost completely lost in garble and mumbling.

But other than that gripe (and the small matter of Roleystone Theatre being a FRIDGE, I swear I felt like I was in the meat locker scene in Rocky. The place isn't warm enough to sustain human life. BRING A BLANKET!!!) I enjoyed the show. The cast and crew gave a very hard text a very good go under extremely trying circumstances.

I happen to know the play in review quite well, and was curious to know how this production has/had been executed.

Living in Melbourne, reviews are one of the best ways I can be informed of other plays in my home state of WA. Unfortunately, I have not read a review that mentions more than the actor playing 'James Joyce' and the intermission arguement firing the message board at the moment.

If you please, could someone post a review describing all the actors' performances and how the direction on the 'time slips' were handled?

Thanks.