Under Milk Wood
Fri, 26 Sept 2003, 02:21 pmLibby16 posts in thread
Under Milk Wood
Fri, 26 Sept 2003, 02:21 pmI had heard quite a bit about Deckchair's production of Under Milk Wood, so curiosity aroused I trotted along to see it last night.
To go into a long detailed review would spoil the surprises for everyone, but here are some brief points...
Under Milk Wood, for those unfamiliar with the play/poem, was written by Dylan Thomas originally for voices only. We are shown a day in the life of the seemingly sleepy town Llareggub, its inhabitants and their innermost thoughts.
One of the highlights for me was Renee McIntosh singing Polly Garter's song- just beautiful, especially with the acoustics in the Victoria Hall. In fact, Renee, Claire Hooper and Christina Critch did a great job juggling characters throughout (although I did wonder what the point was of having Claire stand to the side when not onstage most of the time).
Elwyn Edwards did a marvellous job as the all-knowing First Voice, the link between audience and players. The image that was created as he stood downstage with his shadow cast upon each wall was a good lighting design choice.
Yes, there is a lot of audio/visual material- in fact four of the cast we never see, just hear. Anyone who knows the play knows what a nightmare it is casting for sixty-plus characters, and as such using voiceovers is a good way of dealing with this. For the most part it works quite well, although I did find myself growing a little weary of them towards the end.
In my humble opinion, it's well worth going to have a look, as it's a very different take on a classic piece. I enjoyed it and was entertained by it, but I think I'll have to go away and think some more about it.
Sure to delight some and jar others, make the trek down and decide for yourselves, I'm interested to hear what others thought.
And remember to take a coat to wear in the chilly Victoria Hall!
deckchair theatre's Under Milk Wood. Running Tues-Sat, 20 Sept- 4 Oct. 8pm. Victoria Hall, 179 High St Fremantle. $25/$20
To go into a long detailed review would spoil the surprises for everyone, but here are some brief points...
Under Milk Wood, for those unfamiliar with the play/poem, was written by Dylan Thomas originally for voices only. We are shown a day in the life of the seemingly sleepy town Llareggub, its inhabitants and their innermost thoughts.
One of the highlights for me was Renee McIntosh singing Polly Garter's song- just beautiful, especially with the acoustics in the Victoria Hall. In fact, Renee, Claire Hooper and Christina Critch did a great job juggling characters throughout (although I did wonder what the point was of having Claire stand to the side when not onstage most of the time).
Elwyn Edwards did a marvellous job as the all-knowing First Voice, the link between audience and players. The image that was created as he stood downstage with his shadow cast upon each wall was a good lighting design choice.
Yes, there is a lot of audio/visual material- in fact four of the cast we never see, just hear. Anyone who knows the play knows what a nightmare it is casting for sixty-plus characters, and as such using voiceovers is a good way of dealing with this. For the most part it works quite well, although I did find myself growing a little weary of them towards the end.
In my humble opinion, it's well worth going to have a look, as it's a very different take on a classic piece. I enjoyed it and was entertained by it, but I think I'll have to go away and think some more about it.
Sure to delight some and jar others, make the trek down and decide for yourselves, I'm interested to hear what others thought.
And remember to take a coat to wear in the chilly Victoria Hall!
deckchair theatre's Under Milk Wood. Running Tues-Sat, 20 Sept- 4 Oct. 8pm. Victoria Hall, 179 High St Fremantle. $25/$20
Re: Under Milk Wood
Mon, 27 Oct 2003, 01:23 pmTani, you are not alone!
I saw the show with a group of university theatre students and spent the whole night explaining what was going on.
Under Milk Wood is one of my favourite texts and I was somewhat disappointed.
How can you present a piece that is completely character driven with a minimal cast? Doubling roles in this case only proved to confuse audience members no end.
As to the voice-over and speech coming from the back of the hall, this became even more difficult to discerne which character was which.
And what happened to the characters? Where were they?
And the text? In this case the editting left it somewhat disjointed.
To the productions credit I disagree with you Tani, the "cabaret" style set up was fantastic. This however should have been given prior consideration though.......there was not enough space for the actors to comfortably move between tables. Thankfully the drunken captain didn't take a stilt-legged stumble through the tables!!!
Lighting was supurb and as was suggested atmosphere was created beautifully.
Sorry to be so harsh on this one.....usually I'm all positives, I was just so disappointed with this production (It is a favourite of mine)
Pip
I saw the show with a group of university theatre students and spent the whole night explaining what was going on.
Under Milk Wood is one of my favourite texts and I was somewhat disappointed.
How can you present a piece that is completely character driven with a minimal cast? Doubling roles in this case only proved to confuse audience members no end.
As to the voice-over and speech coming from the back of the hall, this became even more difficult to discerne which character was which.
And what happened to the characters? Where were they?
And the text? In this case the editting left it somewhat disjointed.
To the productions credit I disagree with you Tani, the "cabaret" style set up was fantastic. This however should have been given prior consideration though.......there was not enough space for the actors to comfortably move between tables. Thankfully the drunken captain didn't take a stilt-legged stumble through the tables!!!
Lighting was supurb and as was suggested atmosphere was created beautifully.
Sorry to be so harsh on this one.....usually I'm all positives, I was just so disappointed with this production (It is a favourite of mine)
Pip
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