The Truth with Blak Yak - a rambling review.

Terry Pratchett's The Truth adapted by Stephen Briggs
Directed by Tim Edwards and Melissa Merchant
Blak Yak Theatre

Kalamunda Performing Arts Centre
October 21,22,27,28,29

On Saturday night 22nd October we went up to Kalamunda to see The Truth being put on by Blak Yak. This is one of my favourite Pratchett novels, as it deals with the press and journalism, and as my father was a journo, and some of my earliest memories involve mysterious bearded short men operating linotype machines and hot lead everywhere, you can see how it would appeal. Ah! The deafining roar of the press!

It wasn't a perfect performance, (with only 7 weeks worth of prep, not suprising) but it still was worth seeing, and they're the sort of errors that won't happen again, easily fixed; missed lines and sound cues...that sort of thing. Teething troubles. Poss, the props diva of many a production mentions more of the technical issues in her blog http://www.possbert.blogspot.com/ "Sunny Sunday" October 23 issue if you're interested.

Where this plays strength is is in its characterisation. The casting is perfect; Wade Ellis is perfect as William de Worde, the combination of unthinking arrogance coupled with sheer terror as Gunilla relates to The Patrician what he just said about him being a despot is hysterical.

It's a huge cast, so I can't mention everybody but rest assured that you are playing your character perfectly! You are! I'd cross the street to avoid Nick Donald and Scott Northover as Mr Pin and Tulip, they're dangerous!

David McGarr's schizophrenic portrayal of Vetinari / Charlie is really good! Especially when 'credit' is mentioned to Charlie! This is also the most human I've seen the Patrician portrayed, which is a nice change, oh he's still Vetinari, don't you worry, but you can really see the machinery moving...

Is it just me, or did Kim Wallace step straight out of Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow? Plucky girl reporter and all that. I'm not complaining, I like it, she was great as Sacharissa!

Gaspode I loved, he must have been a nightmare to build, and having a shadow operator (David Ferrier) is a pretty challenging way to portray him. It was a little difficult to keep focussed on Gaspode the puppet, rather than shadow David, as he was being more expressive with his own body language at times, than he was with Gaspode's. The other actors also should remember to not look at the man behind the curtain. Difficult, but no doubt will improve with more performances. Gaspode's actual voice and character was perfect!

Ms Slant, the zombie lawyer was, well I was going to say inspiring, but considering her character and her motivations, I'll just say that her performance was excellent and something of a guilty pleasure to watch.

I was also impressed with Michael Kyriacou's depiction of The Rest Of the World, his performances though brief of Nobby, Ridcully, Lord Rust, Arthur Crank and the Old Priest were well played and confident, slipping from one role to the other with not a trace left of the previous one. Well done.

Troy Hall's Otto is my favourite character from this performance, he's played very well, and although it isn't mentioned during the play, you can see that he's waiting for the thunder and lightning or the wolves howling during his portentious speeches, and is put out when they don't happen like they do in the Uberwald. I would've liked a couple of lines about this, but I guess you just can't put everything in.

Likewise I can't put everyone in who deserves to be, but rest assured your hard work is appreciated. Thank you.

Oh, Whatever your views on buying programmes, Melissa Merchant's one is a hoot and deserves a special mention. Particularly the Personals section, hilarious!

All in all, this play is coming from a very strong team and material, it's extremely funny and characterised and cast. I felt I got my money's worth.

Tickets $15/$12 conc
Bookings 9206 0034

What I do in the real world: http://www.cafepress.com/aliciasmith

Thou impertinent hedge-born flap-dragon!