Cloudstreet ****

**WARNING IT IS A DETAILED AND LONG REVIEW WITH OVER 1000 WORDS** CLOUDSTREET Based on the novel by Tim Winton Rebecca Alosi 20/4/06 TITLE: “Cloudstreet” PLAYWRIGHT: Justin Monjo and Nick Enright DIRECTOR: Jenny Davis VENUE: Rechabites Hall DATE: 12th April 2006 THEATRE GROUP: WA Youth Theatre Company PERFORMERS: Alex McArthur . . . . . . . . . .Quick Lamb Claudio Girardi . . . . . . . . . Fish Lamb Alex Milne . . . . . . . . . . . Oriel Lamb Garreth Bradshaw . . . . . . . . Lester Lamb Seton Pollock . . . . . . . . . Sam Pickles Hannah Sutton . . . . . . . . .Dolly Pickles Amanda Woodhams . . . . . . . . Rose Pickles **For the rest of the cast list refer to the Program** PLOT LINE: Cloudstreet follows a year in the lives of two families, the Lambs and the Pickles and how moving to “Cloudstreet” beings about a year of troubles and fun to both families. The Pickles inherit Cloudstreet from a dead relative and Sam Pickles believes it is just the chance they’ve been needing, until he realises they aren’t allowed to sell it for twenty years. After losing his fingers on his right hand in a working accident, Sam Pickles has had nothing but bad luck from the “shifty shadow.“ The Pickles moves to Cloudstreet anyway and are soon after joined by the Lambs. The Lamb family have just suffered a “half miracle.” The favourite son, Fish Lamb nearly drowned and was bought back to life but Fish is not the same. He doesn’t recognise his mother Oriel and feels things and sees things the others don’t understand. The Lamb family moves from their home and rent out half of the Pickles house on Cloudstreet. The Lambs believe in hard work and soon open up a shop in the front of their part of the house. Throughout the play each character discovers things about themselves and each other by suffering great tragedy. With many subplots intertwining throughout the story to bring each character to the climax of their own personal tragedy to only bring about an understanding about each other and themselves in the end. COMMENTS: CHARACTERISATION: There were no tag-alongs in this production with every actor holding up their characters extremely well. It was exciting to watch each character fall into their own spirals of misery and then find their ways out again, whether it be through the help of other characters or on their own. I found of particular mention the characters of Fish Lamb, played by Claudio Girardi, who made for an excellent performance as the trouble and mentally ill Fish Lamb. His character taught much to his family and to the Pickles family, in particular to Rose Pickles. I admire his skill as a performer for the roll of a disabled person is always challenging to be able to get into that mindset to discover your character. Alex Milne’s portrayal of Oriel Lamb, is also worth a mention. Her portrayal of the confusion confronting her character was exquisitely executed and talking after the show discovered that my own mother related to the character a lot and could not believe it when I told her no one in the cast was aged over 24. This I believe is proof of the talent displayed by these performers. As I said before no one tagged along for this performance and every actor gave stunning performances helping to bring these characters to life and suck you into the lives of the Pickles and the Lambs. PRODUCTION DESIGN ELEMENTS: - STAGING: The set design was amazing. Rechabites Hall is not an easy venue to work in and the designers made good use of the stage and all it’s possible entrance points. The use of lines to represent each characters decent into their own troubles was well done. With the best example I believe being the fence. I noticed that as each individual character descended further into their own troubles they began to exit and enter through the more destroyed fences rather than the perfectly straight one at the front of the stage. Almost all of the set being used for multiple purposes and even as different locations. For example the “room” was used for several different sets including the room which the ghosts of Cloudstreet inhabited and also as Oriel’s tent. - COSTUME: The costumes were excellent and fitted the time period beautifully. I found it was through the costume more than say the set that the time period was established, of course the language used in thr performance also set up the time but the costuming had a strong impact on establishing the time period in which the play is set. The costumes also help to set up a characters particular personality and position within the society. For example Sam Pickles always wore a suit and bowler hat. The hat and the pin stripe suit automatically brings the thought of races to mind, and worked well for his characters personality. Also Rose Pickle’s change of costumes as she grew from girl into women and her quick leap between those stages was presented well by her costumes. She went from wearing similar clothing to the Lamb girls to dressing in suits and jackets like a working woman would have worn, yet she was the same age as the Lamb girls. The costumes also showed the contrast between the two families and their attitudes towards society and their own lives. - TECHNICAL: The sound and lighting elements were well used and helped to create a good atmosphere. The moment you walked into the theatre you were confronted with dim lights and the sounds of waves on the shore to hint at the opening of the performance. Throughout the play the use of sound effects was strong in establishing the location of the scene being performed because there were no set changes during the play. Of particular mention was the scene when Fish and Quick were out on the water, rowing the boat home and the water and the sky merge into one and Quick thinks they are flying through the stars. The lights were very dim, almost extinguished completely and the only real light came from the “stars” twinkling along the backdrop. And with Quick’s over voice speaking his thoughts to the audience showed I believe the peak experience of these two effects working together. EVALUATION: I recommend this show as a well cut and highly skilled performance of Tim Winton’s famous novel “Cloudstreet.” The show displays the exceptional talent the young performers of Perth have to offer with none of the cast over the age of twenty-four and each actor giving first-class performances. Although the season is over another season may be coming out again later this year with most of the original cast returning to pick up their characters. ****1/2 out of 5 stars from me! ~ Tari