Review Going Postal - Arena Arts and Entertainment INC

Being a big fan of Terry Pratchett I was very excited to hear that Arena were performing "Going Postal" at Old Mill. I went along to the second performance on Friday the 22nd of Feb. The strange folk selling programs and the fabulous Igor telling us to "turn off our little phones" set the scene for a fun night. The play opened with an introduction to Discworld that included a warning about overacting....they weren't kidding! Some of the cast overacted very well it suited the humour of the play and their characters........others, really bought down the caliber of the show. Being a Pratchett play I was expecting big laughs but unfortunately the audience I was sitting in was fairly silent. Many very funny lines were lost by actors speaking much too quickly or swallowing some of their words but please don't think all I'm going to do is complain. There were some very fine performances. Theo Messenger as the hero of the Post Office "Moist Von Lipwig" was superb! He played his part very well and gave a great lift to the whole production. Well done! Paris Romanis as the Golem "Mr Pump" was an audience favourite, his big brown costume and stilted voice couldn't hide the character's emotional growth and affection for Moist and the Post Office. Paris did a wonderful job of making the big lump of clay a really loveable fellow. Michael Lamont as "Groat" also put on a good performance as did Maria Passalacqua as the headstrong matriarch of the Post Office "Miss Macclariat". There were also some wonderful performances in the minor roles particularly Jeremy Malcolm as the Pin customer, Adam Allis as Horsefry in his scene with Gilt, Cally Zanik as the Deaconess, Les Lee as Mr Pony and Carina Butcher and Adam Allis again as Sane Alex and Mad Al. Even with these wonderful performances the play seemed a little less than it could have been. As mentioned earlier there was some painful over acting and there were a few actors who needed to work on their vocal technique to ensure all of their lines were heard. Costuming was on the whole very good. I LOVED Moist's hat and gold suit. Mad Al and Sane Alex looked fantastic and Reacher Gilt's purple was great..... but Adora needs stockings, nice boots and perfect top though. There were some technical difficulties in the performance I saw. The music and sound effects while very well chosen and positioned at times were in places a bit loud, especially over dialogue. (Reacher Gilts' party for example) The lighting looked great, there were a few sloppy cues but it's early, I'm sure they'll tighten up. One of the biggest disappointments of the night was "The voice of Death", we couldn't understand a word but I'm sure that'll be fixed up for the next show. All in all it was a pleasant night out and Terry Pratchett fans should get a kick out of it. It's not perfect but it's fun!