Gaslight

I went to see this show on Opening Night and was highly impressed with the overall standard of this production. If the two male leads were still struggling with lines as Walter Pinkshirt suggests, it was certainly not apparent to a large degree, a few lines were a little shaky, and shaky from the entire cast, not just the male leads. I would put that down to first night nerves more than anything else, as there were no obvious breaks in the performance. The curtains opened slowly on a very authentic reproduction of the period which received a well deserved round of applause from the audience. The opening montage of the sleeping Jack Manningham and his wife Bella, sewing on a sampler; was a delight to behold, with the detailed and authentic costuming. Robert Whyte's and Mia Martin's costumes were fitted and worn very well, so kudos to the set designers, builders and costumiers of this piece. This physical casting of this show was excellent, usually the smaller roles are filled by less experienced actors, so it was good to see such accomplished performances from Rosemary Longhurst and Danni Ashton as the maids Elizabeth and Nancy, not large roles but crucial in the expertise of the performance in building the tension in this Victorian Thriller. With regards to the major roles, I found all three to be well executed, there were a couple of hiccups during the performance but overall the standard was so high that in my opinion it was not worth making a big deal out of, again I attributed this to first night nerves more than anything. The part of Bella goes through an incredible emotional journey throughout the course of the play, it could have easily lapsed into melodrama if the performance was not as tightly controlled by Mia Martin in her portrayal, this is a challenging role and Mia is to be congratulated for her simply superb performance. Robert Whyte as Jack Manningham is another role that could have lapsed into caricature, whilst not as tight a performance as Mia's, Robert captured the complexity of this role to a very high degree,I felt he could have been a bit more forceful in the more aggressive parts of the story, however I feel that he wasn't very far from it, I would like to see how this performance evolves during the show, but nevertheless Robert delivered a well crafted performance which contributed well to the ensemble work in this play. This piece has a few comic moments, which were superbly captured by Greg Ross in a very flamboyant and masterful portrayal of Inspector Rough, it was one of those performances that you just sit and drink in, like a fine red wine.His performance makes a nice contrast from the other two roles,and added to the enjoyment of watching this well crafted play unfold. That is not to say the show was flawless, there were a few times where the lighting and sound and entrances and exits were a bit clumsy, but again this was not to a great degree, which I am sure would have been ironed out by the following evening, I gather from Tim Prosser's comments about the set literally being finished a few hours before this opening perfmay have been a contributing factor. All in all, as a community theatre production, a lot of time and effort was put into this production, director Sally Barendse has put together a fine piece of theatre that has contributed to a solid and impressive line up of shows at the Old Mill Theatre in 2008. A thoroughly enjoyable production that is well worth going along to see, overall I enjoyed this show immensely and congratulate all involved.