Apocalypse Perth - Northbridge

Apocryphal Perth (A review from the inside) I saw the audience on opening night, and the first thing I have to say is, shame! You all claimed to be a full house, but I saw three empty seats from people who obviously RSVP’d to their invitations but didn’t show up – there were people waiting on a shortlist who might’ve gotten to see it if you’d only called the Blue Room in time and cancelled! How can we claim that the opening night was any sort of success if we had 3 empty seats glaring back at us? It’s just not fair. Also, the fact that people were laughing and enjoying themselves is misleading. I noticed that almost all of you were people who LIKE to go to the theatre, and so you were obviously biased. I’m sure if there had been just one or two people there who HATE going to the theatre, then we might've had some people disliking the show, which would have been a more balanced result. I particularly liked some of the characters I recognised in the audience. Sarah Borg was there, who I have worked with several times before, and I thought she was particularly attentive. I thought Ingle Knight was quite recognisable by the sound of his laugh. I liked the way Andrew Lewis didn’t flinch when I looked him directly in the eye. Adam Mitchell got there very early, and seemed to enjoy himself right from the start. And I saw Sarah McNeil up the back. It'll be interesting to read what she writes in her review for the Subi Post, particularly with her husband in the cast. Special mention should go to Kerri Hilton who, even though she remained against the far wall for the entire show, was always watchable in her role of the respected theatregoer. Apparently she went straight from seeing our show to seeing the 8pm performance of ‘Dying City’…a true trooper! The rest of you – too many to mention - were very responsive, although it threw our timing a bit when you laughed and applauded at spontaneous moments throughout our performance. When it came to the one or two poignant and emotional moments in the show, I’m pleased to say that most of you looked deeply moved, and none of you chatted or seemed to fall asleep. I thought it was a bit pretentious of Kate Rice to sit right in the middle. Who does she think she is? The writer? It must have made it hard for the actress playing ‘Kate Rice’ to say her lines, with the real Kate looking back at her like that. On the other hand, I saw a few people in the audience who (as I discovered later in the bar) were actual contributors to the forum, and were the real people from the original production, who I was playing as my characters! It was interesting to hear what they thought about the whole process - that they thought it was a good night out at the theatre, and were going to recommend it to their friends. Particular praise should go to the director Jeremy Rice, who at the last minute stepped in to take on the role of operating the sound and the lights. He got almost all of the cues right, and the volume knob was very well handled. My only complaint was the lighting design. I found most of the time the lights were shining directly at me, which made it difficult to see everyone in the audience. (Apologies to those of you I’ve left out of this review, because of this.) Also, I’m not sure about my multi-tracked voice playing on the CD during the curtain call. If there was a way of being able to sing 4 part harmony by myself, I’d rather have done it live. All in all, I really enjoyed performing in this show, and will definitely be back again later in the season. Cheers, Craig ~<8>-/====\---------