Alaska

           Confused loner, 24-year-old drug dealing, university student, Frank (Jeffrey Jay Fowler), is a social failure and has a massive chip on his shoulder. On quitting university, like Alaska his brain is devoid of any ‘life’ or common sense, so as a result he gets a dead-end job at a cinema. In an attempt to show his superiority at work, he spouts forth his views on race, backing his statements with quotes from the Bible. When offered promotion as kiosk manager, he turns it down, only to find that Mamta, a young ‘Paki’ woman (Trushna Mahisuri) takes the post instead. This new manager and male fellow worker Chris (Cody Fern) fancy Frank. Mamta is perplexed as why she does not get any response to her magnetism. Frank then tells his new boss exactly what he thinks of ‘brown skinned’ girls. This leads to troubles with her brother.
          When Mamta is forced to exert her managerial power, the balance swings. She starts by talking with sympathetic and sensitive Emma (Michelle Francis), Frank's one-nightstand, only to fire her on the spot.

         Frank’s racist logic is easy to understand, but the misguided mentality is obviously based on ignorance of the human race and the various environments.

This quality play was written when David Moore was part of a UK Young Writers’ Programme, his acclaimed talent being an ability to gain understanding and pity for this thoroughly dislikeable youth. Michelle Sowden’s direction of the play came across as a pleasant little story, with generally good acting, however partly due to the pace being too slow, the powerful speeches, frustration, inadequacies, prejudices, and prevailing anger were largely missing. At no time did I feel uncomfortable or pity. The cast are talented and what they produced was good, but please turn up the pace and aggro. Which I am sure they will in the next night or two.

The set (Monique Wajon) was constructed from palettes, which had been painted grey, thus giving more focus to the actors and the richly written script. The clever and subtle lighting (Chris Isaacs) was integrated into the pallets the whole effect worked well. Good crisp sound design by Adam Trainer, with background music of cymbals and white noise (?).

The highlight was a cameo appearance by Chris Isaacs as a druggie, where he captured the part beautifully. As Frank would have quoted – from Genesis 22 – was ‘Isaac offered up as a sacrifice to appease the Gods’ and the audience?

I think the point that are anonymous poster is trying to make, one which I can see the validity of, is that Preview Nights are the last chance the cast and crew have to "work out the bugs."

"What are previews?
Sometimes you will hear that the show you are seeing is "in previews." What does that mean, can you go--and would you want to go?

Previews are the customary performance period at the very start of a show's run, before the critics have been invited to see it. The preview period can amount to a couple of performances or several weeks' worth of shows, depending on the complexity of the production. (Broadway shows preview for longer periods than Off-Broadway.) Ticket prices are rarely reduced for previews; it's safe to say that while refinements are certainly made to shows in previews, what you see on the stage during that period will not be markedly different from what the critics see." Source TDF Theatre 101

On the other hand, you would think that by Preview night, the show would be in a reasonably polished stated that a reviewer would be able to determine the overall quality. It is also the best time to review as it is BEFORE opening night and hopefully the review would be out before much of the season is past. This would not be such a major thing for long season productions but could make all the difference for those shows that run for 2,3 or 4 weeks, like the majority of community theatre.

However, I do think it is important that when a reviewer posts a commentary of a preview night that they state the fact as a disclaimer or something. Then readers can make a better informed judgement.

Absit invidia (and DFT :nono:)

Jeff Watkins

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As Labrug has mentioned, Previews are normally viewed in a different light, although for any regular theatregoer, the actual or potential overall quality can quickly be determined.  About 30% of the productions that I see are previews. I always turn a blind eye to the odd fluff or tech fault. Nor do I normally refer to the pace if is it a little slow, but if it is around 20% longer than one would expect, then this will receive a mention. This play was advertised as 60 minutes, the author says 70 minutes and this production 88 minutes.

I was invited to see ‘Alaska’ on the Tuesday night, and understood that this was the opening night – see their listing on this web – and discovered when I got there, that it was actually their Preview, however this was not a problem.

As said in the review, ‘the acting was good’. There were no forgotten lines, the delivery was clear and strong, and the scene changes quick and efficient. For many of the audience, as a unit, the play probably looked complete and acceptable. My main problem, however, was with the interpretation of the script, which was presented as an enjoyable ‘pleasant little story’, which the cast competently delivered.

In the advertising blurb and promos for ‘Alaska’ terms like ‘fast and fierce’, ‘ferocious hunger for power’, ‘searing, and uncomfortable probing’ were correctly used, yet sadly not delivered. In fact, the dialogue of ‘Alaska’ should be presented along the lines of ‘Trainspotting’, with a real taste of hate and nastiness. The audience should squirm and cringe regularly. In the story, there are a couple of arguments that should have been filled with venom, with the characters literally at each other’s throats, sadly, it did not happen.

Now for the light at the end of the tunnel, the cast all appear talented enough to change their delivery, almost instantly, with very little extra rehearsal, to present this show as it was meant to be seen, truly gritty. I had some very good friends in this team; I hope this constructive criticism is taken onboard. The show is worth seeing.