Master Of The Revels: An Elizabethan Interlude - Review/Recommendation to SEE IT!

Well, just got back from Murdoch Theatre's production of "Master of the Revels" which showcases Twelfth Night and it was ... GREAT! Go see it before it closes Sat night. Come on, only $10, bargain. As Molly Meldrum would put it, do yourself a favour and see it! :) http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=86472229962&ref=nf Overall i really enjoyed the entire performance, from the background sound effects, the on stage musicians, the simple yet effective set, to the excellent costumes, unobtrusive lighting, ample projection of voices and clear unrushed dialogue (crucial for a Shakespeare play). Essentially it was Shakespeare's Twelfth Night encapsulated within a group's discussion and audition for Twelfth Night known as The Revellers. A play within a play if you will :) I thought this worked really well, didn't detract from the pacing of Twelfth Night and in fact added some "plain english" summarisation of what was going on (for us who were trying to keep up). Kudos to the writers of the additional dialogue, i'm sure it was a scary proposition writing against The Bard! Nice touch in borrowing snippets from his other plays ;) The stand outs for me in the Revellers side act were: Master Of Revels (Andrew), for a great introduction to the show, setting the scene and providing heaps of energy and dynamics to his monologues. Miranda (Kelsey), the Stage Manager who didn't want to be on the sidelines, but in the play damit! Ferdinand (Alex) the Diva Actor, well funny and made me cringe every time he spoke (because he was so over the top and good and reminded me of some real life ppl *grin*). Imogen (Kim), the Auditioner, for not only her deliberately awkward audition but also her great background characterisations, for example the mimicking of the director when she was doing her Taming Of The Shrew? speech, nice subtle additions of depth to her character :) The stand outs for me in Twelfth Night were: Viola (Mikala), just a great performance, i thought she had an excellent understanding of the text and had the ability to convey the motivations of the character so much so i would have been able to follow what was happening even if it was in another language. Ok, perhaps not _that_ far, but you get my meaning :) A pleasure to watch and drew your attention even from her very first lines. Olivia (Becky), another stand out, like Viola any scene she was in drew your focus to her. An especially memorable moment was the lead up to her sending Viola the ring, when we realise that she's falling for her :) I've never seen Twelfth Night, so it was a reveal and twist for me :) Thoroughly enjoyable performance, just the right amount of coy and assertive, with an amazing accent to match. Sir Toby Belch (Jason), mate, always a pleasure to catch the shows you're in! You play and excellent drunk and general mischief maker :) Your scene with the setup of Malvolio and everyone behind the tree, gold! Reminded me so much of the Benedict and Beatrice setups in Much Ado About Nothing, really enjoyed ur performance. Plenty of energy and dynamics, we _knew_ when you were on stage ;) The only thing i can pick on would be to put in a bit more light and shade, highs and lows in your vocal performance, maybe it was to do with the gruffness of ur voice? But, ahhh, you've just told me that you've almost no voice at all atm and lucky to be speaking, let alone performing dynamically :P Fair enough, cos ur actions ebbed and flowed with variance, but ur voice didn't follow, it was very level. That explains it though. But hey, the fight scene, that was cool!!! It looked very authentic and you both didn't hold back, well done to Sebastian (John) on that one too :) The part where u both thrust and miss and have your back to each other, action AND comedy. (Irish accent) Brilliant! Sir Andrew Aguecheek (Wade), whom i affectionately referred to as the "French Toff" or Prince Regent from Blackadder III. Great performance and very funny! A very good equal and juxtaposition to Sir Toby, very impressive, although at the start i was uncertain about the character, but he grew on me more and more. It's just i felt the relationship was jarring at the start. Why would Sir Toby be hanging around someone like that? Only if he was taking the piss out of him all the time, but he mostly wasn't, only at the end. Apparently it's not so established but Sir Andrew has money and Sir Toby mostly uses him for that. I thought it was the other way around, that Sir Andrew was hanging around Sir Toby cos Sir Toby's cooler and wittier than he is, he's got a man crush on him and Sir Toby's ego says sure, why not, I'm cool with that! :P That was my interpretation :) I guess my uncertainty of the character at the start was the fact that he was so different to all the other, mostly straightly played, characters. He was an extreme which didn't seem to fit, almost farce like. I thought he was really good and extremely funny, especially the little things like at the start of the fight scene with the whooshing of blades, he throws in a 3rd whoosh that was a crack up! Inspired! Feste (Helen), was another big stand out, a flute player, a singer and excellent characterisation. Played very well and showed an excellent understanding of the text. Orsino (Uzi), i found his monologues very easy to listen to, there was something unique about his delivery that made them very interesting and made me want to pay attention. Stand out performance. Malvolio (Joel), this was another character which at the start grated for me but grew on me throughout. Nothing to do with the performance, in fact it was a good performance in order for him to be grating :) He had fun with this role, being a farce of seriousness, enjoyable to watch :) Maria (Arlensiu), i thought this was a really enjoyable character and her performance stood out :) Lady In Waiting (Kylie), surprisingly, for someone who i don't think actually had a single line in the play, she really was a stand out. Her reactions, how she held herself, and always being "in the scene" with great characterisation meant she really stood out! An example of how an actor can shine, even in a chorus role :) It's the subtle realities of a character at every single moment that make a good actor. Kim in the Revellers also showed this quality to be "in the moment". A pleasure to watch. Finally, there was the dancer. Now, in isolation, his scenes were really good, well choreographed and performed, however within the context of the play the dancer confused me. I had no idea what the relevance was. The only thing i could think of was as a set change distraction, but there weren't any set changes?? Personally I could have done without the interludes, no offense to his performance but i felt it slowed the tempo and was a distraction from the show. So a big congrats to the entire cast and crew for a great performance! As i said before, GO AND SEE IT PEOPLE!! :D Matt.