Hush little baby
Sun, 5 Sept 2010, 06:43 pmGordon the Optom2 posts in thread
Hush little baby
Sun, 5 Sept 2010, 06:43 pm‘Hush Little Baby …’ was a trio of short plays, performed at The Stirling Theatre, Morris Place, Innaloo until 4th September. I caught the last night.
‘Hush Little Celia, Don't Say a Word’ was written by American author Joseph Wallace.
When Celia (Carissa Efford) doesn’t ever speak, her schoolmates all deride her - that is all except for one, Todd (Josh Lang), who is a bit of a rebel and initially looks upon her as a challenge. Celia’s teacher (Miriam Peake), who lacks tuition skills, wants to know the reason why. Her parents (Conrad Liveris, Melanie Bennett) are distraught and Celia’s attitude is placing a strain on their marriage.
Celia is sent to a psychologist (Hannah Moran) about her selective mutism, but intelligent Celia can see through her every move.
Todd is desperate to know Celia better and suggests that they audition for Miss Duffy’s (Stephanie Locke) up and coming production, ‘Romeo and Juliet’.
Will Todd’s idea work or will Celia retreat even further into her shell?
The production didn’t quite create the depth of sympathy for Celia as it was supposed to, but this was a very difficult play for such a young cast and generally they did very well. Although the diction was clear, one or two actors just needed to relax and not try quite so hard. Subtleties in dialogue can be detected by an audience very easily.
The play was directed by young directors Brendan Ellis and Joel Horwood with a great deal of skill. The black set and costumes helped emphasise how alone Celia was in the world – she dressed in pure white. The school group used black boxes to sit on and stand upon in order to create tableaux effects; this gave a very smooth choreography to the whole production.
A very enjoyable and unusual piece.
‘Mandy’ is a short play by local community actor and writer Peter Flanigan.
Mandy (Christine Ellis) is a middle-aged lady who all of her life has been belittled by her overbearing mother (Carole Wilson). Now her brain and spirit have cracked. She is having regular disturbing flashbacks, blended into her everyday life, Mandy is a troubled woman. She is desperate to leave her home and her caring husband (Peter Mathison) and to start life again.
When Mandy’s mother decides to come around and ‘care’ for her sick daughter that is the final straw.
The show suffered from writer / director syndrome. This play, which had a good premise, could have been so much better with a different director. It is always difficult to give one’s treasured work to someone else, but Johnny Grim has done this recently and his plays have doubled their success. Peter like Johnny is a good director, but please don’t do both at the same time. A good performance from Peter and Carole, but sadly Christine was literally off colour with chest trouble.
‘Children of the Black Skirt’ is a magnificent play written in 2003 by Angela Betzien, who at the age of 22 yrs won the Queensland Theatre Company Young Playwright’s Award for three consecutive years. Betzien herself experienced the distress of orphanage living.
When a new girl (Lexi Clewer) arrives at the Tasmanian orphanage / poor house she is taken under the wing of two other girls (Cassandra Flanigan, Abigail Martin) and warned of the stern woman in charge’s (Therese Cruise) strange ways. They cower on hearing the rattle of her keys and cringe when this matron dressed all in black, enters their dormitory.
As the play progresses we are introduced to the sufferings of several new, but forgotten children passing through this antiquated system over a hundred year period.
The play is sensitively and skilfully directed here by Peta Flanigan.
Peta Flanigan and Ian Wilson’s lighting, along with Pete Goodwin’s sound were of an exceptionally high standard for a community production. Fran Gordon and Merri Ford’s costumes were true to the 1800s, although some of the cast’s makeup was too flashy for dirty orphans.
It is easy to see why this play has won so much recognition nationally, and for this troupe, so much success in the WA acting awards.
An extremely professional production.
On a minor diverse but annoying point, there was a great deal of distracting noise outside of the building near the right stage door at a poignant part of the final play, was this previous play’s cast relaxing or the general public in the car park area?
‘Hush Little Baby …’ was a trio of short plays, performed at The Stirling Theatre, Morris Place, Innaloo until 4th September. I caught the last night.
‘Hush Little Celia, Don't Say a Word’ was written by American author Joseph Wallace.
When Celia (Carissa Efford) doesn’t ever speak, her schoolmates all deride her - that is all except for one, Todd (Josh Lang), who is a bit of a rebel and initially looks upon her as a challenge. Celia’s teacher (Miriam Peake), who lacks tuition skills, wants to know the reason why. Her parents (Conrad Liveris, Melanie Bennett) are distraught and Celia’s attitude is placing a strain on their marriage.
Celia is sent to a psychologist (Hannah Moran) about her selective mutism, but intelligent Celia can see through her every move.
Todd is desperate to know Celia better and suggests that they audition for Miss Duffy’s (Stephanie Locke) up and coming production, ‘Romeo and Juliet’.
Will Todd’s idea work or will Celia retreat even further into her shell?
The production didn’t quite create the depth of sympathy for Celia as it was supposed to, but this was a very difficult play for such a young cast and generally they did very well. Although the diction was clear, one or two actors just needed to relax and not try quite so hard. Subtleties in dialogue can be detected by an audience very easily.
The play was directed by young directors Brendan Ellis and Joel Horwood with a great deal of skill. The black set and costumes helped emphasise how alone Celia was in the world – she dressed in pure white. The school group used black boxes to sit on and stand upon in order to create tableaux effects; this gave a very smooth choreography to the whole production.
A very enjoyable and unusual piece.
‘Mandy’ is a short play by local community actor and writer Peter Flanigan.
Mandy (Christine Ellis) is a middle-aged lady who all of her life has been belittled by her overbearing mother (Carole Wilson). Now her brain and spirit have cracked. She is having regular disturbing flashbacks, blended into her everyday life, Mandy is a troubled woman. She is desperate to leave her home and her caring husband (Peter Mathison) and to start life again.
When Mandy’s mother decides to come around and ‘care’ for her sick daughter that is the final straw.
The show suffered from writer / director syndrome. This play, which had a good premise, could have been so much better with a different director. It is always difficult to give one’s treasured work to someone else, but Johnny Grim has done this recently and his plays have doubled their success. Peter like Johnny is a good director, but please don’t do both at the same time. A good performance from Peter and Carole, but sadly Christine was literally off colour with chest trouble.
‘Children of the Black Skirt’ is a magnificent play written in 2003 by Angela Betzien, who at the age of 22 yrs won the Queensland Theatre Company Young Playwright’s Award for three consecutive years. Betzien herself experienced the distress of orphanage living.
When a new girl (Lexi Clewer) arrives at the Tasmanian orphanage / poor house she is taken under the wing of two other girls (Cassandra Flanigan, Abigail Martin) and warned of the stern woman in charge’s (Therese Cruise) strange ways. They cower on hearing the rattle of her keys and cringe when this matron dressed all in black, enters their dormitory.
As the play progresses we are introduced to the sufferings of several new, but forgotten children passing through this antiquated system over a hundred year period.
The play is sensitively and skilfully directed here by Peta Flanigan.
Peta Flanigan and Ian Wilson’s lighting, along with Pete Goodwin’s sound were of an exceptionally high standard for a community production. Fran Gordon and Merri Ford’s costumes were true to the 1800s, although some of the cast’s makeup was too flashy for dirty orphans.
It is easy to see why this play has won so much recognition nationally, and for this troupe, so much success in the WA acting awards.
An extremely professional production.
On a minor diverse but annoying point, there was a great deal of distracting noise outside of the building near the right stage door at a poignant part of the final play, was this previous play’s cast relaxing or the general public in the car park area?
Thank you for your review