Catherine Bennett resumes the weekly look at the performing arts world, with the sad end of Jerusalem, the luck of a cabbie, and French revolt. Do you hear the people sing?
Adam Alcock reviews Nigel Kennedy playing Vivaldi's Four Seasons and his own Four Elements at York Opera House.
Catherine Bennett highlights the trends in the performing arts world today.
Jonathan Cridford reviews 'Ghosts', one of the Freshers' plays for this year.
Written and directed by student Max Tyler, Half Moon Man tells the intricate story of a sleepwalking inventor finding a way to solve his sleeping disorders. When he invents a ‘dream reading’ machine, questions of consciousness and unconsciousness arise and the lines between reality and a dream world start to blur. Who would want to live in boring reality when you can constantly be in a dream world?
With the Drama Barn converted into an intimate snuggle space with pillows and blankets, the play appeared to become a dreamy ride. But main characters Lawrence and Sophie immediately ushered the audience into a harsh reality of relationship problems and overwhelming fatigue. The two principles, played by Josh Giles and Meg Henry, were magnificent throughout the play and never failed to get our attention. However the acting of the ‘dream characters’ which at times was beautifully modest, often became excessively overplayed and frankly verging on annoying.
Whilst the play was blessed with an amazing start and a strong finale, it disappointingly failed to evolve past this into the middle sections of the performance. Often the characters became hard to hear, whether this was because of the music being too loud or the actors slipping into their own tiredness, the missing dialogue ensured it was hard to focus. This gave the feeling that the play went on for a long time even though it was quite short.
The tech team were able to portray the dream world with beautiful lights and music. The numerous blackouts however, though perhaps necessary, did start to get on my nerves.
This review sounds more negative than this reviewer intends. I was deeply impressed with Max Tyler’s writing and though this play may not have been perfect, I’m sure a great playwriting future lies ahead of him.
"However the acting of the ‘dream characters’ which at times was beautifully modest, often became excessively overplayed" - wasn't this the point? Surely dreams need such differences to distinguish the difference between dreams and reality? By overplaying it, you are able to achieve the absurdity and show off how abstract dreams can be!
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