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Seagull at Pleasance 10/01/10
The Seagull – The Pleasance 10/01/10
Cast
MC/Servant – Alex
Bailiff - Jopkins
Bailiff’s wife - Liz
Bailiff’s daughter - Faye
Actress - Amanda
Girl – Katie/Amanda
Writer - Simon
Son - Steve
Brother - Colin
Teacher - Max
Doctor - Jethro
Act1:
Faye and Max gave confident strong start walking down steps of auditorium. Before too many pauses we had a well timed interruption from Colin and Steve –perhaps we haven’t got all the time in the world to get our units out..
Colin and Steve handle space brilliantly, exploring it for them and us at same time – conversation was easy and a pleasure to listen to . Diagonals used. Each actor using each other to climb forward with units. Excellent stuff..Colin moved Steve forward with his units quite obviously, but this felt appropriate... Colin very aware of the space we were in and the audience there as well ... something we can all learn from. Audience are there and so are the imagined circumstances.. deal with it...play with it.
Rush of different energy entered with Katie, great. She did not try to prove to us that she had been crying, quite the opposite, which made us believe all the more that something was wrong and made us wonder what it was.
Colin leaving- very funny, I think because so attached to the current situation as it was thrown at him – not trying desperately to force it into what it was not, just being accepting of what it was.
Katie and Steve – great set up of the relationship. Katie obviously has misgivings, Steve is obsessed. Lovely using the space in this scene too – finding a great place for the stage – up a level and lit. Great using the side wings a level up to disappear into.
Alex had to go for a spliff not a swim – nice.
Amanda shows up looking the part in glittery top and throw. Again Amanda was awesome in just accepting the fact that she was the most brilliant glamorous famous actress instead of trying to be like this, so we accepted it too.
I loved this section as it felt so unforced, un-pushed. Couples grouped together on their respective cushions and this was very helpful too in setting up relationships. Play was good , Katie trying to win with it, Steve ending it , audience spoiling it ... all this felt very natural and surprising and interesting all at the same time. Pauses were left and not panicked over, very steady and a calm setting up of this world and the characters in it. Simon stuck out as an oddity amongst lots of calm characters. This was great!! He had a nervous energy that seemed to resonate, a stranger in a mix of locals.
I wonder about coming in to watch a play though. It was a bit of a vague drift on. In fact, vague drifting on at the beginnings of scenes got worse throughout. Find a reason for going on stage, otherwise there’s not much point in getting up there - its quite a dangerous place to put yourself for no apparent reason.
Jethro’s doctor was left lying on the cushions. His speech to us was brilliant, he made us all come to him. Lying back, not to bothered by our presence – checking in that we agreed with him. Nice.
Doctor and Son Hug of Praise. Hmm. Does there always need to be a ‘praise hug’? Its become accepted and this one was far too easy . Something else suiting the moment?
Steve not interested in praise but really needed to know where Katie was . Great.
Faye great request to Jethro to help her. Very specific and therefore very moving but unfortunately had upstaged herself. Not sure this is appropriate but think probably if on an ‘end on’ stage I would prefer to see more of Bailiff's daughter than Doctor at this specific moment.
Act2:
I loved the relaxed quality of the first act but the second one needed to pick up. Voices quite weak in this act. Lots of blocking and upstaging – seemed to let go of our space awareness, and also of our awareness of each other in this act...
Great start – Jethro reading French very badly and Amanda taking up the reins beautifully. Katie arrived and had genuine interest in the play they were reading. Great.
I liked the crossover of units between Faye and Katie talking about Steve and his play, and the others worrying about Colin. However. The Colin saga was placed on the floor right behind the girls. We couldn’t see a thing. Stagecraft!
Unit s became a bit stilted in this act – people not using each other to move forward.. bubble acting.. got a bit lost.
Bailiff Jopkins and Amanda built a lovely argument. Units used as building blocks and believed it.
Liz and Jethro. Monosyllabic Jethro was great, made Liz reel and we felt for her. Jethro watching Liz silently , quite spooky and horrible - but upstaged Liz! We needed more stillness in this scene as we weren’t quite sure who we were watching yet.
When people were seeing what the situation was and playing the unit accordingly – this was great. When they threw their units out, we didn’t care. -Allowing ourselves to be affected by what we see and then using that to propel us into the next unit.
When the dead seagull arrived. Are we seeing a dead seagull or a soft toy? I couldn’t tell what Katie was seeing , she seemed very quick to say no to whatever it was. If you are seeing a stuffed toy could we not find some way to make it repellent rather than for no apparent reason. I know that the girl says’no’ to the dead seagull unit-wise, but the girl must ‘see’ the thing. Take it in, take in what it implies. Be affected then push away perhaps.
I think perhaps we have to know what we are refusing when we say no to something.
Simon and Katie chat. Simon trying to really get to the point of his discussion. Suddenly understood why the writer says so much, because he really could not for the life of him articulate himself well enough. Especially not to a hot girl. Great leg twitch that was not put on top but inherently Simon/writer. Awesome playing. I loved Simon leaving in a great silence underscored by the obsessive clicking of his Biro as he watched Katie. The clicking was an awesome soundtrack to watching him ‘fall in love’ / see her differently. I wanted the act to end there.
Overall – great stuff as always but it worked best when people had their senses switched on. Its not enough to throw out your units, we have to be sensitive to what they were being given and the space they were in.
I leave the rest to Maddy.... ( but thought Act 3 was particularly brilliant ..Amanda you are a genius...)
Cast
MC/Servant – Alex
Bailiff - Jopkins
Bailiff’s wife - Liz
Bailiff’s daughter - Faye
Actress - Amanda
Girl – Katie/Amanda
Writer - Simon
Son - Steve
Brother - Colin
Teacher - Max
Doctor - Jethro
Act1:
Faye and Max gave confident strong start walking down steps of auditorium. Before too many pauses we had a well timed interruption from Colin and Steve –perhaps we haven’t got all the time in the world to get our units out..
Colin and Steve handle space brilliantly, exploring it for them and us at same time – conversation was easy and a pleasure to listen to . Diagonals used. Each actor using each other to climb forward with units. Excellent stuff..Colin moved Steve forward with his units quite obviously, but this felt appropriate... Colin very aware of the space we were in and the audience there as well ... something we can all learn from. Audience are there and so are the imagined circumstances.. deal with it...play with it.
Rush of different energy entered with Katie, great. She did not try to prove to us that she had been crying, quite the opposite, which made us believe all the more that something was wrong and made us wonder what it was.
Colin leaving- very funny, I think because so attached to the current situation as it was thrown at him – not trying desperately to force it into what it was not, just being accepting of what it was.
Katie and Steve – great set up of the relationship. Katie obviously has misgivings, Steve is obsessed. Lovely using the space in this scene too – finding a great place for the stage – up a level and lit. Great using the side wings a level up to disappear into.
Alex had to go for a spliff not a swim – nice.
Amanda shows up looking the part in glittery top and throw. Again Amanda was awesome in just accepting the fact that she was the most brilliant glamorous famous actress instead of trying to be like this, so we accepted it too.
I loved this section as it felt so unforced, un-pushed. Couples grouped together on their respective cushions and this was very helpful too in setting up relationships. Play was good , Katie trying to win with it, Steve ending it , audience spoiling it ... all this felt very natural and surprising and interesting all at the same time. Pauses were left and not panicked over, very steady and a calm setting up of this world and the characters in it. Simon stuck out as an oddity amongst lots of calm characters. This was great!! He had a nervous energy that seemed to resonate, a stranger in a mix of locals.
I wonder about coming in to watch a play though. It was a bit of a vague drift on. In fact, vague drifting on at the beginnings of scenes got worse throughout. Find a reason for going on stage, otherwise there’s not much point in getting up there - its quite a dangerous place to put yourself for no apparent reason.
Jethro’s doctor was left lying on the cushions. His speech to us was brilliant, he made us all come to him. Lying back, not to bothered by our presence – checking in that we agreed with him. Nice.
Doctor and Son Hug of Praise. Hmm. Does there always need to be a ‘praise hug’? Its become accepted and this one was far too easy . Something else suiting the moment?
Steve not interested in praise but really needed to know where Katie was . Great.
Faye great request to Jethro to help her. Very specific and therefore very moving but unfortunately had upstaged herself. Not sure this is appropriate but think probably if on an ‘end on’ stage I would prefer to see more of Bailiff's daughter than Doctor at this specific moment.
Act2:
I loved the relaxed quality of the first act but the second one needed to pick up. Voices quite weak in this act. Lots of blocking and upstaging – seemed to let go of our space awareness, and also of our awareness of each other in this act...
Great start – Jethro reading French very badly and Amanda taking up the reins beautifully. Katie arrived and had genuine interest in the play they were reading. Great.
I liked the crossover of units between Faye and Katie talking about Steve and his play, and the others worrying about Colin. However. The Colin saga was placed on the floor right behind the girls. We couldn’t see a thing. Stagecraft!
Unit s became a bit stilted in this act – people not using each other to move forward.. bubble acting.. got a bit lost.
Bailiff Jopkins and Amanda built a lovely argument. Units used as building blocks and believed it.
Liz and Jethro. Monosyllabic Jethro was great, made Liz reel and we felt for her. Jethro watching Liz silently , quite spooky and horrible - but upstaged Liz! We needed more stillness in this scene as we weren’t quite sure who we were watching yet.
When people were seeing what the situation was and playing the unit accordingly – this was great. When they threw their units out, we didn’t care. -Allowing ourselves to be affected by what we see and then using that to propel us into the next unit.
When the dead seagull arrived. Are we seeing a dead seagull or a soft toy? I couldn’t tell what Katie was seeing , she seemed very quick to say no to whatever it was. If you are seeing a stuffed toy could we not find some way to make it repellent rather than for no apparent reason. I know that the girl says’no’ to the dead seagull unit-wise, but the girl must ‘see’ the thing. Take it in, take in what it implies. Be affected then push away perhaps.
I think perhaps we have to know what we are refusing when we say no to something.
Simon and Katie chat. Simon trying to really get to the point of his discussion. Suddenly understood why the writer says so much, because he really could not for the life of him articulate himself well enough. Especially not to a hot girl. Great leg twitch that was not put on top but inherently Simon/writer. Awesome playing. I loved Simon leaving in a great silence underscored by the obsessive clicking of his Biro as he watched Katie. The clicking was an awesome soundtrack to watching him ‘fall in love’ / see her differently. I wanted the act to end there.
Overall – great stuff as always but it worked best when people had their senses switched on. Its not enough to throw out your units, we have to be sensitive to what they were being given and the space they were in.
I leave the rest to Maddy.... ( but thought Act 3 was particularly brilliant ..Amanda you are a genius...)
SteveBloomer |
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| Started By | Thread Subject | Replies | Last Post | ||
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| SteveBloomer | Staging | 0 | Jan 14 2010, 10:00 PM EST by SteveBloomer | ||
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Thread started: Jan 14 2010, 10:00 PM EST
Watch
Great show report Maz, and a particular thanks for noting all the staging considerations we weren't wise too and the hug and stuff we mindlessly repeat - these are really useful notes to have here.
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| marianneoldham | Dear Steff... | 1 | Jan 14 2010, 10:32 AM EST by RhysMeredith | ||
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Thread started: Jan 14 2010, 8:09 AM EST
Watch
Could you work your magic on this page .. forgot to spellcheck it xx!
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