Mairi Dignan

Drama Student

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"The Maids" - Stewart Laing

On Friday the 18th I was through in Glasgow at the Citizens Theatre to see “The Maids” by Stewart Laing. I have previously mentioned that I was expecting something ‘disturbing yet strangely captivating.”  I was not let down, but to say it was fulfilled would be a lie. I feel very strongly about this play, overall I absolutely adored it, but there was a lot I did not like.  Laing had such a remarkable take on Genet’s script that the key things that ‘worked’ in the production where so excellent that it excuses the other aspects of the production that weren’t quite up to scratch.

I felt that the first half of the play was slow and very confusing. The scene changes where accompanied by the three members of the cast playing rock music such as Metallica, David Bowie and Velvet Underground only it wasn’t just a small riff they played, it literally went on and on and on and the set was so sparse I couldn’t help but wonder if the white rabbit was hosting his tea party behind the curtain.  It seemed unnecessary, what further infuriated me is during the Q&A with Laing; he then revealed he just had the guitars because that’s what he pictured young men/boys doing together at home.  It really broke up the pace of the play and to be frank I got bored.  Alongside the guitars was the continuous movement of the nude curtain/backcloth. It was raised and dropped and swished this way and that and I still have no idea why and again, it was continuous and felt never-ending.

The play really picked up when Samuel Keefe as the mistress came in.  Everything started to make sense and I found him to be funny.  This light relief was what made the performance for me.  Up until this point I knew the play could go either way and I was delighted that it picked up because by god it was good! The confusion earlier was over reality and fantasy and as things started to fall into place I was able to enjoy it more and appreciate how clever it was.  The play is full off submission and domination, reality and fantasy, role play, rituals, incest and overall a deadly game of power.

I was impressed by the characterisations of the characters who are traditionally women.  As a woman myself I expect men to be violent, especially in this power game, I expected them to be violent even as women. They may not have been punching each other but the aggression was definitely there.  The femininity of the part was shown through a skirt (worn over trousers) or a jewel and a wee bit glitz on a top. They were not acting like a woman.

What I particularly loved about this production was that it wasn’t melodramatic in the slightest.  The ending was just phenomenal; it was very clever and tragic. It definitely tugged at my heart but it was just such a fantastic ending.  I could try to explain it but I won’t as words won’t do it justice

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"The Magistrate" - Arthur Wing Pinero

On Wednesday the 16th I was fortunate enough to secure two tickets for my brother and myself to see this play.  Initially I could have cried when I heard the price but within the opening ten minutes I knew this was money well spent.  I had done no prior research on the cast or the play, it was just done on a whim but I was exceptionally surprised and delighted to see the stage graced with the likes of John Lithgow (whom I fondly remember from “3rd Rock from the Sun”) and the newly Olivier award winning Nancy Carroll.

After taking my seat I was delighted to see the set.  White and Red wreath styled circles where hung in a staggered formation, three of them with the largest down stage and the smallest upstage.  The set was visually stunning.  I am struggling to think of a set I have seen to give it competition.  The wreaths where raised and what initially I thought was the back drop slowly starts to swing down revealing the sofa and other living room essentials attached to the ‘new’ floor.  It was remarkably like a pop-up book unfolding.  The set also featured a revolving floor (similar to productions of “Noises Off”)  and when the original set was folded up and resumed its role as the backdrop the other set was raised from below the stage.  It was lovely to watch as it was accompanied by a Gilbert and Sullivan style musical interludes.

The Victorian farce was entertaining and verging on slapstick at times.  Cis is a young boy of 14 who has developed a large taste for port, cards, smoking and women.  It also turns out his mother Agatha lied about his age and that he is indeed 19.  She lied about his age in order to act younger herself so as to secure a new husband.  Posket (The second husband) invites an old school friend for dinner, who turns out to be the Godfather of Cis and this is when story ignites. Everybody ends up spinning lies in order to escape the company of each other but without arousing suspicion.  Agatha tries to escape to warn the Godfather not to reveal the true ages of them. Posket escapes to try and stop Cis going out but ends up getting dragged along for the night out.  After two arrests, accidental imprisonment and the real ages revealed the play ends on a high as one big happy family, as you would imagine!

The play has had a series of mixed reviews going from 2 stars to 5.  I think people have struggled with the casting of an American to represent a pompous, upright English magistrate and no matter how charming Lithgow is in the part is American twang is undeniably still there.  The musical interludes are seemingly an issue for some people.  There are arguments that they are entertaining or that they are completely unnecessary and irritating because they actually slow down the performance to the point where it’s preventing it from being a true farce.  The other issue people have is that it does seem to be enjoying to all but the majority of people didn’t seem to be struggling to breath from laughing. I must admit that whilst I laughed and enjoyed it there were no huge guffaws on my part or anyone else around me in the theatre. 

In short, despite the play having a stellar cast and being highly enjoyable I feel that it did not quite reach the desired level of amusement for a true farce.  Nevertheless, I would still recommend it.

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The maids, horizons of expectations.

I'm off to Glasgow tonight to see 'The Maids' by Stewart Laing and I'm expecting something that is perhaps a little bit disturbing yet strangely captivating.

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The magistrate

After a quick last minute theater outing in London at the nations theater I can guarantee a review coming!!

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A Midsummer Night's Dream

I attended the second and final preview of Shakespeare’s’ “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”  by Matthew Lenton at the Royal Lyceum Theatre and must admit that despite being initially hesitant about the performance I was pleasantly surprised.

Having seen ‘Wonderland’ by Lenton and thoroughly disliking it I was interested to see his interpretation of this comedy. ‘Wonderland’ was anything but funny and I was curious to see how he would handle classical Shakespeare compared to his contemporary work and it’s a delight to say I from the word go I was captivated and soon head over heels for this stellar performance.  It is without a shadow of a doubt one of the best performances I have ever seen.  I was on the verge of tears from laughter throughout it.  Needless to say the performance was flawed albeit good.

Several things did not quite work for me.  I understood why he chose Hermia, Helena, Lysander and Demetrius in block colours such as red and blue as people can find it difficult to differentiate between the characters and the cycle of love they share but I felt it was a little garish and unnecessary.  He should not have to rely on colours for the audience to understand the characters.  I also was unsure of the beginning which features Nick Bottom at the hospital bed of his sick wife watching television making Shakespeare’s creation Bottom’s dream. It ended with Bottom’s wife begin to awaken from what would appear to be a coma, a happy ending never goes amiss.  During the performance I failed to grasp who the woman in the bed was and whether it is down to how dim I am I had to have it explained to me by a friend, because of this I felt that the concept did not work. All I understood was that Bottom had dreamt the whole thing.  I also felt left out during the scene with Pyramus and Thisbe as the ‘Athenians’ sat in the boxes and this meant that because I was sitting in the stalls I was left unable to see half of them.  I missed out on half of the action because they were not within my sightlines.  I was a little disappointed.

The set was stark yet hauntingly beautiful.  Lenton had set the play in winter which I thought worked incredibly well. I loved the snow and the simple white tree which was set upstage.  I particularly thought this complimented Titania’s monologue about the how the world is out of synch. I also loved how he showed the transition through to spring with flowers growing from the stage flooring representing new beginnings.  I loved the flowers and thought it was a really beautiful concept.   

I personally found my favourite scene to be the ones that features ‘The Mechanicals.’   I absolutely loved them and I thought that the actors behind Bottom and Francis Flute deserve nothing but compliments for their stomach hurting, hilarious portrayal of Pyramus and Thisbe.  This was by far the funniest thing I have seen in a long time.  Despite the fact that I found the majority of Flute’s lines incoherent it really did not matter! I think they nailed a difficult thing to do; being able to act badly well. It was fantastic.

Overall, the performance is one of the best I have ever attended.  I would definitely love to attend another Lenton production and would highly recommend his work. 

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Horizons of Expectations - A Midsummer Nights Dream

I am very eager to see this production as it is directed by Matthew Lenton who also directed 'Wonderland.'  I am interested to see his take on this classic comedy and I am sure he will toy with it and refresh it.  I am also very much looking forward to seeing Ifan Meredith who is most certainly a well established actor. I will be attending the performance on the 20th which also transpires to be my first preview!

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The Guid Sisters by NTS

Wednesday the 10th was anticipated with great anticipation at being able to see such a renowned cast. Needless to say, I was bitterly disappointed. I felt that the script was abysmal.  It was overly long, incredibly repetitive and predictable not even the fact that they had an excellent set and a fantastic bunch of actors could save the performance.  I am beginning to feel that once you've seen a few of these 'real life' plays from the west (The Steamie, Men Should Weep...) you've seen them all. The humour is unoriginal and the characters are obvious.  You always seem to have the dotty one, the feisty one, the cast away, the young mixed with old.

I am unaware if the script was poor to begin with in its original state as "Les Belles-Soeurs" or if there is something missing in translation but after ten minutes (and I’m ashamed to say it) I was utterly bored.  I tried so desperately to laugh along and get into it but spectacularly failed. The story was focused predominantly on Germaine Lauzon and her family with a few friends dotted here and there. She had won a million Green Shield stamps and ordered her 14 or so friends and family to spend one night with her glueing them into the stamp books. Naturally with 15 women from a variety of backgrounds things did not go smoothly.  The audience learn about their cultural and religious views that unite and divide them out with the four walls and which prompts them to live the life they do, whether it’s keeping secrets, theft or sexual frustration.

Credit must be given where it is due.  Francis O'Connor created a beautiful set. Initially it appears incredibly effective yet simplistic.  It did its job well serving as a working man’s kitchen from 1989.  The classic black and white chequered linoleum and the kitchen counters with curtains instead of doors where a delight to look at.  The cheque pattern was arranged in a manner that created the illusion of the depth which really did work! It was particularly effective in the final scene as Germaine is left in a rather sorry state.  The walls and back wall begin to move apart finally making a room at least twice the size as the original.  I think that it would have been nice to see the walls shrink in around her (I appreciate this is would not be as practical) but with the floor as a visual aid to her shrinking life in that one moment I think it would have been pretty cool. Images where often projected onto the ceiling of the kitchen with the most effective being a bingo card during 'Ode to Bingo' a syncopated rap about winning the bingo. My favourite aspect of the set was definitely the during the scene when it comes to light that Angeline Sauvé was visiting Pierrette in the club.  The back wall of the kitchen had appeared to be a light wall paper when in actual fact it was cleverly disguised gauze.  Light was shone on it from upstage through the back of the gauze and it shone through the many rows of coloured bottles behind it in an accurate representation of what’s behind a bar.  I really loved this as I thought it worked beautifully.

Despite not enjoying the performance I would still recommend it.  I am confident that for those who are looking for a light hearted performance it would be a definite win.  The stellar cast and set would be enough to make most people smile.

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Allotment by Nutshell

Allotment was a delight to watch; it was written by Jules Horne and is about two sisters who spend the majority of their time growing up in their allotment.  It starts off when they are children and progresses through the years into adults.

Unfortunately it was staged in a small community centre which was a little disappointing as I had been looking forward to seeing some site specific theatre but it hasn’t tainted my views on the performance as the weather was extremely awful.  I was definitely perked up by being served tea and scones by the cast which is not the kind of service I was expecting.  I was part of an audience of 7 and I enjoyed the intimacy of the performance.

I was impressed with the staging because they really had brought the allotment into the theatre.  It had the garden shed and vegetables and weeds and beds of soil.  You could smell the earth and I soon forgot the disappointment of the change of venue.

I thought it was very interesting to watch the sisters grow up, the play has a dark side to it which was unexpected as Dora the older sister looks after Maddie the younger sister.  Maddie fell from the garden shed as a child and it left her rather simple and she remains in a childlike state for the duration of the play. Dora controls Maddie by intimidating her.  She forces her to have an abortion because she is scared that if she loses Maddie she will have nothing left in life.  Unfortunately her mollycoddling proves to be her bitter end as she has a heart attack mid rant at Maddie.  Maddie, having never done anything for herself, is left to helpless and unsure of what to do as she believes her sister is playing. 

At the end of the play there is a fantastic duologue between Maddie and Dora’s ghost who follows Maddie about.  Maddie is standing up to herself and expressing her hatred for how she had been treated, whilst she speaks she dresses a hoe stuck in the ground with the clothes Dora used to wear to form a scarecrow.  I really loved this imagery as it was beautifully done.

I thought the acting was excellent.  It is no mean feat for an adult to portray a convincing child but they both did it exceptionally well.  I believed every word and every action and was thoroughly captivated and entertained for the entire performance.

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Wonderland by Vanishing Point

On the 26th of September I went through to the Tramway in Glasgow to watch Wonderland, an exemplar piece of what contemporary theatre is all about.  It was dark, gritty and to the point. It is definitely a performance that gets people talking and thinking because there is a divide in people about whether to like it or not.  I did not like it.

The play explored the effects of pornography on somebodies life. The idea being that it is so easy to fulfil a sexual fantasy that the fantasies become more and more twisted as the pornography becomes distorted and dangerous. They do this by playing with the idea of doors. Once you go through the door there is no going back.

Two main characters are followed for the duration of the play, a young girl exploring the porn industry and a married man exploring his sexuality who focuses on fulfilling dark fantasies. The man goes through 'the door' and ends up raping and killing a young woman. There are fabulous semiotics at the end scene where he is sitting with his wife planning a holiday whilst still covered in blood and the suitcase (which contains the young woman’s chopped up body) I thought this was incredibly effective for the reason being that he was stained by what he had done, and he will never truly be able to wash his deeds away.

I found the set was phenomenal. It was end on staging and it had this massive glass panel across the stage like a window.  The vast majority of the scenes with the young woman where staged in the area between the glass and audience whilst the scenes with the man tended to be performed behind the glass.  During the play when he 'opened the door' into his fantasies he pushed the glass and stepped into the young woman's world. The set was greatly enhanced by excellent lighting and haunting music.

Despite a fantastic set and good acting and a few clever ideas I did not like the play.  I disliked that I was subjected to seeing some aggressive and degrading behaviour.  I felt sick watching the man murder the young woman.  I could have left but did not as I wanted to stay to try to understand the characters and empathise with them; I also wanted to understand the meaning of the play. Unfortunately I intensely disliked all the characters and I thought it seemed odd that they suggested that the man killed the woman because he was motivated by sick fantasies encouraged by disturbing pornography by showing the audience horrific scenes, such as when he went to saw off her legs to fit her in the suitcase and a scene where he asked a woman to make herself sick. I also found it incredibly confusing and struggled to understand parts of the play. I found it unsettling and offensive but I appreciate that it is more on a personal level than a flaw in the production.

I greatly admire their courage and think they have achieved what they wanted to - make the audience think and talk. Needless to say it most certainly wasn't my cup of tea.

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Horizons of Expectations - Wonderland

I'm off to see 'Wonderland' at the Tramway in Glasgow.  Should be interesting as the reviews jump from 1 star to 5......it would appear I will either love it or hate it.  It is too my understanding that pornography is a theme well explored which makes me think that I'm hopefully about to see some dangerous, gritty, contemporary theatre.

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Horizons of Expectations - Allotment

On Tuesday the 25th I shall be going to see Allotment by Nutshell written by Jules Horne.  I am very much looking forward to this as it has had some great reviews and is set outside with a cast of two. Do flowers matter more than vegetables? This is the question they have printed on their leaflets and online and I will be hoping to come away with an answer, fingers crossed its a dry night!!

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The Static by ThickSkin

Friday the 14th September was waited for with great anticipation on my part. My colleagues and I attended a production of The Static by ThickSkin at the Traverse Theatre.  I was very much looking forward to the production as I had heard that it had incorporated physical theatre into the performance which is not something I have seen a great deal of. I did enjoy the performance; however it did not blow me away.

I felt that Brian Vernel's portrayal of Sparky was somewhat lacking. Sparky suffers from ADHD and is on the verge of expulsion but I was unconvinced throughout the performance that in reality this boy really would be close to it. Having never read the script makes it hard to say whether this issue was something that Vernel could have worked on or indeed was unfortunately an issue with the play itself. Nonetheless I loved how right at the start the Sparky breaks down the fourth wall by addressing the audience, it makes it more personal and I enjoyed the intimacy it created.

The Statics running time was 65 minutes, it was fast paced and intense.  It had the potential to be horribly confusing but I think they nailed it because I always had a clear understanding of who everybody was and what was going on. Needless to say I personally would have preferred a few extra scenes in which Sparky and Siouxsie spoke more about their lives and abilities and others that showed how disruptive Sparky was. I felt that the birth of their superpowers could have been explored more, I was unsure of whether it was caused by the ADHD or excessive amounts of Ritalin they took.

I normally prefer performances to have minimal use of projections and sound but The Static was heavily reliant on them. I am definitely going to have to have another think about how I really feel about them! I loved how the projections showed surroundings (school corridors) but also reflected what the character was thinking or feeling, you could often read segments of monologues in the background whilst the actor was speaking to us, this made it easier to connect with the character as the scene became more poignant.

The set was kept low key with two identical small sets of lockers and a scruffy looking wooden table with two wooden chairs.  I loved the use of the lockers as the were used as storage for bottles of Ritalin, a seat on the roof of the school and a wall.  There was also a red bulb in one of the lockers which was used for the scene in Siouxsie's room.

The physical side of the performance was excellent.  My one issue was that I wished they had held the bottles of Ritalin differently for the scene in which Sparky is exploring his kinetic super powers but it's definitely a just a minor issue.  For someone who has severe difficulties with hand-eye coordination I was thoroughly impressed at seeing them throw the bottles at each other across the stage, not on drop or slip of the fingers. My favourite moment of physical theatre was after Sparky and Siouxsie kiss, I thought that with the help of the projections and sounds thy captured the magic that comes with a kiss when you are head over heel for that one person. they were lifted in the air, running, jumping and standing on a table.  It was like their orbit had shifted from the earth to each other as they moved around and it was a pleasure to witness.

Overall I did enjoy the performance; I like the acting, the set, the projections and sound.  The four actors had clearly worked very hard and it paid off, it well deserves its 4/5 star reviews.

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"I regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being"

Oscar Wilde