The play I saw was The Woman in Black by Steven Mallatratt, based on the novel by Susan Hill. It was a matinee performance in The Lyric, Theatre Royal on Thursday the 21st of May 2015. The Woman in Black follows the tale of Arthur Kipps, who has hired an actor to help him become confident in telling his ghastly tale. The Theatre Royal is a regional theatre, this means that different performances come down to perform for a certain amount of time.
Before I watched the play, I expected it to be terrifying and nightmare inducing, using different dramatics elements to strike fear. I was unsure on how they’d effectively use minimal props and actors and the final scene where the wife and child died. I thought that the timing of the performance would
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As well as this, the actors getting ready to walk onto stage behind the curtains was also visible, this ruined the believability and realism of the performance.
Dividing the stage was effective because it emphasised the actor’s use of proxemics and showed the different rooms. There was also a staircase that contributed to the actor’s use of levels. They also used the apron of the stage by placing planks across it; there was a particular scene where this was effective when Kipps suddenly fell down a hole in the planks. At the beginning they used the space effectively when the actor came out of the audience, it made the audience feel they were part of the performance.
The set was bland and minimalistic, this improved the effect of the performance because it placed emphasis more on how ‘the imagination is a prop’ and you don’t need a fancy set to make a good performance. It also emphasised the large wooden door that was always on set and never moved, making the audience curious of what was behind it. I believe the door was a symbol for when everything went wrong for Kipps, which is why it was so prominent in the performance. This symbolism stressed the curiosity and confusion of Kipps. The use of fog in the marsh scene also reflected a sense of uneasiness and confusion, sharing the feelings of the characters with the
The set consisted of separate panels made to look like the walls of a subway station, as well as stairs on either end of the stage and benches for the characters to sit on. There was an immense amount of detail in it, with the walls graffitied onto as if it were actually part of a subway. The costumes were reflective of the characters’ backgrounds. For example, the lawyer, the businessman and woman, and the professor all wore suits, as to indicate their professionalism. On the other hand, the homeless girl wore dirty clothing, reflecting her state before her death. The lighting in the play helped create the atmosphere of being in a subway underground. It came from different parts of the set, including the sides, with some of the lights being different colors, which gave it some variety. As a whole, sound was not particularly prominent in the production. At the beginning and the end, there is the sound of a train, as to indicate its departure and arrival. Additionally, there was also a sound queue with the conductor calling out, but it was barely audible due to a technical error. No special effects were implemented in the
I know that it is a small stage so you couldn’t do much to it, but I wish they at least put up an actual door instead of a pretend door so that you could distinguish between houses. In the end I really did like the play because it kept me interested and wondering on what was going to happen next. My boyfriend came to the first half of the play, but then had to go to class for the second half. Since the ending caught me so off guard I had to tell him what happened in the second half. The play was like a delicious dessert that you could not just stop halfway in; you have to keep enjoying it until the very end.
The technical aspects of the production such as scenery, properties and costumes also played a keynote in the productions success. The scenery was fabulous it truly made the play. It was very realistic and extremely vibrant. Almost the entire play was performed in one setting, except for the railcar and dance scenes. The house, the main setting, was magnificent with painstakingly placed detail in every corner. All elements in the house matched wonderfully, for example the furniture, the photos on the wall, the telephone and even the trash can. Little bits of detail were everywhere adding to the beautification of the set, for example the lace decorations on the chairs, the etched glass above the front door and even the Christmas tree.
Sadly when I arrived at the theater I was not even sure I would be able to focus on the show, for my mother who was meant to see this production with me yet was unable to. Due to unforeseeable circumstances that neither one of us could for see and so with all of this hanging over head I was really hoping to get a laugh from this play, which it did. This was not the first time that I had come to see a play at Boise Little Theater, but definitely this was the first time that I had done it on my own. Which was a tad
Stage directions are used during the play to reveal even more of the personality of each of the characters. The extremely-confident personality of Nick is made clear in the first scene, when Nick, Lucy and Lewis first enter the darkened theatre, and Nick starts to toy with Lucy in the dark, pretending to be a ghost. Stage directions can also be used to reveal the feelings of characters. When Lucy and Nick leave, and Lewis is left with Roy, you can tell just by watching the way Lewis holds his body, and moves about the stage, he feels betrayed by Lucy, and by Nick.
On Thursday 29th September 2016, we attended a performance of ‘The Woman in Black’ at the Fortune Theatre in the West End, London. It was set in a traditional proscenium arch theatre which is situated on an enclosed street which applies to the horror genre and the idea of isolation. The size of the theatre was alarmingly small with compact seating, creating a sense of claustrophobia, suffocation and lack of escape from ‘The Woman in Black’. The stage seemed diminutive with the curtain, and the minimalistic set with old-fashioned props instantly set a Victorian impression. The minimalism conveyed how the actors could present a play without ostentatious props and keep the focus on themselves. The monochromatic colours of the programme enhance
Something very interesting about this show was that is was based around pie, so many elements on and off stage revolved around this. When looking directly at the box set stage in the theatre, at the off stage left and right stood large revolving diner pie shelves which were fully functioning and rose all the way to the ceiling. Not only did this design bring style and theme to the stage, but the shelves also housed real pies which were often eaten and used as props during the show. Something which I found interesting about the stage itself was that many of the sets moved themselves. Some sets popped up out of the stage and some moved along tracks on the stage which made the transition/flow between each scene very smooth.
The stage was set up to look like a classroom but everything appeared to be so two dimensional, just like in a story book, or an animated movie. Miss. Swamp's costume was the most eccentric. The huge black hair, dark mole, and green and yellow stripped socks were the cherry on top of her look. I was also shocked to find out Miss. Nelson and Miss. Swamp were played by two different people. I know Miss. Nelson is
The set throughout the play was non-naturalistic as the props used were to represent things, for example they used the sofa’s to represent cars on the stage, which had headlight on the front of the sofas or when they used the
The set and props where very compact and were built and moved on and off by the cast because they are designed to be transferred by one person. The props where all cleverly done, for instance they made a bridge out of three ladders, a train out of four boxes and a house from just one door. The door I thought was one of the best props used because the cast managed to make a fairly small stage appear huge just by moving the door and pretending each time that it was a new room every time they passed through it. At one point in the play Richard and Pamela ask the scottish landlords for a sandwich and they come back with a loaf of bread cut in two with one slice of lettuce in the middle, this was such a simple idea but made a big deal and a laugh out of it
This was the first play or theatre performance that I have attended. I was unsure of what to expect, but I heard great things about this play. Furthermore, the first aspect of this production that caught my attention was the design of the set. The design gave the feeling of a run down urban neighborhood by making the outer parts of the stage look like an old brick building. The building looked like one you would find in a low-income area or projects. The scenery of the play set the stage for what type of production this would be. I especially liked the way they carefully chose not to place just any kind of props on the stage. The dusty
Before the performance begun, there was a couch positioned on the center of the stage. Behind the couch, a rectangular entrance was opened revealing a hallway where the actors entered. Falsettos, had changeable scenes that constantly used the rectangular entrance. It easily drawn the audiences’ attention when the actor entered because the lighting drenched the entrance, cueing the actors to enter. The vacant couch placed before the performance began could be distorted into chairs, short end tables, and a love seat. One scene I remembered that distorted the couch apart into an assortment of furniture was Marvin’s visit at the psychologist’s office. Before the scene was cued, the couch was distorted into a love seat, and a chair. These props conveniently made it a less hassle changing furniture pieces. Also, the back wall had photo images of framed pictures and books that were projected to make the set livable.
Threatre Review of Woman in Black The play I will be reviewing is called the Woman in Black, adapted by Stephen Mallatratt from the novel by Susan Hill. I viewed it on September the 17th at the Fortune Theatre in London. The Woman in Black is a Gothic ghost/horror story set around the Victorian period in which Eel Marsh House surveys the windswept reaches of the salt marshes beyond Nine Lives Causeway.
The setting of the play helped to develop the mood. First of all, the abundance of props brought the story to live successfully. For example, the bed and door created the forgotten, quiet feeling in the old man's room. Next, the floorboards were lifted up so it actually looked like the
The lighting of any production is the most important part in my thought. the lighting puts you in the mood that you have to be in, in order to fully understand that part of the show and to actually live it like they do. For example, when they were in the park and it was raining, they had their umbrellas, and the background effects of rain made it really seem as if it was raining in the theatre. The lighting was always focused on every part of the stage, especially on those who were the main parts in that scene.