Only five more shows to go - don't miss Blackbird ....
http://www.thelistener.co.nz/issue/3502/artsbooks/9087/reeling_in_the_years.html
Monday, June 18, 2007
Saturday, June 2, 2007
Another excellent review ...
THEATRE REVIEW
WHAT: Blackbird by David Harrower, directed by Jane Waddell.
WHERE: Circa 2. Till 23 June.
REVIEWED BY: Laurie Atkinson.
“Truth is rarely pure, and never simple,” said Lady Bracknell. Though David Harrower’s searing and emotionally riveting drama Blackbird is as far from Wildean comedy as you can imagine, it bears out the truth of her statement in an area of life that is highly complex and clouded by fear, hatred and disgust.
Set in a litter-strewn lunchroom of a non-descript business somewhere in England, Blackbird is a confrontation between 56-year-old Ray, who is in middle management of the business and 27-year-old Una who was sexually abused by him when she was twelve. Or was she?
Ray served a prison sentence and then changed his name and moved to a new city and found a new job. Una has tracked him down through a photograph in some trade paper. What does she want? Revenge? Closure? An explanation of why he deserted her? To show that she suffered more than he did from what happened to her before and after the trial?
Questions that intricately undermine easy assumptions, conventional attitudes, and moral stands are raised throughout the play. Just as the litter in the lunchroom is a reflection of the characters’ emotional turmoil and the shadowy figures seen through the frosted windows of the lunchroom as they pass along the corridor seem to represent us, the audience, who may discover some of the truth but never all of it, Blackbird provides no answers to human frailty and desire, only a devastating and compassionate presentation of it in action.
Jane Waddell’s excellent production is blessed with two superb performances that gripped the opening night audience. Nick Blake’s twitching panic when Ray is first confronted by Una is unnerving to watch, and when later, scrunched up on the floor in a ball of guilt as Una describes what happened to her after he had apparently abandoned her in a strange town, his pain is palpable. But the impressive aspect of his performance is that he makes Ray a decent, ordinary man trying to cope with a guilty past.
Rachel Forman leaves one guessing all the time about Una in a performance that ranges from snarling mockery to ferocious outbursts of anger and mental instability. She creates a sense of danger, that anything could happen, and that Una was a victim as well as a victim of her own desires.
Unmissable, challenging and probably unforgettable.
WHAT: Blackbird by David Harrower, directed by Jane Waddell.
WHERE: Circa 2. Till 23 June.
REVIEWED BY: Laurie Atkinson.
“Truth is rarely pure, and never simple,” said Lady Bracknell. Though David Harrower’s searing and emotionally riveting drama Blackbird is as far from Wildean comedy as you can imagine, it bears out the truth of her statement in an area of life that is highly complex and clouded by fear, hatred and disgust.
Set in a litter-strewn lunchroom of a non-descript business somewhere in England, Blackbird is a confrontation between 56-year-old Ray, who is in middle management of the business and 27-year-old Una who was sexually abused by him when she was twelve. Or was she?
Ray served a prison sentence and then changed his name and moved to a new city and found a new job. Una has tracked him down through a photograph in some trade paper. What does she want? Revenge? Closure? An explanation of why he deserted her? To show that she suffered more than he did from what happened to her before and after the trial?
Questions that intricately undermine easy assumptions, conventional attitudes, and moral stands are raised throughout the play. Just as the litter in the lunchroom is a reflection of the characters’ emotional turmoil and the shadowy figures seen through the frosted windows of the lunchroom as they pass along the corridor seem to represent us, the audience, who may discover some of the truth but never all of it, Blackbird provides no answers to human frailty and desire, only a devastating and compassionate presentation of it in action.
Jane Waddell’s excellent production is blessed with two superb performances that gripped the opening night audience. Nick Blake’s twitching panic when Ray is first confronted by Una is unnerving to watch, and when later, scrunched up on the floor in a ball of guilt as Una describes what happened to her after he had apparently abandoned her in a strange town, his pain is palpable. But the impressive aspect of his performance is that he makes Ray a decent, ordinary man trying to cope with a guilty past.
Rachel Forman leaves one guessing all the time about Una in a performance that ranges from snarling mockery to ferocious outbursts of anger and mental instability. She creates a sense of danger, that anything could happen, and that Una was a victim as well as a victim of her own desires.
Unmissable, challenging and probably unforgettable.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Blackbird getting rave reviews
Well, we have opened and are now well into our first week. Response to the play has been great and rave reviews are starting to come in thick and fast - try some of the links below to read them.
http://www.lumiere.net.nz/reader/item/1047
http://www.theatreview.co.nz/
Also watch out for our opening night footage - coming soon!
Sarah Griffiths - publicist
http://www.lumiere.net.nz/reader/item/1047
http://www.theatreview.co.nz/
Also watch out for our opening night footage - coming soon!
Sarah Griffiths - publicist
Monday, May 28, 2007
Tuesday 29th - Post Show Forum tonight
strange journey for the director after a show has opened - if I've done my job I'm really no longer required - it's over to the actors. Have absolute faith that they will keep discovering, playing and giving 100%. Good feed-back from preview, opening and Sunday performances - up to the audiences now to come and see what we've done with this extraordinary play. Got an email from someone who was at the opening night saying they were so involved in discussing the play they forgot to stay for a drink - and couldn't believe the look on Rachel's face at the end of the show - the relief that the audience had been so responsive to it.
Jane Waddell, director
Jane Waddell, director
Thursday, May 24, 2007
From Jane Waddell - director
My stomach just did a nervous flip - tonight we have our first audience for the most challenging script I've ever had the privelege of working on - can't wait to see how it'll be received - I have total faith in the text, the actors, the crew - it's going to fly!!
Preview Friday 25th at 7.30pm Tickets $20
The set is trying to get the upper hand on me. It's so beautifully grungy - John is amazing! But the rubbish... the rubbish... arrgh, the rubbish! I have now become a Trash Wrangler. People greet me by handing me bags of banana and orange peels and empty cans. And stranger still, I'm grateful for it! The rubbish on this glorious and beautifully filthy set is like a third character. It has a mind of it's own. It rolls around, it crunches underfoot, it goes off. Nick and Rachel are brilliant, they are intense and wonderful and courageous... but there's bound to be one unruly cast member among such wonderful people and in our crew it's the rubbish. Marcus chuckles at me holding my head and wondering exactly how to go about re-setting the trash every run.
Aside from all the necessary mess, things have come together beautifully! The play is raw and demanding and so very intimate in our little studio theatre. I hope, I really hope that audiences come out and give it a chance. Their closeness, their presence, their emotional reactions... that's what it's all about. It's such a gorgeous play. Such a wonderfully dirty set. And such breathtaking performances... such amazing direction... thank you Jane and Nick and Rachel, Marcus and John and Katie, for this journey. Now we wait for the audience...
Corinne
Stage Manager
Aside from all the necessary mess, things have come together beautifully! The play is raw and demanding and so very intimate in our little studio theatre. I hope, I really hope that audiences come out and give it a chance. Their closeness, their presence, their emotional reactions... that's what it's all about. It's such a gorgeous play. Such a wonderfully dirty set. And such breathtaking performances... such amazing direction... thank you Jane and Nick and Rachel, Marcus and John and Katie, for this journey. Now we wait for the audience...
Corinne
Stage Manager
Monday, May 21, 2007
From Nick Blake
Mmmmm...just had a Sunday away from rehearsal, felt like I was still Ray for most of the morning...doesn't help things at home, but by the end of the day I'm myself again which is a relief. Nice being away from the rubbish too. Doing this play is making me tidier in my everyday life - good positive spin off, compensates for the parannoia.
Working on the set today brought things to a new level of reality. My costume seems to blend into the set, like canteen camo - odd, but strangely appropriate- trying to disappear and remain unnoticed, sink beneath the radar.
People are going to be so close... they'll smell our sweat... aaargh!!
Nick
Working on the set today brought things to a new level of reality. My costume seems to blend into the set, like canteen camo - odd, but strangely appropriate- trying to disappear and remain unnoticed, sink beneath the radar.
People are going to be so close... they'll smell our sweat... aaargh!!
Nick
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