Acting Up Theatre
Brentwood Theatre
19th February 2010
Jim Hutchon went through the looking glass ...
Taking an untried adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s classic into a new and strange venue was possibly an ambitious step too far for an amateur group trying to find its feet. The individual scenes were clearly delineated, but there was no sense of continuity between them. In fact, to anyone who hadn’t read the books, and there must be many such nowadays, the scenes and sequences would have been mystifying.
It gives me no pleasure to write this, as the talented and committed cast put in a lot of hard work to make the show work. And there were some good points, the clever idea of a book as a backdrop from whose pages the stories sprang, using a video wall to take the action outside and some superb costumes and beautifully made animal masks all helped.
It would be invidious to pick out individual performances, because some were good in one part and less so in another, though Holly Morrison, as Alice, was on stage throughout and didn’t put a foot wrong. I just wish she and the whole cast had shown more enjoyment in their roles. It is an axiom that if the cast is enjoying itself on stage, this is usually transmitted to the audience. For the future, and I hope the company Acting Up continues, I would recommend first, a good, well-known and well-written script, and a director who can focus the undoubted energies and talents of the company.
Taking an untried adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s classic into a new and strange venue was possibly an ambitious step too far for an amateur group trying to find its feet. The individual scenes were clearly delineated, but there was no sense of continuity between them. In fact, to anyone who hadn’t read the books, and there must be many such nowadays, the scenes and sequences would have been mystifying.
It gives me no pleasure to write this, as the talented and committed cast put in a lot of hard work to make the show work. And there were some good points, the clever idea of a book as a backdrop from whose pages the stories sprang, using a video wall to take the action outside and some superb costumes and beautifully made animal masks all helped.
It would be invidious to pick out individual performances, because some were good in one part and less so in another, though Holly Morrison, as Alice, was on stage throughout and didn’t put a foot wrong. I just wish she and the whole cast had shown more enjoyment in their roles. It is an axiom that if the cast is enjoying itself on stage, this is usually transmitted to the audience. For the future, and I hope the company Acting Up continues, I would recommend first, a good, well-known and well-written script, and a director who can focus the undoubted energies and talents of the company.
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