Adjutant/Innkeeper/Monk/Nephew - Oliver Dimsdale
The Governor/Corporal/Jessup/Shauva - John Lloyd Fillingham
The Govenor's wife/Lady/Aniko/Old Peasant Woman - Thusitha Jayasundera
Simon - Ferdy Roberts
nanny/Fat Peasant/Mother-in-law/Ludovica - Gemma Suanders
Fat Prince/Lavrenti/Iraki - Mo Sesay
Azdak - Nicolas Tennant
Grusha - Cath Whitefield
Directed by Sean Holmes
Designed by Anthony Lamble
A Filter Theatre Company Production
seen the night after it's Press Night in the Cottesloe C32
Had it's press night on Friday so I didn't see any reviews but when I went to look this morning I couldn't see any. The odd thing is that the entire season sold out about 3 weeks ago and I just snagged a house ticket at the last minute.
The thing that bothered me was the music. The narrator was singing....all the time. He sounded like Neil thingy from ....oh good grief....very deep posh voice. His kecks were so tight I would have been able to tell his religion.....if he'd been of that faith!!! (that joke SO doesn't work when applied to men with hats).
All the women were prancing around much too big and loud with the lovely exception of a lady who was mainly in charge of sound but had a couple of scene stealing contributions. Bottom line is that they were trying to be a bit too clever. It may settle down but the programme makes a point of including a quote from Brecht about his method for stopping his actors being too OTT and several members of the cast were just that! The blokes were much better and I love Nicolas Tennant (a good actor trapped in a very odd body) and the other blokes were good. They adopted an acting plan devised by Oliver Dimsdale and Ferdy Roberts whereby they perform sound fx on stage (a bit like Waves but nothing like as good or innovative) Oliver is cute and may make a very good bloke oneday. It was definately the singing that got on my tits. Much too contrived. Oh a special mention for Mo Sesay who was magnificent......a Harewood in the making.
There were some good things about this but the annoying things were SO annoying that I have to think hard to remember.
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