Bristol Old Vic Theatre School; The murder in the red barn.

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Bristol Old Vic Theatre School; The murder in the red barn, Friday 28th November.

We have been studying Maria Marten two terms before this performance, so we all knew the play inside out. What we were expecting to see was an eccentric Victorian melodrama with all its over-the-top exaggerated clichés and all the stereotypical characters (villain, hero, heroine etc), and in addition, some pantomime style songs to compliment and break up the scenes.

My initial thoughts of the stage and auditorium were of its size. It was a quaint theatre with no reserved seating. The theatre was a typical black box studio theatre with no fly space. To create an illusion of a traditional Victorian theatre they had built a small proscenium arch stage with a thrust. This can be seen in the sketch on the last page of the review. The set was not a naturalistic one, in that painted backdrops were used with minimal furniture in front of the set panels. Gauzes were also used to indicate a dream scene, or a ghostly presence, and sliding wooden structures were used to suggest a variety of settings. The most striking scene to me was Maria’s death sequence. This was made as over the top and as funny as possible to bring out all the possible humour for the scene in true melodramatic fashion! This was in complete contrast to our production, as we made Nell’s death the most comic, and Maria’s was the more serious and dramatic. A trap door was used for the grave and the balconies were used to host two angels dressed in white with gold tinsel halos who sung a ‘Halleluiah’ farewell to Maria. Meanwhile Maria’s spirit, in the form of a cardboard cut out of her body dressed identically to the angels, with a photograph stuck on as the face. This whole scene was extremely funny because it was just so outrageous and absurd! To top off the spectacle, clouds were flown in, representing heaven and the like. Zella and here father Ishmael were seen singing (behind the gauze) with the ‘angel’ figures whilst Maria’s spirit was winched to the heavens! The audience’s reaction to this fiasco was hysteria, as laughter was clearly produced in vast quantities! The scene however was slightly ‘over-done’, but it had the desired effect on the audience and made a smashing end to act one.

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The lighting was extremely stylised and was similar to pantomime lighting. There was a lot of contrast used in the colours, with somewhat gaudy combinations, e.g. orange and green, which were particularly used in Corder’s, (who incidentally was played by Niall McGregor), scenes. The lighting suggested time very bluntly. Night-lights were inky blues, and a star cloth was used behind gauzes, which was seen twinkling hypnotically. In Pharos Lee’s first scene with his fellow North American Indians, a fire is seen crackling. Lighting effects were used to create atmosphere within the scenes. The Gypsies were seen holding torches with a ...

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