King Arthur performed by Red Shift Theatre Company At The Roses Theatre On Wednesday 8th October 2003.

Here is a diagram of the setting:

The red circle was used for the most important scene in the whole performance: the sword and stone scene. It was relevant for this because it was positioned in the centre of the stage and was a very vibrant colour, so it grabbed our attention. I think the play would have benefited from a larger range in costume. If they did this, it would have made us more interested in the different scenes and helped us get a better understanding of the situation. However, the costume they did use complemented the battle sequences very well, because it looked like something a martial arts specialist would wear. Also a Samurai sword was used to represent Excalibur.

Physical theatre was also present in the scene at which Excalibur was extracted from the stone. One of the actors pretended to be the stone, and another person had to try and force the sword out. As the actor that represented the stone walked away, the other person still had to look like they were trying to pull the sword. The sword appeared to be fixed in mid air, and the angle of the sword was held at approximately 45 degrees. The actors had to make sure this didn’t alter as the pulling took place. The rehearsals and skills needed to give this effect are unbelievable. It must also take a lot of skill to get the timing right with the metallic sound effect that echoed around the auditorium as the sword was withdrawn.

This theatre visit was very hard to understand. However, it was extremely well done; considering how much skill was needed for this play to be performed successfully. I found the story line quite hard to follow. I wouldn’t necessarily say it was boring, but it definitely lost my attention at some points, for example, when there was slightly too much exposition. Although the actors where very good when it came to the ‘Physical Theatre,’ there voices didn’t project with much impact. To be honest, there were only two actors that I thought were brilliant, and that was Merlin and Mordred. I think the strong point in the play was the choreography. This was done with great success, and because I like dancing myself I was immediately captured by the dance and acrobatics that were incorporated in the battle sequences.

The entrances and exits where also very imaginative. The use of cartwheels, rolls, exits under cyclorama etc. Made the performance different to most theatre productions.

By Louise Beadle 10g