Discuss a performance you have seen where the acting or the staging was effective.

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Discuss a performance you have seen where the acting or the staging was effective.

The performance that I think had effective staging was John Retallack’s Hannah and Hanna.  Company of angels at the Chester Gateway theatre performed this on 7th of November.  

The opening scene was set up as you walked through the door.  This gave us an idea of the setting of the play, as the main picture on the stage was a seaside picture.  It also put you straight into the play, meaning that it was easier to focus when the play started because you had already been there for a short amount of time and were able to take in the setting and the staging.       The stage was an end on stage, which matched well with the racked seating making the stage accessible to see.  Positioned on the stage at the beginning were also railings in place at the side of the stage and two wooden blocks in the centre. This again set the scene of the beach on stage effectively helping the audience to take in the setting.  The stage itself was quite a large stage however; the performance was restricted to the centre of the stage due to the number of actors.  I think this was very effective as it was easy to focus on both actors because they were both in your view.  This was helpful as sometimes throughout the play both actors were doing things at the same time, but because they were close together it was easier to concentrate on what was happening.  Although this scenery was minimal it was very effective at some points during the show, but at others I felt that more scenery or props on stage were needed.  However, despite this the scenery was very clever for a low budget performance and they made good use of the props that they had.  This scenery was very effective from the beginning, as you could tell that both Hannah’s were happy were they were and were very lively and outgoing.  The bright colours in the background indicated this.  Although Hannah’s views changed in the first part, she is still happy and they are both still enthusiastic.  The singing involved in this scene indicates this and helps to emphasise the scenery and the boldness of the characters.  

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  During the first part the main scenery did not change although some of the props did.  The two boxes that were centre stage were used as a stage on the beach, a supermarket checkout.  This idea was particularly effective as, although it was minimal, the two boxes still managed to create the setting of where the part was being set.  For example, when both Hannah and Hanna were in the supermarket, the boxes were turned over to make a checkout.  This was effective because, with Hannah’s movement with her hands in a sliding motions, it easily creating the scene ...

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