On the 28th of April 2004 I went to see "claustrophobia" at the QEH theatre Bristol. The plot of the play and its location: The play Opened with a long period of time without any speech to set the scene. There

Theatre Review

Date of play- 28th April 2004

Name of play- Claustrophobia

Venue- QEH theatre, Bristol

On the 28th of April 2004 I went to see “claustrophobia” at the QEH theatre Bristol.

The plot of the play and its location: The play Opened with a long period of time without any speech to set the scene. There was a hotel with a girl in it sat in a room alone, she was fidgeting and looking outside. Outside was a lady putting on make-up. There was the sound of wind, creaking and thunder to create an atmosphere of unease and tension. The hotel was portrayed as a derelict place that had not been visited in a long time, this was shown by the girls reaction when she saw that someone was outside the hotel, her facial expression changed to a happy/curious one and her body language was confused as if she did not know what to do and had not been in this situation before or for a long time. The character of the girl in the hotel is Tilly, her character is seen clearly even in this early stage of the play. The lady outside the hotel is putting on make-up for the entire opening of the play and is also drinking alcohol, both these two things are shown constantly throughout the play and show her wanting to look good at all times and her drinking and perhaps being an alcoholic may be trying to show that she needs something to stop her thinking about her problems.

The play then goes on to show the character outside the hotel as “Madame Beatty” she was “ the famous actress”. It then shows Tilly’s father as another weird and eccentric character this is shown by his reaction as the actress enters the hotel, he (like Tilly) seems jumpy. Madame Beatty introduces herself as a Famous French actress and goes on to adopt this role throughout the play although it is made obvious to us that she may be lying about her current fame by her not having any work now, staying in this obviously cheap hotel and her snappy attitude when she is questioned about things which she obviously does not have an answer for.

Once inside the hotel and after everyone is introduced and the guest is invited for diner Madame Beatty goes to her room and drinks alcohol. She then tries on dresses and chooses which one to were to were when going to eat her dinner (implying that she does not have anywhere better to where them!) whilst she is doing this Tilly and her father are downstairs Talking about Madame Beatty. Tilly repeats things such as “she’s mine” and “I saw her first” this confuses this audience, as we don’t know exactly why she is saying this and what she means by it, however it does inform us again that there is something very unusual about the people within this hotel and the way in which is run. Tilly and her Father then bring the table, chairs, plates and crockery out from a cupboard under the stairs (which is used to store props) it is all very dusty, indicating that no one has been there in a long time. They then go on to clean it by spitting on it and rubbing it in there clothes! (The point still being made that they are eccentric and outside of society). When Madame Beatty came down for her dinner she was given just a piece of bread, which was stale although she pretended to like it, and ate it all. She then went to go upstairs to bed and before she went to sleep she drank more alcohol, this gave the impression that she was depressed and needed alcohol to sleep. During the night the father began to knock nails on a block of wood, as he hit each nail both Tilly and Madame Beatty would move, they stood up and in rhythm with the beats on the wood they did a weird bird dance in unison. I was not sure of what this was supposed to represent, at the time I thought it may have been that Tilly’s father had some kind of power over the house which we were going to find out about later on, however this was not the case. The father did other strange thing in the play involving Madame Beatty such as take a glove of hers and put in a box marked gloves. The next day Madame Beatty showed all of her dresses to Tilly and told story’s of when she had worn them before, she did this very enthusiastically, her manor of doing this made me think whether these were just made up stories or whether she was just so exited because she did not act anymore?? Her past and character as of the others was a mystery throughout the play. Tilly then brought her mothers dress to show Madame Beatty, Tilly said that her mother was an actress like Madame Beatty, this made me think perhaps she showed the dress to all of the guests and changed the story each time? Madame Beatty later stole the dress and hid it in her room, this made me think that she might steal all of her dresses and really had no money. Later that night Madame Beatty practised one of her scenes and included Tilly and her father in it, they both adapted to these roles well and got very into the acting. Tilly was then told to go upstairs and get costumes, she saw her mothers dress in Madame Beatty’s room ands this upset her very much she went downstairs screaming at her that she had no right to wear the dress, Tilly really lost it , this made me question what may have happened to her mother. Tilly’s father ignored her and said it was just a tantrum. Madame Beatty and Tilly’s father then continued with there seen which was a romance (it was starting to be suggested that there was romance or would later be between Madame Beatty and Tilly’s Father) at the end of this scene Tilly’s Father strangled Madame Beatty and it was unclear to the audience whether this was real or acting. Tilly came downstairs and Madame Beatty was lead on the floor dead, Tilly started crying and raging at her father saying “how could u do this, this time? Not with her” this gave the impression that he had killed before. Madame Beatty then woke and told Tilly that it was just acting and that Tilly was a silly child and then her and Tilly’s father started laughing at Tilly. Tilly ran to her room in tears and started hitting the floor, this showed her anger and jealous of Madame Beatty. Madame Beatty and Tilly’s father then both went to sleep. Every night Tilly’s father locked her in the house, however this night he had forgotten and left the keys in Tilly’s door! She saw her chance and escaped from the house! Once outside reacted as if she had never been before she then ran quickly realising she was free!

The stage, set, props lighting and sound: The stage made into a hotel and the outside of the hotel, this was all through the play and did not change. It was a small stage, which could have been done to add to the effect of “claustrophobia”. The hotel was painted dark brown and this created a dark, dreary effect on the stage. The hotel on the stage like it was a real building only the front of it was taken off so that you could see what was going on inside, this was a very good technique as it ...

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There was a cupboard under the stairs, which was used as a prop box, this was effective as it was a way of realistically creating scene changes and getting tables, chairs etc.

The space on the stage was used effectively and creatively

The lighting was always a dim spotlight on the hotel to create an atmosphere of a dark and dingy hotel and perhaps represent the characters dark and mysteriousness. Throughout the play the lighting only changed at nighttime to an even dimmer light. I think that this use of the lighting was simple yet effective as anything else would not suite the simple style of the setting.

Sounding was used effectively throughout the play to create naturalistic sounds such as creaking, thunder, wind and knocking. At the beginning of the play there was a long time without any speech, without the sounds of whistling, thunder, wind and creaking this scene would not have been affective, all of these things help create a tense atmosphere and are used well. In another scene in the play Tilly’s father is knocking nails into a plank of wood, a knocking sound is put in here. This is because Madame Beatty and Tilly dance to the sound and this effect of loud knocking effectively creates music and an atmosphere of confusion.

Actors techniques: There was only three actors and three roles in the play, this was good as it gave the audience the chance to understand the characters and the actors time to portray there characters well.

Tilly’s character was played well and the actress showed emotions of extreme anger well (when she found her mothers dress had been stolen). Her character was in my opinion very funny, she also did this well by adapting to Tilly’s strange ways whilst spitting on a plate to clean it other times when she seemed to just not understand what most people do in everyday life! When Tilly was locked in her bedroom and had a tantrum she led on the floor screaming, kicking and crying, the actress did this extremely well really grabbed the audience attention when doing so with her over the top gestures and loud sobs.

The character of Tilly’s Father remained a mystery to me throughout the play I was not sure if this was how is supposed to be or if the acting was just not up to the high standards set in the play!? Nevertheless his abnormal, outside of society side was shown clearly, he walked around in his underwear and collected guests’ gloves! I thought his character was not very strong in the play and I was never sure about him, however perhaps this was done deliberately?

I thought Madame Beatty’s character was played extremely well and her different emotions were portrayed very well throughout the play. From the very beginning her charismatic personality was extremely clear as from the moment she entered the hotel she was loud, clearly spoken and told stories frequently. You also saw her hidden side, that she was probably not an actress and an alcoholic, she showed that her character had hidden secrets by changing her tone and snapping when people asked her certain questions. Her technique of using the character being and actress to confuse the audience, as sometimes we did not know what was and was not acting was very effective. She took over the stage and was in my opinion the best actress.

My opinion and final thoughts on the play: This play was interesting and kept you guessing as to what was happening all the way through (and even at the end!) The thing that I found interesting is that the play did not have a real plot or storyline, everything was jumbled and confusing! However I think the play about the effects of being somewhere for a long time and Tilly’s oppression and in the end freedom. It showed three unusual characters all in the same house at the same time and the effect that can have!

I think the characters did well to keep the audiences attention throughout the play by changes in mode, tone and by the audience constantly not knowing what was going on!

However I did not particularly enjoy the play, I think this is because it is not aimed at people my age and perhaps because I didn’t thoroughly understand it! I did not like not knowing what was going on and found their only being one set boring.

I do think that the play would however be interesting for older people with very good understanding of drama!