Evaluation of a performance of the merchant of venice
The Merchant of Venice By William Shakespeare William Shakespeare's 'The Merchant of Venice' was performed outstandingly on the 20th of September 2007. The play was performed at The Globe Theatre with fantastic direction from Rebecca Gatwart. The play is magnificently thrilling even for those who have not yet read the play. It is a brilliant understandable version of the play, which does not stray very far from the true script. The play is set in Venice where Bassanio seeks three thousand ducats from his close friend Antonio, which he hopes to spend on travel to Belmont to woo the beautiful, rich heiress Portia. But Antonio is not in the position to lend his money as all his merchandise it at sea. He asks the Jewish usurer Shylock for a loan despite the fact they both dislike each other. They are agreed to a bond whereby if Antonio does not repay the money within 3 months time Shylock will be free to take a pound of flesh from anywhere on Antonio's body he wishes to. Bassanio goes to Belmont where he marries Portia. Meanwhile, back in Venice, Antonio is having some problems with his boat and is unable to play Shylock back what he is owed. Antonio fears for his life while Bassanio tries to come up with a way to save his endangered friend. Shakespeare includes many key themes within the play, which provide the basis for most of the plot. One of these themes is mercy verses
The Laramie Project
Jasmine Yu September 13, 2009 The Laramie Project Essay "The Laramie Project" is set in Laramie, Wyoming in 1998, where Matthew Shepard, a gay student from the University of Wyoming was kidnapped, beaten, tied to a fence and left to die. This play shows the audience the lives of the town's people in Laramie before, during and after the death of Matthew Shepard, as well as their reactions and emotions towards this incident. I enjoyed all of the cast's performances because each and every one of them portrayed their multiple characters very well. The performance that I enjoyed the most was Reuben Tuck's, because he had to play so many different characters one after the other, and he made it seem effortless to the audience. He played two completely different characters, Reverend Fred Phelps and Father Roger Schmidt. Reverend Fred Phelps is extremely anti-gay and goes to Matthew Shepard's funeral carrying signs that say "God Hates Fags" to protest against the treatment that Shepard is receiving because he is gay. Father Roger Schmidt is a Catholic priest in Laramie and is not against gays, he does not believe that they are good or bad in anyway. At first when Reuben Tuck was shifting between the two holy figures I got confused because the costumes were exactly the same, he stuck a square piece of paper on his black shirt under his neck. Then he started to speak and the
The Leader Of The People
The Leader of the People Family is one of the most important things in a person's life. Some people have an outstanding relationship with their family, while others have a relationship where they do not talk to each other. In "The leader of the People," we meet a family who do not respect each other. The father does not like the grandfather, and that brings pain into the family - and maybe they do not know it, but that plays a part in destroying the family. The small family lives in America in an isolated little valley in the country. The boy Jody does not see any people around him but his mum, dad and the man Billy. Jody wants to be like his Grandfather when he grows up someday, he looks up to his grandfather. He wants to do and see something special some day, something the Grandfather did in his youth. Jody has also a great respect for the grown ups, which is also why he does not dare kill the mice before he has asked Billy and, to be completely sure, his father. His loves his grandfather and think of him as his idol. The grandfather tries to talk him out of his new dream about exploring the world. The grandfather says to Jody, his grandchild: "There's no place to go, Jody. Every place is taken." When the grandfather speaks to his grandchild, he is very depressing and a pessimist, because the American edge is not lost. It has simply changed. The grandfather hadn't the
Guys and Dolls evaluation
Guys and dolls On the date of the 20th of December 2006, our drama class attended a professional theatre production of the play 'Guys and Dolls' at the Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham. In my eyes, the play was performed excellently, but before you could fully focus on the acting etc, the first aspect you instantly recognised was the set and how cleverly they used it and incorporated it into the production. For instance, the set managers dropped a 'flat' to change to the mission scene setting, yet moreover this was done in such a way that you almost didn't realise they were doing it. As well as this, to create the 'Hotbox' setting; they placed furniture, including tables swiftly on to the sides with lights on them and also they used spotlights to show the stage area and finally dropped a tinsel curtain. In doing all these, they created a realistic scene of a karaoke show room, but it also matched the period of time it was set in. Importantly, the movement of any furniture was done so that it co-incided with what the characters were doing at that moment, therefore there were no awkward silences or gaps in the performance. A further way they cleverly changed the set efficiently was during the 'Havana Cuba' scene, this was one of my favourite scenes, for the reason I was somewhat amazed at the way they used lighting to create the moon in the background. It was done
Lord Of The Flies Review
Drama coursework - Mr Asquith Review of 'Lord of the flies' Paragraph 1 On Wednesday 4th March, I went and saw 'Lord of the Flies' at the Unicorn Theatre. Lord of the Flies was performed by the Pilot Theatre and the director was Marcus Romer. This play was also adapted for the stage by Nigel Williams. Paragraph 2 The reason for this piece of writing is that it is part of my year 10 coursework and this will give me a taste of how to review more pieces of stage performances and it will also see how good I am at reviewing performances now so that I can later improve on it. Paragraph 3 My general opinion of the play is that it is a must see for young teenagers between the ages 13 to 17. I liked the way that they used the lights to show lots of different emotions and objects. They used the lights in lots of ways; one of the ways that they used the lights is the plane crash where the lights bounce around the stage to create a falling image. Another way that they used lights is at the very end when the helicopter drops down they used the lights to make it look light a helicopter descending. Music was a very big part of the play because it shows you what is going on in the scene for example at the plane crash scene they used really loud music to show a panicky mood. The sound effects made the play sound more realistic, for example when they used the spears to hit the plane
Water. Water A company called Filter has produced an eye-catching performance at the Hammersmith Lyric Theatre which successfully covered the issue of climate change, whilst also tackling the aspects of human relationships.
'Water' A company called 'Filter' has produced an eye-catching performance at the Hammersmith Lyric Theatre which successfully covered the issue of climate change, whilst also tackling the aspects of human relationships. The performance revolves around the theme of whether or not human beings can connect to each other. The production spans across two decades, two generations of family and two continents. The opening scene is set in 1981 and we see and English lecturer delivering a speech about the dangers of global warming and the rising sea levels. Then, in the present day we meet his son, Graham, who is a total contrast of the character of his father, who seems to be open minded, wants to connect with people and is outgoing. Whereas Graham is self- centred, drawn in and doesn't seem to communicate with people. Graham is invited by his half brother to attend the funeral of his father, where he finds out that his father abandoned his English family to make a new life. A second story runs with this narrative about a British government negotiator, named Claire, who is struggling to enforce the views of British government on the American government regarding the issues of carbon emissions. While trying to do this we see the effects of her intensity of her boyfriend that she broke up with who attempts to break the world record for cave-diving. One of the key features of the
Rivers to Cross Review. Rivers to Cross is an admirable play that takes you on a wistful journey of black history, over a time period of 174 years.
Rivers to Cross - Review Rivers to Cross is an admirable play that takes you on a wistful journey of black history, over a time period of 174 years. The atmosphere of the play is set as commemorative, yet at the same time accusing of the audience and through the use of multimedia and contemporary dance and song, Gazebo Theatre Company introduces many unknown, black characters to the audience's knowledge. While listening to the song 'Many Rivers to Cross' before I watched the play, I felt the hardships and suffering that black people have faced throughout the 174 year journey. I felt the song was symbolic of a unity that had suffered racism and prejudice to a major extent, but still had faith. To me, this was very poignant. As previously mentioned, the play introduced many famous black individuals of the past that were relatively unknown to today's audience. Some characters of the play included Ira Aldridge, Walter Tull, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Dr Harold Moody, Paul Robeson and Barack Obama. I believe the most innovative part of the play is that the production focuses primarily on British history as well as American history, which I thought was shown as insightful and profound, to a subject that has barely been touched upon. Although I believe the production was admirable, I thought the story was little confusing at times and could have been made improved, something I
Sample theatre review (Don John)
Kneehigh theatre productions is back bringing it's latest masterpiece, Don John, to centre stage at the West Yorkshire Playhouse. Inspired by the legendry libertine, Don Giovanni, director Emma Rice has shaped and adapted this fictional character into many of Kneehigh's visually captivating performance's. We have the mind-numbingly dull vicars wife Anna, Zerlina the polish cleaner and Elvira, a lovelorn women who we seriously worry for a number of times throughout the play; the plot sees the dangerously appealing womanizer Don John's sordid ways halted to a permanent stop by three of his victims- instead of the statue, who makes a daunting appearance in the original tale of the infamous man who loved to have his wicked way. The boisterous play has been reset from the fourteenth century and reborn into 1978, 'the winter of discontent'. I have to applaud set designer Vikki Mortimer who makes a brilliant choice for the background scenery: stacking four rusty portable cabins- presumably containing the contraptions of a funfair which shadows Don Johns ever moving lifestyle- to fashion the swiftly changing scene arrangements, one for the musicians, on top, Elvira's room and the set of creates on the right hand side shows Anna's house, later transformed into Don John's room and on top, the vicars church -equipped with a piano and plastic chairs- the metal containers are also used
The Producers
Question 10 Michael Brooks 11V On the 3rd of November, 2006 I saw The Producers at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. The Producers is a west-end musical based on the 1968 film. It follows the story of two directors, Bialystock (played by Cory English) and Bloom (played by Reece Shearsmith) who attempt to put on a show that is a total flop, realizing they can make 'more money from a flop than a hit'. The comic piece was extremely entertaining, being a visual excitement filled with hilarious moments. The scene I will focus on is where Ulla (played by Rachel McDowell) auditions to be in the forthcoming musical singing her own song "When you've got it, flaunt it". A soft yellow/white wash swept the stage, which, when mixed with the more intense white wash, gave the effect of indoor lighting. Soft spotlights were shone into the centre of stage to focus the audience's attention to the action happening in the centre of the stage. At this focused centre stage, English and Shearsmith were seated on a copper-coloured sofa looking expectantly at McDowell, who was standing by a piano on stage right. To find her starting note, she plays a single note on the piano, but an entire scale of notes plays from the orchestra piano but looks like the notes came out of nowhere. English uncrossed his legs looking bewildered, and leered towards the piano to give the impression he was examining
The House Of Bernarda Alba
Drama Explain the significance of the opening scene and as a director explain what impact you would like the scene to have on the audience and how you would achieve this. The play 'The House of Bernarda Alba' is written by Frederico Garcia Lorca. In the opening scene the playwright uses many different techniques to create a dramatic effect for the audience. I have been asked to explain the impact I would like to create as a director and how I would achieve this. As a director I would want to create an important image straight from the beginning of the play, which I feel Frederico Garcia Lorca achieved extremely well. He created a simple picture however a very memorable one. Almost like a clinic and too clean is the impression the audience first get as the curtains pull up with the "very white room". This lets the audience know how obsessed Bernarda is with appearance and control. It also tells us how Bernarda feels the need to impress her neighbours constantly as she always wants to be the best and to control her daughters. The "thick walls" of the room the audience see gives the impression that the room is almost like a prison and caved in. Again, adding to the idea of Bernarda controlling and keeping her daughters inside away from any men. Another part of Bernarda, which I feel is important to emphasise to the audience, is her constant need to be above everyone else and
