A Comparison between Arther Miller's "The Crucible" and Bernard Shaw's "St Joan"
Comparison between "The Crucible" by Arthur Miller and "St Joan" by George Bernard Shaw Arthur Miller's "The Crucible", is a play examining the mass hysteria of the 1692 Salem witch trials. When the girls from the village are found dancing in the forest and the minister's daughter Betty Paris falls into a coma-like state, rumours of witchcraft run riot, prompted by the girls ringleader Abigail Williams. This leads to the hanging of nineteen innocent people. Some themes in "The Crucible" connected with those of "St Joan" by George Bernard Shaw. "St Joan" is set in 1400 France during the Hundred Years' war, and based on the true story of a nineteen year old peasant girl. Joan makes claims of hearing the voices of saints instructing her to lead France, and convinces the heir to the throne to take his rightful place as King of France. Catholicism was the main religion in France at the time, and catholic rulers feared the rise of Protestantism, Joan's claims of personal relationships with saints went against the Catholic belief that you must speak to God through the church. Ultimately she is betrayed, and captured by the English at the siege of Compiegne, then tried and burnt at the stake upon accusation of heresy. The contexts of the two plays are very different as they are set almost 3 centuries apart, "The Crucible" focuses on the lives of the people in a village in
A Midsummer nights dream keeps us waiting
A Midsummer night's dream keeps us waiting On February 27, 2009, holy trinity school performed a Midsummer Night's Dream in the school theater. The play, directed by Ms.Greenway, Mrs. Thomson, and Mrs.Ganley presents a comedy set in the sixties according to the similarities of the themes of the play and the time period. The play takes place in Athens, starring the four lovers Hermia and Lysander, and Helena and Demetrius. Hermia and Lysander rebelled against their parents and run off into the forest where a group of horrendous actors who try to rehearse the play Pyramus and Thisbe. When they entered the forest, the lovers encounter fairies that confuse and complicate their their love. The actors of the play were chosen fairly well and were very effective in creating a good performance. Puck, played by Sarah Bevilacqua was very convincing because of her use of tone, movement and her great interpretation of the role. Puck is a character full of mischief and tricks, Sarah was a great fit for the role and pulled it off wonderfully with her unique sixties costume. Jake Keilhauer, playing the role as Hermia's father performed with a very monotonous voice and was spiritless compared to Isabel joy who played the role of Helena, she was fascinating to watch and used an active voice throughout the play. Isabel was one of the most memorable actors in the play aside from Jennifer ma,
Drama Review: "Lenny - The boy who wanted to be a train"
Review: "Lenny - The boy who wanted to be a train." The idea of a story about a boy trying to become a train deterred me from wanting to see the play, however, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the performance and the engaging way in which the story was told. Originally written as a radio show, I saw Lenny - The boy who wanted to be a train. at Backwell School in March 2007, directed by freelance director, Sally Cookson, it was quite adventurous; with only one actor, Craig Edwards, using multi- role playing effectively to create each character in the story. It aimed to entertain and challenge its target audience of 13-14 year-olds, which it certainly did with the choreographed dance routines and although maybe too challenging for that age group to understand and appreciate the more stylised aspects of the performance. The play is based around Lenny, a young child of around 12 years old who believes he can become a train if he eats metal screws. His fascination with trains is clearly linked with the bullying he suffers; he admires the strength, speed and power of a train. The train station is where he can voice his stress and insecurities through energetic screams near passing trains, escaping the concerns of a typical young boy who can't live up to his idolised older brother Ethan, can't defend himself against the other boys at school and can't grow tall or strong
Performance evaluation. Makwacha Hip Hopera, originally The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht is a comical and modern version of the text. The adaptation was very cleverly devised by Nanzikambe using the original version for structure and pl
Drama Coursework- Performance Review by Alexandra Demetriou Play: Makwacha Hip Hopera (The Threepenny Opera) Performed by: Nanzikambe Date: Saturday 20th March 2010 Venue: French Cultural Centre, Blantyre "Makwacha Hip Hopera", originally "The Threepenny Opera" by Bertolt Brecht is a comical and modern version of the text. The adaptation was very cleverly devised by Nanzikambe using the original version for structure and plot but taking on a modern Malawian theme. Set in our own hometown-Blantyre, the audience could easily relate to the characters and overall plot, making it enjoyable and easy to follow. The play revolves around Polly, a young British girl who falls in love at first sight with, and later secretly marries, Panga knife Mac, a highly wanted Malawian gangster and womanizer. However her Malawian parents (who adopted her) strongly disapprove of the marriage as they know of Mac's criminal reputation and desperately want to get him arrested- which eventually happens. "Makwacha Hip Hopera" shows the differences in culture between the British and Malawian. The clash in culture is clearly shown in the scene where the couple is getting married and Mac's gang disapproves and is shocked that he is marrying a white woman. Their facial expressions were very effective in showing their shock and they shook their heads to show their disapproval. The play also attempts
Theatre Review of Blue Remembered Hills
Theatre Review of Blue Remembered Hills On the 6th of February 2008, Dennis Potters wartime play 'Blue Remembered Hills was performed to approximately 100 people at Birmingham's Crescent Theatre. As a well established theatre and production company I had very high hopes and expectations which were unexpectedly shattered by the amateur acting and ridiculous staging. Blue Remembered Hills is an intellectual play exploring a day in the life of seven young children during the war. As the performance is in 'real time' no non-naturalistic techniques are used to portray neither the children's actions nor emotions. The play follows their fights, squabbles and play, and climaxes when a victimized character by the name of Donald, creates his own game of pyromania in a barn. Potter once said "When we dream of childhood we take our present selves with us, it is not the adult world writ small; childhood is the adult world writ large" judging from this statement the main issue within the play is self explanatory... the relationship and similarities between adults and children are a lot more alike than people are led to believe. It is as if Potter is communicating the lack of understanding in our lives through his choice of adult actors. It is through these actors that the theme of childhood innocence is lost, then regained, then lost again. Blue Remembered Hills is nationally profound
Henry V Play Review
Henry V Review On the 25th November 2009 our drama group saw the play Henry V, in the North Wall professional theatre in Summertown, Oxford. The play was directed by Lucy Maycock. It was a whole school production (but incidently did not contain any members of the shell year). The genre of the piece was Contemporary Shakespeare which was (it was (set) in Afghanistan). The set was very intricate and contained many hidden meanings, on the floor of the stage the was a H, this could of signified helipad (modern), it also could of signified Henry, or most likely home, because France was rightfully his and so it was his home. There was also a sloping wall, this was the main thing on the stage, it had bullet holes in its textured outside these are both modern, as the textured cover made for the look of a Taliban looking fortress, there were turrets on the top which brought made the wall look old. The wall was often the main obstacle in fighting scenes, it was a barrier between armies, the no man's land, and sometimes seemed as if it was what the armies where fighting not each other but the wall, sometimes soldiers screamed and kicked at the wall, it becomes a wall of death and some of the soldiers for this reason seemed scared of it at times. At other times, the wall is positive, for the maidens of Harfleurs it is their escape with their sheets tied together. The wall is also used
Evaluation of a Live Production: The Deep Blu Sea
Evaluation: The Deep Blue Sea On the 25th May 2008, I went to see a production of The Deep Blue Sea. The play was written by Terence Rattigan and was held at the Vaudeville theatre in London. The play opens with the failed suicide of Hester Collyer. She has deserted her husband, a judge, for the raffish charms of a younger man, an ex pilot. Initial Impressions Before I saw The Deep Blue Sea, I did a small amount of background research to help me understand the story and find some reviews of the production. I found that the play had received rave reviews from theatre critics, with a few naming it 'one of the greatest plays of the 20th century'. With that description, obviously my expectations were very high. When I walked into the theatre I immediately felt out of place. The other audience members were all at least triple my age. I seemed to be the only young person amongst the audience. This told me straight away that the play was not intended for a young audience. What also struck me was how small the theatre itself was, much smaller than I had imagined. It was very intimate, which in a way I thought, could make the audience even more involved than if it were a much bigger theatre. A small detail I noticed was that the curtains were a 'deep blue' colour. Whether that had any relation to the title or it was just coincidence I do not know. But if it was for that purpose,
On the Waterfront review
On the Waterfront review On Thursday, the 12th of March, we visited The Theatre Royal Haymarket to watch a performance called On the Waterfront, about corruption and violence. On the Waterfront recounts the gritty story of ex-boxer Terry Molloy (Simon Merrells) who works on the New Jersey docks. Taking one too many dives in his career, Molloy is forced out of prize fighting and finds himself involved in the seedy world of organised crime. Because of Mob Boss Johnny Friendly (Steven Berkoff), Terry is suddenly implicated in a grisly murder. Terry has some serious thinking to do when he considers escaping his life on the waterfront. The set was empty with a silhouette outline of the statue of liberty, but instead of holding the torch, a hook symbolising the workers. They used a raked stage for creating levels, for the only props were 12 chairs and some personal props for each character. The hooks were the only other props which are symbolic for the workers and they used a minimalistic set but used with great affect conveyed by lighting and small props. I found most engaging in the narrative of the relationship between Johnny and Terry. Johnny is patronizing towards Terry, he mocks him, and doesn't take him seriously. Terry here is the victim. There is this constant idea through the play, of telling the truth and getting hurt. Another relationship I found engaging was the
Sk8 Angel
"Sk8 Angel" The performance "Sk8 Angel" is about a boy named Con dealing with his mother's death and what he learns from the angel called Sk8. The theme of this play is about the relationship between teens and adults, showing how some adults can relate to teens, such as the mother/aunt, while others don't know how or can't, like the father in the performance. Early on in the play we find out that Con's mother dies and throughout the play we find out how he deals with that, with the help of Sk8 and by Con learning to skateboard. The play uses flashbacks, both by the use of a projector and by acting to get the audience fully engaged with the play and this assists the audience to understand the plot more fully. I felt that Grant Orviss who played the character of Con did so very well. In my opinion he has showed to be a very believable character from the beginning of the performance. I believe he shows that by the way he engages with the audience and the way he describes everything with great detail. An example of this is when he tells us about the way his father handles with him when he tries to tell him that his mother is going to die of cancer. Con explains how his father gets all 'fidgety'. He explains it by telling us what happened but also showing flashbacks of that moment. He also adds emotion by the way he speaks the word 'fidgety'. He starts of at a normal voice, but
Comparing 'Coram Boy' with an extract from Harold Pinter's 'The Caretaker'
Drama Coursework The two plays I will write about are my scripted piece: an extract of 'The Caretaker' by Harold Pinter, and 'Coram Boy' written as a novel by Jamila Gavin and adapted for stage by Helen Edmundson. The Caretaker was very different to Coram Boy, although it had some similar elements in it. It had a very fluid structure. The whole extract we perform is part of scene two (the play only has two scenes), so as a result with undefined scenes that merge into each other via smooth transitions. There are no blackouts or changes in location throughout the piece. The caretaker was in realistic chronological order, showing the action happening realistically in time. The piece was naturalistic, but with some very abstract dialogue, sometimes showing naturalistic conversation, and other times showing very random conversation and occasional monologues that seemingly have no purpose to the plot of the play. Coram Boy is also a fairly abstract piece; however there is a much more naturalistic feel to the dialogue. The plot is clearly linear and all characters are portrayed in a very realistic way. Like my devised piece, there are no defined scene changes, even when the characters move location, but the set changes very noticeably as this is done, helping the audience depict a new setting. The play is very stylised, and the action tense. The set and costumes are extremely
