Character Comparison - Journeys End
Character Comparison I am going to write about two characters which I found very interesting when I saw the play Journeys End in the New Ambassador's Theatre in London. Journeys End is set in a dugout in the early First World War. It is an ensemble piece and contains lots of indirect action. It is an extremely naturalistic play, due to it being written from first hand experience. It contains aspects of ordinary English life back then. One of the two men is Michael Siberry, who played the knowledgeable Osborne a lieutenant who was treated with respect in the production. I am also going to write about Ben Righton, who played the brave and important part of Stanhope, the leader and captain of the men. Michael Siberry played the important part of Osborne in Journeys End. He played a protective and sensitive part as second in command to Stanhope, who he looks after and defends. He is much more sophisticated and civilised with very manly behaviour. He is older, wiser and polite officer and is a true Englishman. Siberry brings a strong sense of authority, although he is only second in command. His age and tone of voice show he is very wise and clever. When he ends up in a conversation about Stanhope and his drinking problems, he was able to change the conversation with a slow calm vocal tone, instead of talking or maybe shouting with aggression and power and ends up saying
The Globe Theatre is probably the most important structure in Shakespeare's dramatic career.
The Globe Theatre is probably the most important structure in Shakespeare's dramatic career. The Chamberlain's Company built it in 1599, and it stood on the Southern shore of the Thames River in London. At this time Shakespeare was a member of the Chamberlain's Company, and therefore he became a shareholder in the theatre. The profits actors made off of their shares were their main means of support, as it was for Shakespeare. The Globe was just one of many theatres built in London around this time. The residents of London were in mood for entertainment, and in response many theatres for acting, bear baiting, and bull baiting were built throughout the countryside. Wealthy individuals were often patrons of the performances, and would therefore purchase a theatre of their own, or in some cases an acting company would purchase a theatre and play only for selected groups. Some of these theatres located in London were The Black friars I and II, St. Paul's, The White friars, Salisbury Court, The Cockpit, and Drury Lane. The Chamberlain's Company, who built the Globe, formed in 1594. At the time, it was one of only two licensed acting companies in London. Among the eight actors in the group were Shakespeare and Richard Burgage, (who was another notable English actor). Of the eight, only six donated the funds used to build the theatre. The Chamberlain's Company later changed its
Review of Taming Of the Shrew
The Taming of the Shrew Review I watched an abridged version of this play on Monday, 13 October 2008 in the drama hall of my school Kidbrooke School. It was written by William Shakespeare, directed by Miss Hagan and performed by the Drama Club. The play was about a father, who has two daughters Katherine, the elder one and Bianca. Many men fancy Bianca, however she cannot be wed as the father Baptista Minola decides that Katherine the eldest should marry first, if she has not been taken as a wife no one could marry Bianca. Many men in the city of Padua disagree with the decision as the all are in love with Bianca and in fear of Katherine and therefore try to make deals with Baptista, who stays firm to his conditions. A member of the community has a not very noble friend outside the city that he calls in order to marry Katherine, the shrew. As he introduces his companion to Baptista and explains their reason for being at his house; Petruchio is then given the permission to marry Katherine, who does not agree with this as her father tells her the good news. Thereafter the wedding followed an Katherine moved to her new husband who immediately starts taming her as he sees her bad behaviour; his ways of taming included starving and psychological conversations, that enforce her to believe whatever he says. Meanwhile at home the younger sister Bianca is an affair with a man who
Review of Macbeth Production
Review of Macbeth Production On the 28th October 2002, I went to see a production of William Shakespeare's Macbeth, starring Sean Bean as Macbeth, and directed by Edward Hall. I was looking forward to seeing this particular production, as I am a huge fan of Lord Of the Rings, and was excited about seeing one of the cast on stage, and because of Sean Bean's performance in the film, I had high expectations of the play. The play opened with a massive thunder crack that had a large part of the audience (or, at the least our school party) accidentally throwing their sweets over the row in front of them in pure shock. The lights suddenly going out in the auditorium, instead of being gently dimmed, accompanied this thunder. The stage lighting in this play was used very effectively to show different locations on quite a limiting set. The stage was a sort of semi circle shape, and in the centre, there was a circle of metal grills where different coloured light was shone through the floor to create different effects, and the shadows cast by this floor lighting were more sinister and strange than the normal overheads. Green light was shone through for any scenes that were set outdoors, which looked eerie and natural at the same time, which was very effective. As the set had to be adapted to so many different rooms, the use of light was successful, as it was easy to tell apart the
After reading Macbeth Act two scene two we watched two productions of Macbeth.
After reading Macbeth Act two scene two we watched two productions of Macbeth. One of them was Roman Polanskis. I didn't think it was a very good version of Macbeth. I think this because it cuts out some of the original lines, it also showed you the murder which is not what Shakespeare had intended, I think the other the Royal Shakespeare's version was much better and they kept to the script. Polanski focused not so much on the guilt and how it could destroy a man, but more on sensationalism the gore, horror and suspense. This film was aimed at modern audiences; it showed you a murder that was nothing special, something that is common place in most modern films. They did use some representation e.g. when Macbeth commits regicide It shows the crown falling to the ground i.e. the king has been killed, overthrown. When Macbeth says " Will all great Neptune's Ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? ... Making the green one, red" You see the blood on his hands turning a bucket of water red and when he empties it, it fills the screen and resembles the sea (which is red). After Macbeth washes his hands you see the rope for the bucket which lookes like a noose for hanging a man, showing that Macbeth will eventually pay dearly for his evil deed. Lady Macbeth comes across weak in general her frail figure and feeble voice, I think she should have come across a lot stronger. I
My chosen play is On the Waterfront which I went to see with my GCSE drama group on Tuesday ...th April at Nottingham Playhouse. On the Waterfront is a play written by Budd Schulberg with Stan Silverman and for the performance that I went to see it
Choose a play that you have seen in your course in which the actors worked well together on stage. Discuss in detail the ways the performers played their roles and interacted in at least one scene. Include reference to voice, movement, characterisation and relationships. --- My chosen play is 'On the Waterfront' which I went to see with my GCSE drama group on Tuesday ...th April at Nottingham Playhouse. On the Waterfront is a play written by Budd Schulberg with Stan Silverman and for the performance that I went to see it was directed by Steven Berkoff. In 1950s New York, the dock workers' unions are in the stranglehold of the Mob. If you're on the inside then life is sweet - kickbacks, bribes and easy shifts are your rewards. Go against them and your life isn't worth living. The actors in this play worked well together in many ways. For example, in the scene where Johnny and Charlie are in the car together, many of the other actors were in the wings producing the noises of the car. They worked well together because they were all producing a slightly different sound but when they put them all together they sounded very realistic and this added effect to the scene. Another small touch to this scene was that the actor playing the driver of the car was miming having a column gear stick and this small touch added reality to the scene for the audience. Also, the actors playing
Discussing a play based on Mary Shelleys book Frankenstein.
Frankenstein Our drama group watched a play based on Mary Shelley's book "Frankenstein" on 29th November 2006, which took place in the Regent's School, Pattaya. It was directed by Paul Stebbings, an artist director of TNT theatre Britain and The American Drama Group Europe. The production "Frankenstein" was about a young and mad scientist who tries to create a life form from dead human body parts. He tries to do what no other human being has never achieved before. Once, he had completed his objective, Frankenstein was terrified by the resulting look of his creation. The innocent, child-like monster was abandoned by his master and subsequently misjudged by the community. This tragedy that the scientist's creation suffered under, turned him into a 'killer-monster'. In the end of the play, the scientist was punished: his beloved wife dies through a bullet that was meant for the monster. Frankenstein was devastated due to the loss of his partner, therefore he tried to bring her back to life as he did for the monster. He succeeded. However Elizabeth had the same features as the monster: she had no idea how the world is functioning - she was as a newborn. Elizabeth had a choice to make between Frankenstein and the monster. As the punishment for his actions, Elizabeth chooses the monster. The director makes the old-fashioned myth futuristic through using machinery as props. This
Drama evaluation - To Kill A Mockingbird
Unit 2 Task 3 The Evaluation Phase The performance of "To Kill a Mockingbird", dramatised by Christopher Sergel from the novel by Harper Lee. The Lowry Theatre, Salford, October 2006-10-31 .The performance of "To Kill a Mockingbird" was really well acted and kept me glued all the way through. The actors kept in role and played their parts really well. They all managed to create believable characters and almost made me forget that they were only acting. The set design was really well made, transforming the stage into the town of Maycomb where the performance takes place. The lighting at the back of the set helped to create the atmosphere of night and day, the dimming of lights also helped this effect. The whole play was very smooth with no big obvious set changes and the lights weren't dimmed between each scene, so this helped the audience continue to understand the play more without being distracted by prop movement and big scene changes. It was very clever how the people changing props and moving things around were dressed in what other people on the stage were dressed in rather than wearing black. This worked so successfully that sometimes I wondered how things managed to get placed on stage without me noticing. 2.There were different aspects of the drama medium used in the performance. Adults played the parts of children
As I walked into the cold, dark and dingy dungeons, the first thing I heard was, the shrieking cry of a woman
Year 10 English Coursework: Descriptive Writing. As I walked into the cold, dark and dingy dungeons, the first thing I heard was, the shrieking cry of a woman, begging for mercy. Looking round the room the only thing there, except the reinforced oak door, was a small dilapidated table in the corner, lit up by the flickering candle which burned dim, dropping its waxy pearls on the surface of the wood. As I approached the table on top of it I saw a newish piece of parchment, with a large red blob wax that resembled blood. The opposite wall was covered in blood, oozing from the sharp stones. Looking towards the top of the wall I could just make out in the dim light, three pairs of bloody shackles. When I walked through the oak door, I saw where the screaming was coming from. In the middle of the floor was a woman, her head viciously shaven by a guard. He had no compassion, as he grabbed giant chunks of her blood stained hair and began hacking at it with a knife. As he attacked her hair, he also took away chunks of her scalp. After each lock of hair he would dip the razor into what was once clear water, but was now deep red with her blood. I saw two more prisoners, both lying in a ball on the blood stained floor. They both had their hands shackled together as well as their feet. All that they could hear, over each others sobbing, was the shrieking of their fellow prisoner.
An inspector calls - theatre review
An inspector calls An inspector calls, an interesting and not to mention notorious play with twists and turn running throughout the plot. Things suddenly swapping from the happiest parts of the play straight to the nadir of the story, it evolves and begins with when everything is going so well, an 'inspector calls'. As you should know this play is categorised as a tragedy, and rightly so; a tragedy is define as 'a type of drama in which characters undergo suffering or calamity'. There are other aspects however, we saw this performance acted live in front of us, so as well as the obvious, 'how good is the story?' there are things to consider like direction and acting abilities. The Birling family and good old inspector never ceased to entertain me in this evidently well sought out performance. Now for a bit of background to the play, this information I have collected from many different sources, for example the programme and information from the production company's website. Starting with the genius behind the plot, one J. B. Priestley an English playwright, who wrote the play before it was premiered in Moscow, Russia. Then, being the big hit it was, found its way to the west end playing at London's New Theatre in 1946. Some would straight away name it a drama, others a tragedy, others say it could be classed as a parable with a moral (which is understandably for points I will
