Deborah’s profile

• Wardrobe mistress.
• Joined 23rd September 2009.
• Last logged in on 25th March 2011.

Last five observations

• To production of Frankenstein, by Nick Dear and Mary Shelley, Olivier Theatre, National Theatre, 5th February - 2nd May 2011: “I was lucky to get tickets to see this – although it was at the cinema, rather than the theatre, as part of the National Theatre Live programme. This was my first experience of live theatre at the cinema, and it was a lot more impressive than I expected. Only two technical faults (I was at the Shrewsbury cinema – I think other locations may have had other issues), and the camera angles had clearly been carefully planned so the camera operators rarely ‘lost’ their subject. I was glad that I had previously been to the Olivier Theatre itself – this familiarity with the space meant that I found it easy to orientate myself, and could often imagine that I was actually sat in the theatre rather than a distant cinema. This was especially useful as many of the camera angles were not faithful to the viewing experience of being an audience member – when you’re at the theatre you don’t have the benefit of a bird’s eye view shot, or close-ups, or the ability to track the actors around the space. That being said I was pleased that there weren’t too many close-ups – for me this kept pulling me out of the theatre experience since I found it far more cinematic than theatrical (opera glasses don’t count). The performance that I saw had Jonny Lee Miller as the creature and Benedict Cumberbatch as Victor – it would have been very interesting to see the opposite casting as well, but unfortunately the show has been sold out for some time, and tickets at the cinemas are hard to come by as well. However, this was the casting that I wanted to see, and I was certainly not disappointed. Miller showed us the rapid progress of the creature, both mentally and physically, gradually becoming more active and fluid in movement, whereas Cumberbatch was able to bring out Frankenstein’s descent into pride-driven insanity as he struggled to come to terms with the result of his experiments. Whilst it is to be expected that a play about Frankenstein and his monster would be very much a play about two men, I was disappointed that the female characters were often little more than animated props to further the characterisation of the male leads (whether or not this is a reflection of the novel I don’t know as I haven’t read it, but since Mary Shelley was Mary Wollstonecraft’s daughter I doubt it). Elizabeth does of course make an impassioned speech about how being female should not affect her competence as a human being – brilliantly portrayed by Naomie Harris – but she still ends up a pawn used by both protagonists, and the violent rape that she is subjected to before her murder by the creature was made all the more graphic for cinema viewers by the bird’s eye POV and the close-up. One scene where perhaps actually being in the same room as the action – being further away and seeing it at a more awkward angle – would have made for more comfortable viewing than at the cinema.”
• To Crescent Youth Theatre Seniors production of Maskerade, by Stephen Churcher and Terry Pratchett, The Crescent Theatre, Birmingham, 23rd - 26th March 2011: “This is the first production I’ve seen by the Crescent Youth Theatre, and I was very impressed by the talent and the level of dedication on show. Despite being in a rather small studio, the cast used the space to its advantage, never making the stage feel cramped even when the entire ensemble were onstage at once. Set changes were quick and impressive – with large pieces of furniture being maneuvered swiftly through small doors. The playtext – by Stephen Churcher, the first non-Stephen Briggs adaptation of a Discworld novel which I have seen – was at times confusing for non-Discworld fans; the witches’ subplot, for instance, is entirely driven by events which took place in an earlier novel and which were only briefly alluded to at the beginning of the play (Magrat becoming queen, which meant that Granny Weatherwax & Nanny Ogg were a witch short for their coven). However, the cast and direction helped to smooth over any Pratchettisms for the uninitiated, whilst keeping in a number of in-jokes for the fans. The audience were ‘treated’ to a bizarre piece of meta-theatre before the play started, when a piece of equipment accidentally fell from the rigging, as music from the Phantom of the Opera’s chandelier-crashing overture played! In a play which then featured a lot of things deliberately falling from the gallery (and the threat of the chandelier crashing in the gentle mocking of Lloyd Webber’s production), this certainly kept the audience on its toes. This was an impressive production by a young cast (who also helped to write the music and lyrics for the production) – keep an eye on all of them, especially Lucy Blackford, Samuel Allan, Angus Villiers-Stuart, Sally Edwards, Daisy Hale and Sacha Garrett.”
• To The Birmingham Repertory Theatre Company production of Noises Off, by Michael Frayn, Birmingham Repertory Theatre, 14th May - 5th June 2010: “Before this performance I noticed that over the poster advertising this play at the Rep there was a tagline or quote saying something like ‘the most hilarious comedy that you’ll ever see’. I thought that this was relatively presumptuous, but by act two I’d cried my make-up off through tears of laughter and was seriously considering having to leave the auditorium to calm down!”
• To King's College Greek Play production of The Bacchae, by Euripides, The New Theatre, London, 12th - 15th March 1986: “The play was actually cancelled after two performances [I have entered the dates that the run should have spanned]. See production website for more details.”
• To Cambridge Greek Play production of The Oresteia, by Aeschylus, Cambridge, 1921: “The Cambridge Greek play is put on every 3 years, but there was no production in 1915 or 1918 (due to WWI). Is this why they decided to go with a trilogy in 1921?”

Last ten changes

• production of Frankenstein, by Nick Dear and Mary Shelley, Olivier Theatre, National Theatre, 5th February - 2nd May 2011
• Maskerade, by Stephen Churcher and Terry Pratchett
  Stephen Churcher
• Crescent Youth Theatre Seniors production of Maskerade, by Stephen Churcher and Terry Pratchett, The Crescent Theatre, Birmingham, 23rd - 26th March 2011
• The Crescent Youth Theatre Company
• The Phantom's Rose Band
• Brendan Stanley
• Bin Baines
• Sarah McCaffrey
• Ian Thompson
• Judy O'Dowd

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