Saturday 8 April 2017

Last Week in Theatre...

Last week was a pretty stagey week... a side from the fact I work in Theatre, so that is a given.  I wanted to give my thoughts on the two plays I saw last week.


Abigail's Party
I really wasn't sure what I'd make of this play to be honest, I just didn't think I would get it, you know being a millennial. Due to the nature of the play, it was never going to a hard impacting piece of drama. If you are unaware on the premise of Abigail's Party... Beverly is hosting a drinks party for her new neighbours, to introduce them to the neighbourhood. However they consume copious amounts of gin and tonic and cracks in the appearance of living the perfect life start to show and comedy ensues.
This was such a nice piece of drama to watch, there were laughs then the end escalated very quickly. Normally I am the first to find the flaws in productions, but I really couldn't flaw it. This didn't have any jaw dropping moments, but certainly very enjoyable watch.
I'm just going to just throw it in here I met Amanda Abbington who played Beverly better know for being Mary Morstan in Sherlock, she was so lovely and I think I will be still fangirling for the longest time.

Burying Your Brother in the Pavement
In contrast Burying Your Brother in the Pavement is somewhat more intense piece of theatre. Tom's brother is has suddenly died in a run down council estate, Tom his brother close was close in age and he doesn't know how he feels following the death, so heads to the council estate to find out more about his brother and the place he died.  The acting in this was outstanding, if I wasn't stewarding I would have been a flood of tears.

I don't think I could have seen two more contrasting plays. I had a conversation with an audience member who had seen both productions. In his opinion that 'Burying Your Brother in the Pavement' was better... this got me thinking - nowadays for something to be considered good by the masses do we need to be shocked? Is it that we are living in a world where the news and global affairs are so shocking (take the attacks in London last month) that we are becoming numbed? And this transpires into entertainment, for something to emote us, to entertain us it must be shocking?

xxx


No comments:

Post a Comment