LOCATION: Civic Theatre, Newcastle
DATE: Friday 27 February, 2009
WITH: Mary and Keryl
The 39 Steps
This was our first outing this year for the Civic Inspirations that we subscribe to yearly. As a huge Hitchcock fan (he and Woody - author of my blog title for those that were wondering - are my favourite directors) I had been excited about this play since I saw a snippet of it at the Inspirations launch back in November. It is based on both the book and the film and also included many other references to films by Hitchcock.
It had 4 actors and I think over 100 characters. The main actor played the male lead and the female actor had about 3-4 parts and other 2 took up all the others. This was quite extraordinary to watch, at times changing back and forth between characters within one scene. The staging was fabulous and fun, especially the train scenes and the shadow puppet scenes in black and white were very suspenseful. The props and sound were perfect and you were sucked right into the whole set up being shocked, laughing and loving it all as it went on in front of you. I was not disappointed watching this award winning production - there should be more theatre like it.
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3 comments:
A good example of farce (another I recall is Noises Off) with over-the-top accents and melodramatic situations.
A stalwart of this style in Australia is Drew Forsythe (who is usually seen in the company of Phillip Scott and Jonathan Biggins).
I remember seeing Drew many moons ago in the original musical production of the Venetian Twins (1979).
Amusingly, I booked to see this on a Thursday, not realizing that it was for the daytime Matinée, in company with what seemed like busloads of senior citizens.
Was a great show, very well performed & the stagecraft was excellent. I too enjoyed the shadow puppets.
Hey Mary and Vince, thanks for joining me on my blog - appreciate your contributions!
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