Fabulous! the best yet this year. Amazing story, fantastic cast, brilliant staging. You could not ask for more.
Multiple generations, many with the same name, tell a story across two continents (England and Australia). At times it is confusing, but everything is clear in the end. Andrew Bovell is Australian and the winner of many awards for theatre and film writing.
Peter Hinton directed an amazing cast - Donna Belleville, Wade Bogert O'Brien, Krista Colosimo, Jeff Meadows, Peter Millard, Ric Reid, Tara Rosling, Graeme Somerville and Wendy Thatcher.
The staging was brilliant - corner columns, connected by beams, a huge table in the middle that became everything including Uluru and chairs for each characer so you could keep track. Camellia Koo was the designer.
More than two hours, no intermission and the rain falls throughout. The audience was gripped and the standing ovation was thunderous.
Yes, I didn't stand, but that reflects my knees, not my opinion. A standing ovation was deserved.
ReplyDeleteWhen I heard about it from other people, I wondered whether I should just skip it, particularly as some of the buzz about Peter Hinton was not great, but I have faith in the Studio program so I went.
It is not straightforward, but play, as well as the language has a rhythm that carries it along, and the structure lets the playwright reveal things to you when its appropriate for the story to develop.
You wouldn't want to try this play with anything but a top notch director and cast. Fortunately, the Shaw Festival has an amazing company of actors and Peter Hinton demonstrated with this production a sure hand with material that required great skill.