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Metamorphoses - Audio Review

Brontë - Theatre Royal Bath

This play had a few melodic scene changes and captivating uses of lighting. However, the narrative was rigid and continued to bore the empty seats surrounding me. It would better suit a small venue.

★★

Landscape and Monologue – An Analysis

Two coffees and a RedBull™ and this droning play still managed to send me to sleep. Having entered the Ustinov with high spirits, I was eagerly waiting to analyse renowned playwright Harold Pinter’s play. Now, despite Pinter being a somewhat veteran in writing dramatic plays and prolonging the use of the pause, I can honestly say that none of these qualities shone through. Instead the audience was rewarded with ninety minutes of drool. This drool was poorly executed in two pieces.

First was Monologue. This uninspired title dressed the scene, which featured a man talking to an empty chair who was seemingly supposed to have someone sitting in it. The scene desperately lacked atmosphere and totally failed to engage with its audience. When the protagonist within the scene took long pauses, it went way beyond any form of justification and reason and made me feel as if I was gasping for air or at least an atmosphere to come from the scene. This suffocation however was aptly relieved by a scene change, which I will argue to the grave was the best part of the two pieces. It was filled with more action than both put together and almost prepared the audience for what drivel was coming next.

Landscape featured a man and a woman across a table from each other each reminiscing whilst not acknowledging each other. The woman in this piece remained standing up facing the audience and was muttering at about 10 decibels the whole time, making it quite hard for me to hear. The man in this piece however seemed a little more assertive but remained just as tiresome until the final minute. I would not recommend this play to anyone, as nobody deserves to sit through such monotony.

Ninety minutes of my life I will never get back.

Others - Ustinov

Rarely, a play will render you speechless. The Paper Birds achieve just this, with their performance; Others.  

This is theatre.

★★★★★

Claymoore - Bath Spa Live

A rough blend of theatre and film, a few limp actors and a rough atmoshphere. Satisfactory. 
★★★

Under Milk Wood: Live on Air - Ustinov

This ‘Groundhog Day’ like performance delivered the same gag for a laborious two hours. At parts it was humorous but generally tedious. However it seemed to be successful with its intended older audience. Under Average.

★★