Tuesday 6 January 2015

Comparison between the Old Vic and the Sealight Productions + Electra Review


Our final performance was almost the opposite of how they performed it because we cut on having Electra as the one on the right by emphasising some of her mother's lines that showed her other side. My character of the old man changed a lot when I went to see it because after receiving the script I had the initial idea of having a literal old man however their old man wasn't the stereotypical old man that comes with wise words in most Greek plays and that is something I liked therefore I kept that which went well with the idea of making a modern interpretation of the play. The modern concept influenced the originality of our play because it affected most factors of the play but the language for example costume. My character was wearing smart casual which was a black shirt and black jeans with black shoes which is something an old man would have worn in his youth days but it is something our audience can relate to because most of them were college students. The modern context mad things easier because I could relate to the character more without having to worry about how one would have reacted to things back in the ancient Greek times therefore I had more confidence in playing the role. To add to that development I researched a modern version of the play to understand in more detail what was going on which help me a lot with my character development. As the confidence grew I started to come off my comfort zone and put on the classical stage accent which allowed me say the words better because they we written for that time period.  To help me understand the context of the play I scribbled out mini paragraphs for the main characters on how they are portrayed in the play and how I think they may feel as demonstrated earlier with both sides of the character of Clytemnestra. Another thing I added to my character was a slow pace to reflect his age and also to help the audience understand what I was saying because I rushed a bit during the Faustus performance and had noted that as something to improve on in the next classical performance.





Electra review :

After the play was explained to us in the workshop I felt I it went better than it would have because I don't think that if I had not known the background information I would have picked up a positive from the play. I thought that the play was too slow paced and too much attention was given to the character of Electra because in the opening of the play she too many things to say which dropped the tempo. if I was the director I would have cut her lines in the beginning and increased them as the play went on because that allows the audience to create a relationship with the character instead of them switching off because she has one too many things to say in one go. Another thing that I would have changed was the actor playing Electra because she looked older than her mother and I am not sure if that is down to the make up artist or if she was simply too old for the character. having said those negativities I was very impressed with the staging which summarised the current situation going on in this home and it worked well with the other scenes because it looked like the old man and Orestes were walking through a desert which maintaining a setting of someone's home. The tree was a main feature of the setting because it was symbolic and was used as a prop. Electra referred to her father as an oak and it so happened that they had an oak tree that was half cut down which foreshadowed restoration of order because unless you cut the roots off the tree will grow back up again which was a cool feature they had. The costumes for the main ladies in the play were super on point because there was a huge contrast between Electra and her mother which enforced that there was conflict in the house. The play went on forever therefore if I was directing it I would have chopped off some bits or add a bit of music or dance to pick it up a bit instead of the constant same levels shown in the performance we saw at the Old Vic. their lighting was pretty much a white wash which they maintained throughout which I respect because they kept it simple but for the modern generation I think that I would have played around with the lighting a bit more. overall there were pros and cons from watching the performance but it was a valuable experience which put the cast in a better position to perform the play.
 
 
 

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