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The Barony Players
SCDA
reports
Adjudicator's Marks The Barony Players - Lady Windermere’s Fan by Oscar Wilde yet to be announced Well designed and solidly constructed sets for each act with stylish furniture and furnishings, though the placing of furniture in each act tended to force the acting area downstage and into the corners, which led to some occasional awkward positioning and grouping. Excellent costumes and makeup. Lighting with rather dark spots DR and DL, but otherwise good. A good pace was set from the beginning, though perhaps a lighter more flirtatious touch was needed during Lady W and Darlington’s duologue to make a greater contrast with the comparative awkwardness and stiffness between the later Lord and Lady W conversation. The DSR positioning of the settle meant that Lady Windermere spent some time facing upstage whenever she was seated, and at times there was a similarity of moves across a DS strip of stage, but in general there was some good positioning and movement. In Act 2 the position of the seat dead C tended to confine most of the movement to the outer edges and prevented the guests spreading across the stage. Pace well maintained; possibly an occasional burst of laughter and conversation from the guests would have helped to fill some quiet moments; there was a lovely silence and sense of anticipation on Mrs Erlynne’s entrance, and an excellently handled protestation of love from Darlington. Act 3 had another fine set, though again the furniture tended to force the action to a DS strip (consider setting the furniture on diagonals, and making moves around behind the furniture); there was a greater use of the depth of the stage during the scene between Lady W and Mrs E which allowed very good use of movement and positioning. This scene was strongly played, with Mrs Erlynne’s story of the misery of being an outcast particularly well handled. A great atmosphere of ‘all men together’ during the succeeding scene, though an even lighter touch to point Wilde’s epigrams could have been used; there was a good build and climax on Lord Windermere’s outburst of anger. Act 4 was very well handled, with a strong confrontation of Lord W and Mrs E and a very good finish. Pace throughout was good, though delivery at times was rather deliberate and more variation of pitch, tone and emphasis was sometimes needed; a slightly lighter touch - even during more serious situations - generally works well with Wilde. A good range of characters, with some well developed characterisations. Strong teamwork and discipline throughout. Lady Windermere: poised, with good delivery. Lord Windermere: very positive with well-judged delivery; a fine performance. Mrs Erlynne: controlled; very poised and expressive. Lord Darlington: a very sincere and thoughtful performance. Duchess of Berwick: very assured; good attack; a lovely characterisation. Lord Augustus: controlled; enjoyable playing; good delivery. Lady Agatha: enjoyable ‘put-upon’ playing. Cecil Graham: supportive playing; a nice twinkle in the eye. Lady Plymdale: strong playing with good projection. Dumby: good projection; delightfully pompous; very assured. Mr Hopper: very natural playing. Lady Jedburgh: a pleasing performance. Lady Stutfield, Sir James, Miss Graham etc: though in comparatively minor roles, offered good support. Rosalie: lively assured playing; made her mark in a short appearance. Parker: the perfect dependable butler. Footman: quietly dependable; luxuriant side-whiskers! Though not always hitting the heights, this was a thoroughly workmanlike and agreeable production of a challenging play.
Adjudicator's Marks The Barony Players - The Slab Boys by John Byrne Acting 33/40 Stage Presentation 14/15 Direction 26/35 General Achievement 8/10
4th place Very well designed and solidly constructed set providing a good acting area with three entrances including a staircase, and suggesting further areas off - stage. Very occasional masking by position of solid DS slab/ benches but minimal interference to action positioning. Very well dressed with excellent properties. Good general lighting; dull area DR of C due to blown bulb. very good and appropriate costume (loved the red and yellow socks) and make up. The whole stage was very well used throughout, with plenty of natural and well motivated movement and positioning. A cracking pace was established at the start and maintained well at all times, with lively free flowing dialogue and good responses with very natural emphasis, timing and use of pause. Well defined and observed characters. Perhaps Hector needed to be a bit less gormless and show a touch more gumption to make his appointment to a desk seem a likely outcome, and in the final stages Alan's strength came out and his almost nasty side was revealed well, but to be totally confincing, the stronger elements of his character should be emphasised earlier to let us see why he seems so attracted to Lucille. Every character must be convincing and realistic, and at times a tighter reign was needed to prevent slight veering towards 'comedy character' though in terms of pleasing the audience the portrayals were fine. Every character seemed very familiar with equipment and processes and there was some notable well-planned business put across with a great sense of fun: the bandaged Hector's appearance at the window and his hands appearing over the cupboard door, for example. Some very sensitively handled : Phil's outburst to Alan about Hector; Phil's "What do you know...?" speech; the well handled Phil/Lucille exchange. The final stages were extremely well handled, with strong finales from Alan, Sparky and Phil and a great cartwheel finish. Excellent teamwork throughout, with characters interacting well. Not always a consistent approach to the characterisation, and some over playing, but in general the comedy worked extremely well. Spanky : assured and expressive, with spontaneous well timed dialogue; a great sense of humour. Hector: a delightfully spirited characterisation that raised all the laughter it richly deserved, though watch out for occasionally over-done shifting of the feet. Phil: spontaneous and confident, showing a good contrast between the comic and sincere aspects of the character: an excellent performance.Willie : a natural and believable character; perhaps slightly subdued at times but with a very strong finish. Jack: a natural and very pleasing performance in what could have been an unsympathetic role. Alan : very smooth and suave throughout ; strongly realised character in the later stages. Sadie: a very natural and enjoyable portrayal ; very expressive with great attack. Lucille : direct, tough and earthy, a very believable performance. An enthusiastic, confident, lively and fast moving production , thoroughly enjoyable throughout.
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Full Length Play Festival
May
2010