Urashima Taro-after show talk

Half an hour talk on the makings of the puppets and what it is like for the puppeteer to work with them, and the challenges of putting the show on with only the actor and director working on the show. 

Urashima Taro

This was an unusual account of the protagonists life story portrayed with puppets, showing the relationship between puppet and human. There was use of many mediums, music, puppetry, projection of images that were hard to act out. What was most impressive was that one person controlled the puppets and they seemed so life like at points I got caught up in the story. 

The Factory

This is an interpretive dance performance of Andy Warhol’s life, using some specific characters and narratives from the 60s. The dancing, I thought was amazing, I was jealous of the way that they moved over the dance floor, and how they used their bodies to interpret the supposed story line. The only thing that I didn’t like about the performance was the fact that there was no plot, there didn’t seem to be any point to them dancing around the stage. It seemed like the dancers had thought that they all had an interest in Andy Warhol’s life, we can dance so let’s put that to music and say it’s about his life. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed the dancing but not the fact that I couldn't really follow what was happening!

Hamlet (Kupenga Kwa)

This was a very original interpretation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The Kupenga kwa duo that performed it brought their own language to the stage, and combined this with the original text. I liked their rendition of Hamlet, and how they created different poses for each character, e.g. for Hamlet the actor would wipe his forehead, to let the audience know who he was without saying the character’s name. I found it strange that they included the audience at one point and also brought a comic element to the play, but however strange, it is quite enjoyable.

Blithe Spirit

This play is a comedy and I found it quite enjoyable, however I thought that it was too long a play for what it was trying to say. I admired how the other actors on stage had to completely ignore the character of Elvira who was Charles Condomine’s first wife, who is a ghost and is brought back when the characters have a séance, with Alison Steadman’s character. I found that the plot became a little confusing especially after Condomine's second wife was killed by the first, however it did add to the comedy!

Enron

This play was thoroughly enjoyable and it seemed to include tragic qualities of the main character, you felt sympathy and hatred towards him throughout the play. Jeff Skillings fatal blow was that he had greed and was completely ignorant towards the goings on in his company. This particular production used a lot of symbolism and metaphors to portray certain aspects of a big company: for instance, ‘velociraptors’ were used to symbolise smaller companies within ‘Enron’ where all the debt went, and in the end they had to be killed off, which made you feel a stronger dislike towards Jeff Skilling. 

Sup?

Hello

I am a first year drama student and I'm also studying Film Studies as my other module. My previous school was called The Weald, its in Sussex, and there I studied Drama, Art, English and French.