Theatre reviews
Feb. 28th, 2016 02:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cyphomandraNo More Dancing in the Good Room. Chris Parker, who played David Halls in Hudson & Halls Live! (the tall extroverted one) does a solo show - multimedia memoir, growing up in Christchurch with conventional parents while being gay and into dancing. It's affectionate and touching, and the bits with the videos of his own childhood work very well, especially the ending where he dances with his younger self (on a video that includes an intruding younger sibling and other distractions, given that he's in the kitchen!), but I always find solo shows a really tough sell and, also, this was kind of going backwards - he did this show before Hudson and Halls Live!, and this is a repeat season. It is a piece that makes me want to see what he does next, but I've already done that. I do want to see what's after that, though.
The Book of Everything. This is based on the Dutch children's book Het boek van alle dingen by Guus Kuijer, which I have not read, and is back for a repeat season (of which this was the last night) before touring. It is about Thomas Klopper, almost 10, prone to seeing things no-one else does (mainly a very bro version of Jesus, whom he chats to frequently) and living with a rigid religious father who rules the household - Thomas, his older sister Margot, his mother - with fear and violence, and is set in 1951 with echoes of WWII and the Nazi Occupation very definitely present. It is however cheerful, moving, and not as depressing or as obvious as this set-up might sound (fellow NZers traumatised by having to study The God Boy at school will find this a much more refreshing alternative).
The cast is excellent - in addition to those mentioned above, Rima Te Wiata plays the neighbour considered a witch by local children, whose husband was shot in the street outside by the Nazis, and Jennifer Ward-Lealand is Thomas's aunt, and both are as usual brilliant. The resolution is also particularly neat because it makes it apparent how many other stories are going on in the house, and how each character has their own narrative; it turns on Margot, not Thomas, and it made me want to see how this plays out in the book. I was less wild about Thomas' crush on one of his sister's friends, Eliza, who has a leather leg and only one finger on one hand, particularly as it's played as a desire for romance rather than friendship, but having said that the bit where they link little fingers to walk together was a sweet nonverbal moment.
The set was chalked backdrops and on stage sound effects (handled mostly by Jesus); the chalk worked particularly well when brought into the show (Thomas' mother sets the table for the grimly interminable dinner & bible sequences by drawing circles for plates on it, and then wiping them off at the end) and there was audience participation, as we all got to be a rain of frogs (green ping-pong balls) during a reenactment of the plagues of Egypt.
They've been marketing it as a family play, which is unusual for the Silo, but it definitely works as one (probably 10 and up - a friend took 11 & 9 year olds), and it'll be interesting to see if they try something like that again. They have kids on stage for Medea later in the year - it's a version done from the point of view of Medea's children - but I can't imagine that'll be kid friendly to go to.
The Book of Everything. This is based on the Dutch children's book Het boek van alle dingen by Guus Kuijer, which I have not read, and is back for a repeat season (of which this was the last night) before touring. It is about Thomas Klopper, almost 10, prone to seeing things no-one else does (mainly a very bro version of Jesus, whom he chats to frequently) and living with a rigid religious father who rules the household - Thomas, his older sister Margot, his mother - with fear and violence, and is set in 1951 with echoes of WWII and the Nazi Occupation very definitely present. It is however cheerful, moving, and not as depressing or as obvious as this set-up might sound (fellow NZers traumatised by having to study The God Boy at school will find this a much more refreshing alternative).
The cast is excellent - in addition to those mentioned above, Rima Te Wiata plays the neighbour considered a witch by local children, whose husband was shot in the street outside by the Nazis, and Jennifer Ward-Lealand is Thomas's aunt, and both are as usual brilliant. The resolution is also particularly neat because it makes it apparent how many other stories are going on in the house, and how each character has their own narrative; it turns on Margot, not Thomas, and it made me want to see how this plays out in the book. I was less wild about Thomas' crush on one of his sister's friends, Eliza, who has a leather leg and only one finger on one hand, particularly as it's played as a desire for romance rather than friendship, but having said that the bit where they link little fingers to walk together was a sweet nonverbal moment.
The set was chalked backdrops and on stage sound effects (handled mostly by Jesus); the chalk worked particularly well when brought into the show (Thomas' mother sets the table for the grimly interminable dinner & bible sequences by drawing circles for plates on it, and then wiping them off at the end) and there was audience participation, as we all got to be a rain of frogs (green ping-pong balls) during a reenactment of the plagues of Egypt.
They've been marketing it as a family play, which is unusual for the Silo, but it definitely works as one (probably 10 and up - a friend took 11 & 9 year olds), and it'll be interesting to see if they try something like that again. They have kids on stage for Medea later in the year - it's a version done from the point of view of Medea's children - but I can't imagine that'll be kid friendly to go to.
