Limes with Orange

I went to see a fabulous play on Saturday night: "Good Girls Don't" by Ellen Chorley (read the description in my recent Culture post). Not only was the story compelling and the acting excellent, but the staging added so much to the play that it was more than just another character (something that a good location for a play or film really ought to be anyway)... it was almost like adding a fifth dimension.

Mob Hit Productions likes to incorporate new media into their stage productions and they do it quite well. In the past, I've seen them use video screens to establish locations or use pre-recorded video for images that can't easily be portrayed in conventional theatre. Well, this play went even further than I've seen before. There were three screens: a central screen for the uses I just mentioned, plus two additional screens serving as the computer monitors for the two teenage girl characters. Those two screens projected real time images from computer laptops on the stage as the actresses "chatted online" during the play. It was a very cool experience. Not only did it add visual interest, but it gave me the feeling that I was inside a film or something. Hard to explain... you just need to experience it.

I also found the structure of the play itself quite intriguing. It made interesting use of repetition. There were a couple of monologues that were recited more than once but by different characters in different contexts. You might think that it would get boring but, on the contrary, the most powerful monologue of the evening was the last one in the play, one that we'd heard two versions of already. But Emma Claire Miller delivered it with a heartfelt emotion that provided a dramatic contrast to the stark, calculating main character of Kimi. For me, it was that monologue that punctuated just how cold and rational (in a psychotic way) Kimi really was. And of course I'm not going to give away the ending, but I will say it was the perfect ending to satisfy me.

In addition to the play, they were also featuring artwork by Aimee Qiu. Her work is quite stunning... looking at her prints certainly made the intermission fly by. All in all, I highly recommend that you check out this production.

P.S. I also took the Editing Workshop with Deco Dawson this weekend at the CSIF, as well as attending his welcome reception. I'll be posting about the workshop on my film blog in the next few days.

Labels: art and photography, film, theatre