It has been a few years since I saw the film of History Boys, and although I thoroughly enjoyed it I was stupid enough to miss the last stage performance of History Boys in Christchurch. Therefore when Peach Theatre Company decided to put it on this season, I knew it shouldn’t be missed, particularly with such a stellar cast!
If you have seen the film, you’ll know History Boys follows a bunch of bright and energetic British boys in their last year of boarding school. While their teachers push the boys to succeed and get into the prestigious colleges such as Cambridge and Oxford, one teacher, Hector, strives to broaden the horizons of the boys. He teaches them other ways to think and learn about life which meets the disapproval of a new young teacher, Irwin, who has been brought on board the teaching staff to help the boys gain entry to the colleges.
I was impressed at how well the show had been put together. The sets were amazing; the set changes were quick and well incorporated into the show, and show moved fluidly. I did find the first act a little slow moving, however the second act made up for this as the pace quickened and action ensued. I felt Harry McNaughton, who played Dakin, was good in his acting, however it seemed he was trying a little too hard to shed the gay stereotype and be butch. This was conveyed in his voice which he had lowered significantly and was making it husky. As I was watching the show with two trained singers, they agreed that kind of voice manipulation can’t be good for the vocal chords. It seemed he has been working in television for so long that he is pushing his voice harder than necessary to project it. I enjoyed his performance though, and felt he did well in portraying the character.
George Henare played Hector, and did so wonderfully. His movements, body posture, facial expressions and tone of voice fitted the role perfectly and his character came across so clearly that it made it possible for the audience to engage in his performance. Annie Whittle was another great performer gracing the stage in History Boys, and although her role as Mrs Lintott was small, she still gave the performance everything and this consequently impacted on the success of the show. Andrew Ford as Irwin gave a fantastic performance as a stiff, awkward teacher who, whilst trying to help the boys with their future, was also intimidated by the brooding Dakin.
Overall the director, Jesse Peach, delivered yet another successful show. I would recommend the performance to others, and look forward to what Peach Theatre Company brings to Auckland next year.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Don't Hold Your Breath
I had never been to a semi-staged/workshop based performance before, however I thought it might be interesting to see what happens behind closed doors at the Auckland Theatre Company.
Don’t Hold Your Breath is a play with songs, written by Lisa Chappell of Gloss and McLeod’s Daughter’s fame. The actors had a week of staging and rehearsing the script under the direction of Ben Crowder and musical direction by Penny Dodd before performing it twice and receiving feedback from the audience on the storyline, music and staging.
The story follows Letitia Lush who aspires to become a famous singer of like her idol Frank Sinatra. After reading that Frank Sinatra attributes his success to his enormous lung capacity, Letitia begins experimenting, using her younger sister Rose, as a guinea pig by drowning her in the bath and training her to beat Sinatra’s record. Unfortunately for Letitia, Rose also has a brilliant voice, and the exploitation she suffers at the hand of Letitia assists in the training of her voice. When Letitia, and ultimately Letitia’s manager realise Rose can sing, jealousy takes over and old and new rivalries take the sisters to breaking point.
Watching this show be performed, it was obvious there was some work that needed to be done on the script, however it certainly has great potential. The ending that had been chosen for this version was a much lighter and happier ending than the one in the original script, however upon hearing of the original version (which ultimately ended in a death) I thought that would give the story more depth and intrigue although it may cause the show to lose its happy and comic genre rating.
The show certainly had some very funny parts, such as Letitia’s constant attempts at physically hurting Rose, which although it sounds quite nasty actually has a comic element to it. The set was well done, particularly with their use of styrofoam instead of water in the bath. The musical numbers were great and very well done and the acting was suburb, as to be expected from Auckland Theatre Company. It was a bit off putting to have Letitia using her script throughout the show, but given they had only been rehearsing for a week and the script had been changed numerous times, that could be forgiven.
It may be a while before this show hits the stages again, due to the desire of Lisa to work quite intensely on certain aspects of the script; however when it does come back to New Zealand stages make sure you go along. It’s a great piece of New Zealand writing.
Don’t Hold Your Breath is a play with songs, written by Lisa Chappell of Gloss and McLeod’s Daughter’s fame. The actors had a week of staging and rehearsing the script under the direction of Ben Crowder and musical direction by Penny Dodd before performing it twice and receiving feedback from the audience on the storyline, music and staging.
The story follows Letitia Lush who aspires to become a famous singer of like her idol Frank Sinatra. After reading that Frank Sinatra attributes his success to his enormous lung capacity, Letitia begins experimenting, using her younger sister Rose, as a guinea pig by drowning her in the bath and training her to beat Sinatra’s record. Unfortunately for Letitia, Rose also has a brilliant voice, and the exploitation she suffers at the hand of Letitia assists in the training of her voice. When Letitia, and ultimately Letitia’s manager realise Rose can sing, jealousy takes over and old and new rivalries take the sisters to breaking point.
Watching this show be performed, it was obvious there was some work that needed to be done on the script, however it certainly has great potential. The ending that had been chosen for this version was a much lighter and happier ending than the one in the original script, however upon hearing of the original version (which ultimately ended in a death) I thought that would give the story more depth and intrigue although it may cause the show to lose its happy and comic genre rating.
The show certainly had some very funny parts, such as Letitia’s constant attempts at physically hurting Rose, which although it sounds quite nasty actually has a comic element to it. The set was well done, particularly with their use of styrofoam instead of water in the bath. The musical numbers were great and very well done and the acting was suburb, as to be expected from Auckland Theatre Company. It was a bit off putting to have Letitia using her script throughout the show, but given they had only been rehearsing for a week and the script had been changed numerous times, that could be forgiven.
It may be a while before this show hits the stages again, due to the desire of Lisa to work quite intensely on certain aspects of the script; however when it does come back to New Zealand stages make sure you go along. It’s a great piece of New Zealand writing.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Couples Retreat
Couples Retreat is not a movie I would normally go to. Romantic comedies I can do on DVD when I have a boring night ahead or need something mindless to watch. Occasionally I enjoy them, but more the ones where Mr McDreamy rides up to the church on a big white horse to stop the wedding of the girl he loves. Comedies with Vince Vaughn I find generally try a little too hard to be funny and don’t quite make it, or put all the funny bits in the trailers.
Couples Retreat is a little bit of both. I read the synopsis before I went in so had a wee bit of an idea of what the movie was about. Basically one couple want to go to this retreat in the tropics (the movie is filmed in Bora Bora – you’ll want to go there once you’ve seen the backdrop!) to try and fix their crumbling marriage. The only way they can get into the island’s marriage counselling programme is if they take a package which another group had cancelled. This requires three other couples to go along also. Luckily this couple have three couples who are all good friends and before they know it they’re on the way to the tropics. However, they are all under the impression the couple bonding activities are optional. Well, you can see where this is going. The couples end up participating in the couple bonding activities to ‘rebuild and maintain the marriage’ and it is either going to make or break them.
Without giving the plotline away, although that wouldn’t be hard, these movies are generally rather predictable, what ensues is a vaguely funny, quite amusing scenario of what happens if you put a group of couples who think their marriage is fine into marriage counselling. I can’t really go into detail about aspects of the story that I liked or didn’t like because to be honest there isn’t that much of a story.
There are of course those few moments that make you go ‘awww’ and those that make you think ‘that is how I want my story to end’ but if you want a decent movie that will make you really feel or think something, this probably isn’t the one for you. Go for something with more heart or real emotion, unless you’re in the mood to just watch moving pictures and not really process much, which let’s face it, we all have those days. It does have some decent acting in, and some parts that certainly had me laughing, although I think the movie was a little too long. If you’re into this sort of thing though, give it a whirl and enjoy.
Ciao.
Couples Retreat is a little bit of both. I read the synopsis before I went in so had a wee bit of an idea of what the movie was about. Basically one couple want to go to this retreat in the tropics (the movie is filmed in Bora Bora – you’ll want to go there once you’ve seen the backdrop!) to try and fix their crumbling marriage. The only way they can get into the island’s marriage counselling programme is if they take a package which another group had cancelled. This requires three other couples to go along also. Luckily this couple have three couples who are all good friends and before they know it they’re on the way to the tropics. However, they are all under the impression the couple bonding activities are optional. Well, you can see where this is going. The couples end up participating in the couple bonding activities to ‘rebuild and maintain the marriage’ and it is either going to make or break them.
Without giving the plotline away, although that wouldn’t be hard, these movies are generally rather predictable, what ensues is a vaguely funny, quite amusing scenario of what happens if you put a group of couples who think their marriage is fine into marriage counselling. I can’t really go into detail about aspects of the story that I liked or didn’t like because to be honest there isn’t that much of a story.
There are of course those few moments that make you go ‘awww’ and those that make you think ‘that is how I want my story to end’ but if you want a decent movie that will make you really feel or think something, this probably isn’t the one for you. Go for something with more heart or real emotion, unless you’re in the mood to just watch moving pictures and not really process much, which let’s face it, we all have those days. It does have some decent acting in, and some parts that certainly had me laughing, although I think the movie was a little too long. If you’re into this sort of thing though, give it a whirl and enjoy.
Ciao.
(500) Days of Summer - For Mindfood Mag
Note: This review was originally written for the 'reader review' section of Mindfood magazine.
The narrator of (500) Days of Summer told me from the start that the film was not a love story. I really should have believed him. The film doesn't start where one would expect (day one). Rather, it fast forwards into the film’s future and starts at day 488. I wasn’t a fan of this, as I like stories to proceed in chronological order. However, not too far in the film sped back to day one and the story truly began.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt (3rd Rock from the Sun, Stop-Loss) plays Tom Hansen, a greeting card designer who falls for a woman, Summer Finn (played by Zooey Deschanel of Yes Man and Almost Famous) who does not believe in true love. Tom believes Summer is the one. Summer, however, is quite content being a single and independent woman. The film follows the 500 days when Summer is part of Tom’s life, through the good times and the bad.
Tom’s relationship with his younger sister, often turning to her for love advice is a nice touch. I didn’t like that the film went back and forth in time, from day one to 488, day three to 276. Personally I would just prefer it to start at day one and go forward, however I guess this was part of what made the film special.
(500) Days of Summer is a cute wee film, and one thing that I really enjoyed about it was its sense of reality. It does not place unrealistic expectations on men and women about how relationships should pan out. It shows the troubles people face in relationships from the moment they meet someone they like, through to the process of beginning a relationship, addressing the speed bumps along the way. However, at times it was too real and although it is refreshing to see on the screen, it can be quite nice to escape reality with a sugar-coated rom-com every now and again.
Overall, the film was sad, but not in a reach-for-the-tissues kind of way. It was sad because I could really emphasise with the characters and feel the sadness and misery they were feeling. Then again, the narrator did tell me from the start that the film is not a love story...
The narrator of (500) Days of Summer told me from the start that the film was not a love story. I really should have believed him. The film doesn't start where one would expect (day one). Rather, it fast forwards into the film’s future and starts at day 488. I wasn’t a fan of this, as I like stories to proceed in chronological order. However, not too far in the film sped back to day one and the story truly began.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt (3rd Rock from the Sun, Stop-Loss) plays Tom Hansen, a greeting card designer who falls for a woman, Summer Finn (played by Zooey Deschanel of Yes Man and Almost Famous) who does not believe in true love. Tom believes Summer is the one. Summer, however, is quite content being a single and independent woman. The film follows the 500 days when Summer is part of Tom’s life, through the good times and the bad.
Tom’s relationship with his younger sister, often turning to her for love advice is a nice touch. I didn’t like that the film went back and forth in time, from day one to 488, day three to 276. Personally I would just prefer it to start at day one and go forward, however I guess this was part of what made the film special.
(500) Days of Summer is a cute wee film, and one thing that I really enjoyed about it was its sense of reality. It does not place unrealistic expectations on men and women about how relationships should pan out. It shows the troubles people face in relationships from the moment they meet someone they like, through to the process of beginning a relationship, addressing the speed bumps along the way. However, at times it was too real and although it is refreshing to see on the screen, it can be quite nice to escape reality with a sugar-coated rom-com every now and again.
Overall, the film was sad, but not in a reach-for-the-tissues kind of way. It was sad because I could really emphasise with the characters and feel the sadness and misery they were feeling. Then again, the narrator did tell me from the start that the film is not a love story...
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