I am not a fan of theatre in the round and this production demonstrated all the pitfalls of this 'trendy' staging. A lot of dialogue passed me by purely because the actors happened to be facing away from me in an attempt to give all sides of the audience attention. I am not some Werthers sucking pensioner with fading batteries in their hearing aids so can't pass this off as mere infirmity.
Maybe the play itself was partly to blame as it jumped from scene to scene, at one moment tub thumping liberal Penal Reform treatise, the next the broad comedy of a play within the play. Or maybe it was just the less than perfect acoustics of Curve's Studio mezzanine. Suffice to say I quickly tired of straining my ears in an abortive attempt to follow some of the dialogue. Maybe amplification would have helped.
Another disadvantage of staging in the round is that there are no backdrops; no short cuts for establishing a location. However, this production worked round this admirably with lots of props and costumes to instantly convey the various parts of the penal colony in all its horrors and handsomely conveyed the assumed central message of the inequities of the conviction and abuse of felons transported to Australia in the 18th century
Utilising the Curve's hi tech facilities there was an imaginative and unobtrusive background soundtrack which helped cover scene changes and create atmosphere.
Despite the shortcomings of the play itself the cast, in the main, did a sterling job with the material they had to work with. Creative choreography meant changes onstage were done quickly and seamlessly; costume changes quickly done allowed the doubling up by actors that the author intended. With the exception of a couple of actors the entire cast's diction and projection worked well when they were facing me!
Our Country's Good is on at Curve until Saturday 18 April.
First published in WesternGazette
© Paul Towers 2015
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