Talley's Folly

I saw Talley’s Foley on Friday night in the Arena Theater. The first thing that I noticed about the performance was the difference between the techniques used by the two actors. The actor who played Matt seemed to use a outside-in approach to make his character come to life. His costume was very basic, but it still seemed to help him take on the body language of his character. His facial hair and his accent also added to his performance by allowing him to feel more like the character and less like himself. The actress who played Sally took a different approach to her performance. Her dress was not as constricting compared to Matt’s suit, and she did not seem to have an obvious accent. Her method of using an inside-out approach was apparent by the way her body language was more understated and she relied more on her voice. In my opinion Matt’s performance was more interesting because his character acting took more energy than the internalized acting style of Sally. However, as a duet, the two styles seemed to mesh well and created a very cohesive and entertaining performance.