Subject:
Watching the performance of Talley’s Folly was a very mixed experience for me. The atmosphere of the play was significantly lacking. I attended the Saturday matinee which had an audience of no more than thirty five. Overall it felt as if I were watching a rehearsal. This however, was no fault of the director or anyone involved in the play. It was a completely unavoidable circumstance. Another unfortunate event was the tennis ball that was rolled down the main seating aisle about three quarters of the way through the performance. It was an enormous distraction, but again, completely unavoidable by the people involved.
I was however, very impressed with the performance of the two actors. The fact that they were able to remain onstage for nearly two hours and hold character the entire time was a remarkable feat on their part
The character of Matt Friedman was played remarkably well. The accent was quite bothersome in the beginning when I thought that it was supposed to be German. However, when it was revealed that he was a Lithuanian Jew, who grew up in
I felt that Sally was slightly upstaged by Matt. She carried a great deal of anger with her for the entire performance that only served to alienate her from the audience and make us more sympathetic towards Matt. However, I can only assume that she portrayed Sally in that way because of the director’s instructions. I felt that I got a better sense of how the actor wanted to play the part by watching her eyes. Even when she was acting angry, there were times when her eyes softened showing us that she did really care about Matt but was simply afraid to let him care about her.
All in all this was a good performance that had the potential to be so much more. Some things were out of the director’s hands, but I feel that the choice for Sally to remain angry throughout the show really hurt the play. Had Sally been allowed to show a little more compassion I could have related to her much more easily.
posted by Dan @ 11:32 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
What made you think that you were watching a rehearsal? I would assume since it would have been their third try that it would be better. I also was impressed by the consistency of the character roles; during my experience Michael Brahce had a couple of slip-ups, but remained an overall good performance. I think Sally did an overall good job of portraying her character, but at times her lack of compassion really did annoy me. It made her character less enjoyable and more detached from the audience.
Do you think that the actors were bothered by the tennis ball rolling down the stairs in the audience? Or by the lack of people in the audience? I wonder if it is disheartening for the actors when mishaps occur or when few people come to watch their production. Do you think it could affect their ability to perform well? Also, I was bothered by Sally Talley’s character who seemed to express anger 95% of the time. Why do you think the director chose to make her a rather one-dimensional character?
I really do not know what the reasoning behind Sally's constant anger was. Although it was quite distracting. I think that it could have been one of two things. The first is that it could have simply been the director's instructions on how Averie was to play the character. I am not sure what motivation the director would have had for doing such a thing. The other is that Averie could have been affected by personal experience. She could have been reacting in the way which she would react if put in that situation.
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