Lonesome West
Last night was preview of Lonesome West. Certainly in the running for best show of the season against Mud. Funny how both of Rutgers better shows were directed by the students...
The show was visually pleasing, though at times hard to understand. The men playing Valene and Coleman did a fabulous job maintain their accents, unfortunately the accents were not that easily understood. And when you have as large of an English as a second language community as we do, this tends to be a bit of a problem. I ended up explaining a good portion of the plot to two of our designers at intermission.
The costumes worked very well, despite the shift away from the designer's more stylized punk feeling to a more traditional Irish look. Girleen remained very punked out, but her character can play this very easily. The set on the other hand, while very beautiful, it looked like it belonged to a different show. Yes, the house was appropriately worn down and dilapidated, but during every blackout your focus was pulled to a beautiful hillscape/mountainscape painted above the acting area. It didn't seem to fit. And the landscape does not hold enough importance in the script for it to be the focus of every scene change. That and the neon orange stove. The color made it seem as though the designer were attempting to make some deeper statement or metaphor by have such a vibrantly colored stove on the set. No. She really chose that color because it was odd, something Valene might be able to afford. Why not have it be an existing stove color, like mustard yellow or avocado green? Instead you couldn't take your eyes off of it, the brightest piece of anything on the stage. It distracted from the actors, who were already struggling to hold your attention with their garbled dialects. A shame really, this was a professional scenic designer hired for the production.
The pace felt a bit slow and the acting a bit flat. It was a fabulous show, but between the dialects, the stove, and the pace I had a hard time becoming engaged. I'm sure the pace will pick up. I'll try to see it next weekend before it closes to see the improvements. I'm thrilled to see our student direcotrs and actors bring such solid work to Rutger's, all nitpicking aside.
The show was visually pleasing, though at times hard to understand. The men playing Valene and Coleman did a fabulous job maintain their accents, unfortunately the accents were not that easily understood. And when you have as large of an English as a second language community as we do, this tends to be a bit of a problem. I ended up explaining a good portion of the plot to two of our designers at intermission.
The costumes worked very well, despite the shift away from the designer's more stylized punk feeling to a more traditional Irish look. Girleen remained very punked out, but her character can play this very easily. The set on the other hand, while very beautiful, it looked like it belonged to a different show. Yes, the house was appropriately worn down and dilapidated, but during every blackout your focus was pulled to a beautiful hillscape/mountainscape painted above the acting area. It didn't seem to fit. And the landscape does not hold enough importance in the script for it to be the focus of every scene change. That and the neon orange stove. The color made it seem as though the designer were attempting to make some deeper statement or metaphor by have such a vibrantly colored stove on the set. No. She really chose that color because it was odd, something Valene might be able to afford. Why not have it be an existing stove color, like mustard yellow or avocado green? Instead you couldn't take your eyes off of it, the brightest piece of anything on the stage. It distracted from the actors, who were already struggling to hold your attention with their garbled dialects. A shame really, this was a professional scenic designer hired for the production.
The pace felt a bit slow and the acting a bit flat. It was a fabulous show, but between the dialects, the stove, and the pace I had a hard time becoming engaged. I'm sure the pace will pick up. I'll try to see it next weekend before it closes to see the improvements. I'm thrilled to see our student direcotrs and actors bring such solid work to Rutger's, all nitpicking aside.
Labels: Performances, Rutgers
posted by Unknown at
4:50 PM
2 Comments:
There's a show called Lonesome West? I have to read it! Or I'll write you a show called lonesome west (malicous giggling). Everybody check out the old John Wayne movie Red River, but don't watch it alone - and watch it with alcohol. Preferably whiskey, but beer would work.
Lonesome West is third of the Leenane trilogy by Martin McDonagh.
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