The Ordinary Life of Alice
Sat, 12 Oct 2013, 01:01 pmGordon the Optom2 posts in thread
The Ordinary Life of Alice
Sat, 12 Oct 2013, 01:01 pm‘The Ordinary Life of Alice – a little madness to set you free’ at $10 a ticket, is the latest bargain production from Curtin’s Hayman Theatre and Performance Studies’ Honours Class. This piece, devised by the cast and directors, gives an hour of zany, quality entertainment in the chilly, but excellent new venue the Dome Gym Stadium (Building 111) Curtin University, Kent Street in Bentley. Free parking available in the adjacent car park - B13. This sports hall only holds 50 seats, so booking is wise.
This unusual 60-minute performance starts at 7.00 on Friday and Saturday nights until the 19th October.
The cream, round stage is surrounded by a single row of chairs.
It is breakfast time, and Alice (Sinead O'Hara) is at the kitchen table. Her father (Melina Cirverius) is sitting in the corner reading his paper whilst the humped-backed, whinging mother (Ann-Marie Biagioni) lectures Alice about her inadequacies.
In her mind, Alice hears strange oompah-like music. A weird band of minstrels playing an AAA portable harmonium (Adrian Hoffmann), trombone (Ellis Pearson) and a trumpet (Michael Biagioni) are drawing her away. As their music fades, the soft sound of a violin (musical director, Scots lass, Isaura Campbell) drifts in. Alice becomes guided by three strange lunatics, Stargazer (Hannah Mariah Mason), Glumph (Sarah Bazeley) and Floppo (Rebecca Miller), who are constantly trying to lead her astray.
Alice has become fed up with home life and decides to search for a happier existence, and applies for a job in London. In her mind, she sees her journey, when she meets a cartload of monkeys, is attacked and nearly dies ... will she ever find the happiness she seeks?
Artist in Residence, Ellis Pearson, is the amazingly inventive director. Pearson started his professional life as a graphic designer in Durban, before turning his hand to sculpture and then the theatre. After qualifying at the University of Natal, Ellis went to Paris to develop the skills of mime and movement, which are employed with remarkable skill in this production.
A co-founder of the internationally recognised ‘Theatre for Africa’, he travelled to Edinburgh and won a number of awards at the Fringe. Last year Ellis gave us one of the season’s most memorable plays – ‘The Way of Us’.
Ellis is more than ably assisted by his assistant director, high school drama teacher, Madelaine Page who at present is part of the prestigious Black Swan development programme. The whole production rattles along at an astonishing pace, as the cast employ every theatre skill from mime to acrobatics, every emotion from slapstick to pathos. With very little dialogue, the storyline is still lucid and most enjoyable.
Many directors would be happy to show an emergency call as a quick 5 second flash, here we are given the full drama, with accurate and realistic sound effects of vehicles, animals, and heart beats without a single recorded effect. Every noise is produced by the cast or the musicians using specially made ‘instruments’. This gives an added excitement to the play. The invention of the movements, costume and sound was unique to this production; it leaves the audience wondering what kind of mind thought of such an obscure and unusual approach.
The team work of the cast hid the immense amount of work going on in their mind and bodies.
If you are a student studying direction, sound design, musical composition or simple acting then you MUST see this production; you will leave realising how lazy and uninspired your previous productions have been.
To the cast, your audience wanted to give you another curtain call, don’t be shy to take it.
Great fun. Ingenious. Highly recommended.
‘The Ordinary Life of Alice – a little madness to set you free’ at $10 a ticket, is the latest bargain production from Curtin’s Hayman Theatre and Performance Studies’ Honours Class. This piece, devised by the cast and directors, gives an hour of zany, quality entertainment in the chilly, but excellent new venue the Dome Gym Stadium (Building 111) Curtin University, Kent Street in Bentley. Free parking available in the adjacent car park - B13. This sports hall only holds 50 seats, so booking is wise.
This unusual 60-minute performance starts at 7.00 on Friday and Saturday nights until the 19th October.
The cream, round stage is surrounded by a single row of chairs.
It is breakfast time, and Alice (Sinead O'Hara) is at the kitchen table. Her father (Melina Cirverius) is sitting in the corner reading his paper whilst the humped-backed, whinging mother (Ann-Marie Biagioni) lectures Alice about her inadequacies.
In her mind, Alice hears strange oompah-like music. A weird band of minstrels playing an AAA portable harmonium (Adrian Hoffmann), trombone (Ellis Pearson) and a trumpet (Michael Biagioni) are drawing her away. As their music fades, the soft sound of a violin (musical director, Scots lass, Isaura Campbell) drifts in. Alice becomes guided by three strange lunatics, Stargazer (Hannah Mariah Mason), Glumph (Sarah Bazeley) and Floppo (Rebecca Miller), who are constantly trying to lead her astray.
Alice has become fed up with home life and decides to search for a happier existence, and applies for a job in London. In her mind, she sees her journey, when she meets a cartload of monkeys, is attacked and nearly dies ... will she ever find the happiness she seeks?
Artist in Residence, Ellis Pearson, is the amazingly inventive director. Pearson started his professional life as a graphic designer in Durban, before turning his hand to sculpture and then the theatre. After qualifying at the University of Natal, Ellis went to Paris to develop the skills of mime and movement, which are employed with remarkable skill in this production.
A co-founder of the internationally recognised ‘Theatre for Africa’, he travelled to Edinburgh and won a number of awards at the Fringe. Last year Ellis gave us one of the season’s most memorable plays – ‘The Way of Us’.
Ellis is more than ably assisted by his assistant director, high school drama teacher, Madelaine Page who at present is part of the prestigious Black Swan development programme. The whole production rattles along at an astonishing pace, as the cast employ every theatre skill from mime to acrobatics, every emotion from slapstick to pathos. With very little dialogue, the storyline is still lucid and most enjoyable.
Many directors would be happy to show an emergency call as a quick 5 second flash, here we are given the full drama, with accurate and realistic sound effects of vehicles, animals, and heart beats without a single recorded effect. Every noise is produced by the cast or the musicians using specially made ‘instruments’. This gives an added excitement to the play. The invention of the movements, costume and sound was unique to this production; it leaves the audience wondering what kind of mind thought of such an obscure and unusual approach.
The team work of the cast hid the immense amount of work going on in their mind and bodies.
If you are a student studying direction, sound design, musical composition or simple acting then you MUST see this production; you will leave realising how lazy and uninspired your previous productions have been.
To the cast, your audience wanted to give you another curtain call, don’t be shy to take it.
Great fun. Ingenious. Highly recommended.
The Ordinary Life of Alice