Peer Gynt (Schauspielhaus Graz)

This review is for the Wednesday, May 4th, 2011 performance of Peer Gynt by Henrik Ibsen from the Hauptbühne at the Schauspielhaus in Graz.

Acting - 6/10
Direction - 6/10
Design - 7/10
Affectiveness - 3/10

Overall - 6/10

I had never seen or read Peer Gynt prior to experiencing this performance and in the case of Ingo Berk's mosaic of a production, that was probably a good thing.

Stage. Inside a ship or coffin.

I had difficulty understanding the story. Granted it was in German and occationally I have difficultly understanding certain words but in the case of this production its the story-telling that suffers not my language proficiency. I am a great fan of Henrik Ibsen and have read many of his other plays but something about this production seemed unusual, un-Ibsen-esque. At first, I thought 'Well you don't know everything Victoria, maybe Ibsen did write Peer Gynt in sets of disorganized scenes asking for three different actors to play the title character simultaneously.' However, that thought didn't feel right, Ibsen wrote many naturalistic plays and even those plays that weren't very naturalistic still had character with archs and stories with plots that were directly based on the idea cause-and-effect. This production was lacking that throughline.

It was when I got home and had a look at the actual play that I realized Berk's performance text was nothing like Ibsen's script. Berk had taken the play and put it into a blender! Claudius Körber played the Peer from Act 1-3, Sebastian Reiß from Act 4, and Gerhard Balluch the elder Peer from Act 5. The acts were inwoven; the play started with the beginning of the 5th Act. It's this patchwork of plot that left myself, and many audience members, questioning the plot. Many of us lost the meaning of the play and were left with just visually interesting affects from odd juxtapositions.

The 3 Peer Gynts: Claudius Körber, Gerhard Balluch, and Sebastian Rieß

Having the 3 Peers on the stage together reminded me of the final act of Tom Stoppard's Arcadia, where both the events of the early 1800's and late 1900's get enacted in the same room at the same time, where members of each time period use the exact same properties (eg. Wine Glass) which creates a tension between our understanding of time and space. There is a wonderful journal article written on this topic I found in a drama journal in university on Tom Stoppard's Arcadia and the fifth wall (can't quite remember what it was called, but it was great). This sharing time and space in something unique to theatre and I am assuming Berk major draw to splitting Peer into 3 roles. The convention sort of worked and sort of didn't. It gave the audience the stages of man in plain sight, so we are confronted the central theme of aging head on. However, the effect wasn't strong enough. Frankly, the script alone delivers that message, pretty bluntly actually, so all the division of Peer into 3 actors and the mixing of scenes did was was confuse and ultimately take away from the playwrights artifice.

On the whole, the acting was good. But sometimes it felt too out there and sometimes too safe. The ensemble did a great job of giving each small role they played a very specific character which gave the production life as well as kept me interested in the piece. Claudius Körber had an odd vocal rhythm which made him hard to understand. Also his character arch was non-existant, it didn't seem as if his Peer learned anything through the THREE acts he played. Sebastian Rieß was bold and eye catching, but when left alone without some other actor to work off of  he was somewhat dull and out of place (maybe a fault of the direction?). Gerhard Balluch had the task of making the audience believe the other two Peers were a part of his Peer's past which wasn't always believeable except for the Onion monologue. The onion monologue, because of it's story telling nature highlighted the different actors giving the audience a nice visual roadmap of the character which Balluch supplied for us through a strong performance.

I wouldn't recommend this production to the casual or conservative theatre goer, only maybe to those who are familiar with the play and want to see a production that does what it wants with the plot. For a newby to Ibsen I would rather suggest they read the play.

My Long Absence

It has been a while since I last wrote a review, and to be honest, I was a tad lazy to begin with. I was really busy with work, life and rehearsals which didn't leave much time to see theatre let alone write reviews.

Things in my personal life have changed and now I have time to see a lot more theatre in Austria and I will discipline myself to write reviews and post them within a reasonable amount of time.

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Here's a sloppy recap of some of productions I saw within the last few months:


Private Lives by Noel Coward - The Old Vic, London
This production was really well concieved and done. The acting was exciting and the stage design was candy for my eyes. My family and I loved the show, although my mother wasn't all too fond of the story line. This production overall deserves 10/10 because it really was perfectly executed in all respects and memorable.

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde - Vienna's English Theatre, Vienna
I am bias because I was rehearsing my own production of this very play at the same time as seeing this performance. I found the stage design odd, the acting by some of the principles rather weak (eg. Gwendolen) and the direction rather odd. Cecily was in control of the scene changes that a little girl with her doll house, very weird. The actors were clearly told to act out to the audience in a way that seemed highly artificial and reminiscent to how a Restoration Comedy may have been acted but not Oscar Wilde. Many jokes were lost, albeit some smaller ones found new life in this production. It wasn't a bad evening, I still enjoyed myself....but this production had the quality of a decent Arts University production with the price tag of something professional. I expected better. 6/10

Faschings Kaberet - Musical Güssing, Güssing
I like caberets but I did not like the unusual audience set up of this one. The line-up was good. Many/most of the pieces were written by the actors/comedians. I enjoyed myself, but I think there could have been some cuts to the performances because it seemed a but long and there were definately a few really boring parts. I'm sure alcohol would have helped that, but instead I opted for the Orange Juice (which wasn't really juice). Considering most people involved aren't professional performers, it was impressive. Also Florian Resetarits (see Kiss Me, Kate Review) sang some songs which was very pleasing to the ear. Overall 7/10 for a nice evening you do once a year.

Der Meister und Margarita by Michail Bulgakow - Schauspielhaus Graz, Graz
It is impossible to write a decent review on this production directed by Viktor Bodó, all I can say is see it if you have the opertunity too. At some parts you think to yourself, 'what on earth is going on?' and then you just let yourself be affected because the answers will come without you even having to really think about them. Thoroughly odd, and thoroughly enjoyable. Strong acting throughout and some interesting new actors from Hungary (I like the cat-man). In the final act, a white drop comes down that is backlit which projects everything that is happen behind it in shadow form. The stage behind is constantly turning and we see Expressionistic angles of the set mixed with the moving actors. The continue to act there piece (without talking) to music, while the audience watches it in shadow. Truly amazing and worthy of making Robert Lapage envious. 9/10 - must see.

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde - The Pennyless Players, Literaturhaus Graz
This was the production that I got the lovely opertunity to direct. Obviously I can't give a review but I can say there is an audience for English Theatre in Graz. The Pennyless Players is a rather new group (founded in 2007) and is still on its path of finding itself as a theatre group. There was a lot of talent and many audience members had a very enjoyable evening. It was a pleasure directing my first show and I hope those involved and those who saw the performance walked aware with the satisfaction of an enjoyable production.

Overdue Reviews: Blood Brothers (London Trip)

I know London isn't in Austria, but I thought I would share my thoughts.

This is a review for the Friday, November 24th, 2010 performance at Phoenix Theatre London.

Acting - 8.5/10

You could tell this was a professional show and one that has been in London since the late 1980s. All of the main characters were fully realized human beings who grew and changed with the piece. Willy Russell wrote a wonderfully powerful musical which calls for full commitment in order for the final scene to have the impact that it must have for the show to be a success.
Linda Nolan as Mrs. Johnstone was a nice fit and she showed us many of the ups and downs of the character. In the first half she seemed a bit careful and not as emotionally invested or effected by her station and losing her son as I would have hoped. It seemed like she was just playing conventionally, showing the emotions the same way she does every night. This, however, changed in the 2nd Act at the end where the characters emotional life was essential and her exhibited struggle ultimately moving.
I think I saw Stephen Palfreman playing Mickey Johnstone in Canada in 2005, which was a wonderful production. Either way Palfreman's performance made this performance the success that it was. I was starting to get bored in the first Act and then Palfreman took the stage and captured my interest. His detailed impersonation of child was fully embodied which made it particularly painful to watch his decline into depression in the 2nd Act. He was no longer the agile child who cheerfully wiped his snot with his sleeve but rather a almost paralyzed young man who almost looked like a 80-year-old. Truly amazing.
As for the rest of the cast, they were all well played and added to the success of this production.

Direction - 8.5/10

It flowed and we could understand the story. I can't remember many details but I know that I would have liked to experience the Narrator a bit more as a friendly ghost. He coiuld have been more present in the scenes (depending on the scene of course), instead of lurking around 'upstairs'.

Design - 8.5/10

This seems like the original design and it works...but I wonder if it could be updated at all? The production I saw in Canada was a bit more Expressionistic in design with many triangles and shadows, whereas this production was very realistic. I suppose it depends on the desired effect.

Special Effects - 10/10

Whatever there was, was well used (won't spoil the surprise).

Sound - 5/10

The singing was great, as was the score....albeit clearly 80s. BUT my one major concern was the playback. Do we really need to have the music BLASTED at us? I don't think so...unless humans are loosing there ability to hear. What did they do in the Renaissance before microphones and speakers. This production was an excellent example of how high decibles can ruin a production. My favourite song in this production is the one the narrator sings  'The Devil's Got Your Number' which was completely butchered thanks to the playback. It was too loud by far! And the song is already pretty much shouted, just because the nature of the music. My mother cringed when this reoccuring song was performed and it's not becasue Philip Stewart did a bad job but because of sloppy sound technicians. My sister, 'I think that song that the Narrator sings is probably really good, but right now it hurts to listen to it' (this is while she was covering her ears with a scarf).

Affectiveness - 8/10

This is an seriously affective musical because Willy Russell tapped into the perpetual struggle of class and coupled it with a changeling-twin scenerio. It was also a production that did the script justice.

Overall - 8/10

If you are in London see this show, there is a reason it has been playing  since it first came out.  The acting was great, the script is affective, the singing was filled with emotion and despite the bad playback it's still worth sitting through 3 hours of ear destruction thanks to the decibels