GIRLS LIKE THAT
by Evan Placey
Directed by Henri Canino
Presented by Theatre Sarnia
representing the Western Ontario Drama League
This review will be a bit different from the others in this series, since I already saw Girls Like That at the Western Ontario Drama League Festival in March, and wrote a detailed review of the show at that time. This review, therefore, will focus on any changes I've noticed and on any further thoughts or reactions that have come to me.
You can read the original March review here: Nervy, Incisive Theatre Piece
Theatre Sarnia's production of Girls Like That retains all of the power and strength of the previous staging. The show remains nervy, incisive, cutting-edge, and definitely mold-breaking in many ways. This remount made no major changes in the style or presentation of the piece. The slight differences which I did pick up represented a mixture of gains and losses.
On the plus side, the recorded music wasn't as painfully loud as it had been in Guelph. This may have been a matter more of the different size and shape of the auditorium than anything else. More on that idea in a moment.
The flashing, strobe-like colour projections on the back screen also were less intense than before. This mattered to me because I lost some interesting visuals of the show in Guelph when I had to close my eyes and cover them with my hand to ward off a fast-rising headache. Last night I got to see some of those interesting moments. Another gain.
This show has always been tight -- crisp, snappy, quick cue pick-ups, sharply articulated text. In this performance, some of the text came flying out at us so quickly that the words were getting lost in a blur. That was especially true of the moments when each actor in turn calls out one word. The actors were picking up their cues so quickly that each word was running over the one before it. The energy and passion for the material were unmistakable, but the actual text in those spots vanished.
A friend commented to me afterwards that the speed and tightness of the show made us unwilling to let out some well-earned laughs, simply because we were afraid to miss the next line.
Back to the auditorium. The theatre we've used this week in Richmond Hill is wider and deeper than the Guelph theatre, but most of all it is far higher. So the "quieter" music and the blurry text may simply have been a case of that extra cubic volume of space swallowing too much sound. Since every hall is different, a company may need to adjust the style of their delivery of lines as well as the volume of sound to match different halls. That's a necessity for classical musicians, but I think it might well apply to a couple of the shows we saw this week, not just this one.
On the plus side, the actor portraying the bullied Scarlett soared to greater dramatic heights of scorn and disdain for her peers in her report about her female ancestors. Her strength and truth in this scene drew exclamations of approval for Scarlett (the character, not the actor) from audience members seated around me. This made for an even stronger emotional climax to Scarlett's journey, and to the play as a whole.
On my side, since I didn't disconnect this time during the last minutes of the show after that speech, I properly understood the meaning of the final scene of the girls (including Scarlett) all linking arms!
This show developed an added resonance as a result of the other work done here at this Festival. In every single play this week, the issue of suicide and of survivors coping with suicide has been raised -- sometimes in passing, sometimes as the heart of the matter. In this show, it comes at the point where the girls hear that Scarlett has gone missing and that a body has been found in the river. Those scenes struck some of us who've been here all week with added impact and poignancy.
Girls Like That marked a powerful end to a powerful, intense Festival.
* * * * * * * * * *
Theatre Ontario Festival is an annual event which brings together the "best of the best" in Ontario's community theatres for a celebration of excellence. The four participating plays are invited as the winners of the four regional festivals. Each performance is adjudicated in detail by a professional theatre artist, in sessions which enhance learning and theatre experience for the performing company and audience alike. The adjudicator this year is Carolee Mason. Along with the performances, the Festival also includes workshops on various theatre topics, Playwright-in-Person readings, and other additional events. The week culminates with a celebration brunch when awards are presented.
This review will be a bit different from the others in this series, since I already saw Girls Like That at the Western Ontario Drama League Festival in March, and wrote a detailed review of the show at that time. This review, therefore, will focus on any changes I've noticed and on any further thoughts or reactions that have come to me.
You can read the original March review here: Nervy, Incisive Theatre Piece
Theatre Sarnia's production of Girls Like That retains all of the power and strength of the previous staging. The show remains nervy, incisive, cutting-edge, and definitely mold-breaking in many ways. This remount made no major changes in the style or presentation of the piece. The slight differences which I did pick up represented a mixture of gains and losses.
On the plus side, the recorded music wasn't as painfully loud as it had been in Guelph. This may have been a matter more of the different size and shape of the auditorium than anything else. More on that idea in a moment.
The flashing, strobe-like colour projections on the back screen also were less intense than before. This mattered to me because I lost some interesting visuals of the show in Guelph when I had to close my eyes and cover them with my hand to ward off a fast-rising headache. Last night I got to see some of those interesting moments. Another gain.
This show has always been tight -- crisp, snappy, quick cue pick-ups, sharply articulated text. In this performance, some of the text came flying out at us so quickly that the words were getting lost in a blur. That was especially true of the moments when each actor in turn calls out one word. The actors were picking up their cues so quickly that each word was running over the one before it. The energy and passion for the material were unmistakable, but the actual text in those spots vanished.
A friend commented to me afterwards that the speed and tightness of the show made us unwilling to let out some well-earned laughs, simply because we were afraid to miss the next line.
Back to the auditorium. The theatre we've used this week in Richmond Hill is wider and deeper than the Guelph theatre, but most of all it is far higher. So the "quieter" music and the blurry text may simply have been a case of that extra cubic volume of space swallowing too much sound. Since every hall is different, a company may need to adjust the style of their delivery of lines as well as the volume of sound to match different halls. That's a necessity for classical musicians, but I think it might well apply to a couple of the shows we saw this week, not just this one.
On the plus side, the actor portraying the bullied Scarlett soared to greater dramatic heights of scorn and disdain for her peers in her report about her female ancestors. Her strength and truth in this scene drew exclamations of approval for Scarlett (the character, not the actor) from audience members seated around me. This made for an even stronger emotional climax to Scarlett's journey, and to the play as a whole.
On my side, since I didn't disconnect this time during the last minutes of the show after that speech, I properly understood the meaning of the final scene of the girls (including Scarlett) all linking arms!
This show developed an added resonance as a result of the other work done here at this Festival. In every single play this week, the issue of suicide and of survivors coping with suicide has been raised -- sometimes in passing, sometimes as the heart of the matter. In this show, it comes at the point where the girls hear that Scarlett has gone missing and that a body has been found in the river. Those scenes struck some of us who've been here all week with added impact and poignancy.
Girls Like That marked a powerful end to a powerful, intense Festival.
* * * * * * * * * *
Theatre Ontario Festival is an annual event which brings together the "best of the best" in Ontario's community theatres for a celebration of excellence. The four participating plays are invited as the winners of the four regional festivals. Each performance is adjudicated in detail by a professional theatre artist, in sessions which enhance learning and theatre experience for the performing company and audience alike. The adjudicator this year is Carolee Mason. Along with the performances, the Festival also includes workshops on various theatre topics, Playwright-in-Person readings, and other additional events. The week culminates with a celebration brunch when awards are presented.
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