Am Dram - Alan Ayckbourn
Oct. 20th, 2013 07:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
smallhobbitWe went to see an amateur production of an Alan Ayckbourn play called "Love in the Mist" yesterday. It's a two-hander in which the male actor plays two parts and the female actor three. It was an experience. As SM said during the interval, "it must be very difficult for the actors when the audience don't laugh", since, despite being billed as a comedy, no-one laughed during the first act. The main character was the sort of person I dislike intensely, and had no wish to spend an evening watching on stage. The actor was unable to either make the character in any way sympathetic or completely outlandish in the Basil Fawlty manner, and I suspect we weren't alone in being pleased when the character met his expected untimely death.
Do I have unreasonably high expectations? I don't think so. I like good theatre, but that doesn't mean I expect the same standards from a local am dram company as I do from a London theatre when I'm paying five or six times the ticket price. At the same time I think those who choose to put a production on should choose wisely and find something that suits their particular talents. When the kids were involved in concerts at school we used to enjoy going because the music teacher would select pieces that the children could play well, rather than those that were particularly complicated.
Did I regret going? No. But it would affect my decision to go to something else that particular actor was involved with. And it has given me a greater appreciation for those actors who can portray that sort of character without making me want to strangle him.
Do I have unreasonably high expectations? I don't think so. I like good theatre, but that doesn't mean I expect the same standards from a local am dram company as I do from a London theatre when I'm paying five or six times the ticket price. At the same time I think those who choose to put a production on should choose wisely and find something that suits their particular talents. When the kids were involved in concerts at school we used to enjoy going because the music teacher would select pieces that the children could play well, rather than those that were particularly complicated.
Did I regret going? No. But it would affect my decision to go to something else that particular actor was involved with. And it has given me a greater appreciation for those actors who can portray that sort of character without making me want to strangle him.
