tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4124858870558544212.post857046116153506678..comments2023-12-14T21:08:52.235+11:00Comments on SOYP: The People's Theatre Advisor : STC & BLACK SWAN’S ‘SIGNS OF LIFE’ dissected by meAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13465326595602560516noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4124858870558544212.post-936000967606250912012-12-18T05:27:25.860+11:002012-12-18T05:27:25.860+11:00Weirdly enough, Winton has a third play with the s...Weirdly enough, Winton has a third play with the same director premiering in Perth in 2013 (although, unlike the first two, this isn't being picked up by an East-coast company). My guess is that his work sells pretty reasonably to a Perth crowd and he's difficult to turn down on that basis (indeed, it may have sold reasonably well to a Sydney crowd as well - how were the audiences at "Signs of Life"?) - after all, it's show-business, not always show-art. <br /><br />That Guyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04142533016588637476noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4124858870558544212.post-28298989208021916592012-11-26T14:08:08.512+11:002012-11-26T14:08:08.512+11:00Considering how much I adore Tim Winton's writ...Considering how much I adore Tim Winton's writing, this was without a doubt the most disappointing experience I've ever had in watching theatre.<br />Whilst everything you say about the script is spot on, I would go further. The ineptitude of the directing was staggering - it's one thing to struggle to direct a script with no subtext, but quite another to just give up and have every single line be meaningless. <br />On at least half a dozen occasions, I felt as though the actor had been specifically instructed to put the emphasis on the precise words that would give the line no meaning whatsoever.<br /><br />By the end of the play, my partner and I had invented a new game - tap out on the other's leg a timecount of the pauses before each line. We were never less than 3 seconds, with the average being 8 and the record 25. I'm all for the caesura, ever since I saw it in Eddie and the Cruisers. But there was no meaning in these silences, just a futile attempt to show how important everything was. (or perhaps to stretch out a little more runtime.)<br /><br />Add to that the fact that there was only one point where two characters seemed to be speaking their lines to each other, rather than just declaring them to the room/audience, and you get a play that was lucky it didn't have an interval, because - for the first time in my life - I was getting ready for a walkout.Soundburgernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4124858870558544212.post-14811070749737064512012-11-26T12:24:14.044+11:002012-11-26T12:24:14.044+11:00I'm reading 'Rising Water' at the mome...I'm reading 'Rising Water' at the moment and it's a struggle. I think you're right- playwriting is not his medium but companies know that his name will get people in the door. It got mine. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13465326595602560516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4124858870558544212.post-45949981597804046172012-11-26T07:45:01.144+11:002012-11-26T07:45:01.144+11:00Just to note this is Winton's second go round ...Just to note this is Winton's second go round as a playwright (his first, "Rising Water", is published by Currency and reasonably easily available) - and it doesn't sound like he's improving any, in fact, he may be getting worse. <br /><br />The skills transfer from novelist to playwright don't always fly (Thomas Keneally tried repeatedly without success, for example), and there's no shame in saying it doesn't work. There is shame in major companies exploiting a well known writer's name to put on a script that simply isn't ready for performance.That Guyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04142533016588637476noreply@blogger.com