News location:

Canberra Today 25°/29° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Review: Mixed tale of ‘Two Cities’

WRITTEN in the 1930s, this play was deliberately buried for decades, but knowing the difficulty of adapting such a novel to the stage, one can understand why! The result is mixed.

Barbara Denham as Prosecutor. Photo by Ben Appleby.
Barbara Denham as Prosecutor. Photo by Ben Appleby.
With some very bold directorial decisions and a very contemporary context, the work had moments of brilliance. The use of recent popular music and costumes meant the production did not attempt to do a “Les Miserables” nor make it into an historical drama, which could annoy some audiences while thrilling others – such is the power and ephemeral nature of theatre.

However, it could appear like Agatha Christie meets Eminem! By down-playing any sense of heightened language and making it mostly pedestrian, the touches with microphones and other effects that sought to enhance certain moments made consistency very difficult. Perhaps this is the price to pay when developing an original voice for revealing aspects of a story that is so well known and travelled.

There was very little real emotion expressed or shown at any point and, at times, the acting seemed uncertain. At other times, there was a sense of fun that celebrated the quirky and cheeky aspects of relationship against an historical drama that engulfed each character.

 

Who can be trusted?

In a world of spin and confusion, there’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in Canberra.

If you trust our work online and want to enforce the power of independent voices, I invite you to make a small contribution.

Every dollar of support is invested back into our journalism to help keep citynews.com.au strong and free.

Become a supporter

Thank you,

Ian Meikle, editor

Share this

Leave a Reply

Related Posts

Music

Cunio takes top job at NZ School of Music

Immediate past head of the ANU School of Music, Kim Cunio, is to become head of school at Te Kōki, the NZ School of Music, part of the Victoria University of Wellington, reports HELEN MUSA.

Follow us on Instagram @canberracitynews