Drama Review
The lights flicker and sputter, leaving us in the darkened hall a girl –well slightly older than 16- appears on stage only to be followed out by a green hatted ninja who she claimed was her “idiot of a little brother.”
Tiny Giant was the name of this very small theatre company. Their play was about road safety. Something that is still slightly important and relevant to us now.
They had very few props but they were used for maximum effect. There was one screen. It wasn’t a very dressed set, which in some ways was better because then you could focus on the actors. They used four chairs to make a car and the living room etc. However sometimes they didn’t interact that well with them (e.g. no one ever opened and closed the car doors which in reality you would have to do.) It think that they could have had more of a backdrop so we could have imagine it better than using the speaker to play music whilst they changed scenes. And in the hospital scene they could have used the chairs again but with a white sheet to cover them up and one for her to hide her face in.
They also had a speaker for sound. It was really only needed for the dramatic car crash scene but was also used in a few other places (I thought that they use of it in the car was slightly superfluous) and it could have been used for them to change the scene instead.
The costumes were what you expect of a normal family. They had to change for different characters so you could recognise when they were the mum or the daughter or the older mother. Some of them (for example the boyfriends) clothes were very dated.
The acting was amazing. It kept the audience focused and attentive. The principle character: Anne narrated to the audience in a clear way which was also funny because it linked in with the other actors. For example when most people speak monologues or narrations the characters around them freeze or there is no one else on stage however they incorporated hers into the play (the other characters said things like “Stop talking to the walls Anne!”) they had played each part to near perfection and you could really imagine that is was just a normal dysfunctional family.
The little brother (or the Green hatted ninja) had very good accents and they were all roughly the same (so you didn’t have one of the characters from
Wales, and then another from Liverpool etc.).
We got a few clues as to what would happen in the end throughout the play as the writer chose to use dramatic irony.
The play was just about a normal every day family who end up getting into a horrible car accident where their daughter Anne flies through the windscreen and ends up losing most of her face and so having to undergo serious surgery. It also included other issues like bullying, sibling rivalry, and boyfriend trouble.
While their other daughter is constantly getting in trouble at school and gets a few letters sent home. It ended with the little brother giving his monologue of what had happened to the family.
I think that the car crash was also done very well. It was extremely dramatic with the sound effects It’ a very hard scene to do on stage with four chairs and a screen for props. It was very intense you could feel the audience holding its breath and gasp when it had happened. It was a clever use of monologue and synchronised action from the other two actors. As for “I was flying between the chairs” they had pick them up and start to spin them.
Although this is based on a true story I think that it was more for a younger audience. Because at the end only about 3 or 4 people put up their hands to say that they don’t always wear their seat belts. It was also a little bit young because of the language that they used. I did find it slightly patronising in places however. Although I do find it slightly relevant as people could get in car accidents similar to this however what they showed is extremely rare to happen.
I felt that we were a little bit too old for it. It think that it would work better for the lower half off the school (years 7, 8 and 9’s). I think that for our year things like:
Drinking,
Relationships;
Clubbing;
Teenage pregnancy;
STD’s;
Friendships;
And work.
Also at out school many people bike, walk or get the bus in. So in some ways we didn’t really need it. I think that if they edited it slightly then they could perform it to younger children because it would stick in there memories more and also help them remember.
There was a part right at the end where they asked you to close your eyes and were asked to imagine someone in your family who sits in the back seat of a car (in my case my little sister). I found this slightly disturbing but did get the point across.
I would recommend this play to another school for younger year but I wouldn’t pay to see it because it’s slightly to short to watch (only about an hour) and the props do need to be improved if they were to perform it in a play like the Theatre Royal Norwich. I would definitely watch this again but suggest a few improvements.
