Ashley Pittman
THEA 578: Directing
Robert Richmond
2/27/2015
Translations Critique
Theatre South Carolina's production of Translations, directed by Paul Savas, was a lively look at different perspectives surrounding the British occupation and re-naming of Ireland during the 19th century. Overall the production was successful, providing an engaging experience with moments that ranged between humorous and poignant. Savas's directing choices guided the acting and design elements that contributed best to the storytelling as well as a few elements that were less clear.
The experience of the play began the moment the audience entered the theatre through the pre-show music and lighting. The music in particular set the mood for the first act and was consistent with the music and soundscape that followed throughout the play. A selection of upbeat Irish tunes, the music chosen created an atmosphere of joviality among the audience, leaving them in a cheerful mindset and ready to laugh at the more humorous moments, especially in the first act. The music through intermission was equally successful, though an intermission didn't seem necessary with the length of the play. More than that, the intermission interrupted the action, disrupting the building energy of the dramatic action and allowing it to fall at a point when it should have been increasing.
The casting decisions had an important impact on the effectiveness of the entire play. Grace Ann Roberts made for a loveable and relateable Maire, while her chemistry with Josh Jeffers as the awkward Lieutenant Yolland resulted in an adorably believable romance. Their scene together after the dance was touching and charming, providing the best moments of the play, and Maire's grief at Yolland's disappearance was heart-wrenching.
A less effective casting decision was for Dimitri Woods as Jimmy Jack. Woods was entertaining in the role though his Irish accent was spotty, at times unintelligible and other times non-existent. But, more importantly, in the play Jimmy Jack is supposed to be Hugh's contemporary rather than Owen's. No attempt was made to have Woods look or act even somewhat older than he actually is, resulting in confusion for the audience at the many lines referring to his older age.
The production was performed in a thrust configuration, but in the scenic design and many of the blocking decisions it seemed to be treated as a proscenium show. Most of the actors' and designers' efforts were directed towards the front center section of seating, resulting in one show for that portion of the audience and a different one with a lessened impact for anyone sitting on either side. One example in the blocking that particularly stands out was in the blocking of Maire and Yolland during the night scene. In the moments leading up to their kiss, they stood in one spot and rotated in a circle several times. This was an obvious director's note in an attempt to have more of the audience be able to see them during these important lines, but it was distracting and unnatural and they still landed so that only the center of the audience could actually see their kiss. At that moment it would have been better to have them stay in one spot, on a diagonal, completely focused on each other and directing the audience's complete focus to them as well.
The scenic design was especially guilty of treating the thrust space as a proscenium. In the back section of the theatre was a scrim, an elaborate series of mountain ground rows, a cyc, and crystal stars. In front of all that was a series of five vertical “barn” elements. It all looked alright from the center section of the audience, but because of the vertical elements it could hardly be seen at all from either side. In addition, from the sides the scenery became a distraction from the action of the play as the audience members had to choose to look at either the actors or the set, but couldn't see both together. The on-stage choices of the floor, furniture, and smaller hanging “barn” pieces over the downstage voms were far more successful, providing all the information needed about location without becoming a distraction. Mountains and a sky were not necessary to establish the locale, the play does that perfectly well on its own as Brian Friel is one of the Irish playwrights for whom location becomes a character that is just as important as the people. The better scenic choice would have been to stick to just those suggestive on-stage elements and allowed the production to be in the round. Perhaps that would have also forced the director to break his front-centric approach to blocking.
Most of the show was an engaging combination of humor and serious discussion, but the final act felt like it had come from a completely different play than the preceding parts of the show. Without any warning or explanation the characters are suddenly thrust into chaos, leaving the viewer completely confused as to what is going on. It is a complete disconnect between the sweet love scene and what immediately follows it, a community headed for disaster. Partly this confusion is caused by the ambiguity purposefully written into the text, but surely something could have been done in production to provide a sense of impending trouble earlier in the play to at least lessen the disconnect in tone between the last scene and everything else.
As it was, the general expression of the audience leaving the theatre was one of dissatisfaction. The show that started so well ended by not really ending. More questions were raised in the last act than anywhere else in the entire play, and none of them were answered, resulting in an audience that felt irritated and cheated.