[F] Mort in Sheffield Sat Nov 24 - A brief report
hippo
#afpers and friends from near and far gathered at the
University Drama Studio to watch the 'Children in Need'
charity matinee of Mort by Sheffield Contemporary Theatre.
Technically the production was competent : with good use of
lighting (especially to avoid lengthy scene changing passages)
and ingenious 'scythe' scenes and the final Mort and Death scene
(the latter no doubt taking some of its inspiration from the Matrix)
though I think some of the very young patrons were not surprisingly
alarmed by the pyrotechnics
Individual performances were for the most part good.
IMO particular mention to go to Albert and Cutwell.
Alas, the young lady playing Ysabel did rather jar with my
own view of the character, not that she wasn't a most able
actress, just that I've always envisaged Ysabel as the cuddly
fluffy slipper type.
All in all, an enjoyable production.
Subsequently, the meet went on to 'take over' a local
Lebanese restaurant and indulge ourselves with some
very nice food. I hope that future meets in the area
might return here.
Following the meal, those remaining visited the nearby
second hand bookshop "Rare n Racy" (the largest in central
Sheffield) and a few bargains were found.
I'll leave the other participants to post follow up corrections
and comments.
hippo
(who now has *definitely* lost count of the number of afpmeets
he's been to this year ... oh dear, how sad, never mind ;-) )
--
Mark Datko
Christmas pages : http://www.mdatko.btinternet.co.uk/P1M01.htm
Patrick Dersjant
mda...@btinternet.com says...
<snip nice report>
> hippo
> (who now has *definitely* lost count of the number of afpmeets
> he's been to this year ... oh dear, how sad, never mind ;-) )
Oh, that comes with time ;)
And here I am, sitting in bed with a laptop whilst another dutch meet
(don't ask me how many have gone before) is slowly waking up.
A meet report? Oh, we'll see about that later. Rest assured fun was had
by all, and we'll continue on today <g>
Patrick
(needing to get the UK meets section up real soon now)
Andrea
"hippo" <mda...@btinternet.com> wrote in message
news:9tqaj7$1kt$1...@plutonium.btinternet.com...
Attendees
Hippo
Davon
Roy (but not Kaiser)
Mist
Tiggs and Tigglet
Andy
Andrea
Dell
Ewan
Tish
Len Oil (his second viewing)
> So, on a mild autumnal Saturday morning assorted afpers,
> #afpers and friends from near and far gathered at the
> University Drama Studio to watch the 'Children in Need'
> charity matinee of Mort by Sheffield Contemporary Theatre.
This to locals is the OXO church, it used to be a church and is in the
classic style with a spire. The roof has a nice pattern that looks
rater like OXOXO etc. It became the University Drama Studio in the 60s
or 70s but remains the OXO church to us.
> Technically the production was competent : with good use of
> lighting (especially to avoid lengthy scene changing passages)
> and ingenious 'scythe' scenes and the final Mort and Death scene
> (the latter no doubt taking some of its inspiration from the Matrix)
> though I think some of the very young patrons were not surprisingly
> alarmed by the pyrotechnics
Even Tigglet jumped at these, they did make the floor move :-)
> Individual performances were for the most part good.
> IMO particular mention to go to Albert and Cutwell.
I want Cutwell's slippers.
Albert's nose and the drip were brilliant <g>
> Alas, the young lady playing Ysabel did rather jar with my
> own view of the character, not that she wasn't a most able
> actress, just that I've always envisaged Ysabel as the cuddly
> fluffy slipper type.
She did very well considering she was way past the age she should have
been. Her hair was good too, all sparkly and multi coloured, we liked
it.
We thought Mort was excellent, he had funny hair <g>
Rincewind had a wierd accent and masses of black hair, (too much time
with an orangutan?)
The door knocker was entertaining too, she sat in the background and
observed and reacted to whatever was going on and talked quite well
round the knocker <g>
> All in all, an enjoyable production.
yup
> Subsequently, the meet went on to 'take over' a local
> Lebanese restaurant and indulge ourselves with some
> very nice food. I hope that future meets in the area
> might return here.
They opened up specially for us, they were very attentive and produced
some fantastic food, catering for even the most fussy of palates.
Starters, main courses and deserts, mmmmmmmm. No further food was
required for the rest of the day ...
We were there about 3 hours and all rolled out, after refusing to
belly dance or do the dance of the seven veils for Roy.
(Oh yes and as usual geeking and stuff happened including the
inevitable phone comparisons - though tunes came later) Tiggs is now
the proud owner of the red dwarf ring tone. So is Pam, who arrived
later on at Andrea & Dell's bearing gifts & tales of the Maldives (are
we jelaous? no we're not!!!)
> Following the meal, those remaining visited the nearby
> second hand bookshop "Rare n Racy" (the largest in central
> Sheffield) and a few bargains were found.
I've only ever been to their other branch once, where there is a
different collection of books again but once again it's like a small
part of my image of lspace.
> I'll leave the other participants to post follow up corrections
> and comments.
Here you go, quite a quick responce, but not many are awake yet, they
can add anything else later on :-)
Andrea and Tiggs
--
Len Oil
> "hippo" <mda...@btinternet.com> wrote in message
> news:9tqaj7$1kt$1...@plutonium.btinternet.com...
I've just got to this chronological part of AFP, so I better chip in.
I had promised a review of the play to someone else, but the editing down
from the 10,000 word essay that sprang naturally from my fingers is taking a
little time to accomplish. I think it'll be shorter written in a
conversational manner.
> > Technically the production was competent : with good use of
> > lighting (especially to avoid lengthy scene changing passages)
> > and ingenious 'scythe' scenes and the final Mort and Death scene
> > (the latter no doubt taking some of its inspiration from the Matrix)
> > though I think some of the very young patrons were not surprisingly
> > alarmed by the pyrotechnics
I had the kind of precognition easily obtained by having attended the night
before (my Dad's a big fan of the man but couldn't make Saturday[1]). Even
so, I think they'd charged it with a teeny bit more powder.
> > Individual performances were for the most part good.
> > IMO particular mention to go to Albert and Cutwell.
I do agree, Cutwell has some of the funniest lines. Unfortunately the "sow
your wild oats"/"guarantee crop failure" one fell flat both times I watched,
drowned out by the audience still responding to something said immediately
prior.
> Albert's nose and the drip were brilliant <g>
Could have been a bit more peardrop-shaped, having deliberately abstained
from the book I was confused the first couple of minutes by the 'pearl'. I
will now chastise myself appropriately, let me just close the curtains
first.
> We thought Mort was excellent, he had funny hair <g>
43 year-old Jonathan Jones played a remarkably good 16 year-old Mort, and
also had a good VOICE on demand. In fact, I'd recomend that his technique
be used on top of the radio-mike/PA system Death himself was using. (But
turn the volume down on the introductory "YES!" a bit.)
Just to be fair to Dan Spencer (Death): full credit for an impromptu
covering for an unfortunate non-appearance of other character (I won't
embaress him as he's already been rightly praised[2]). Just the slightest
of over-long pauses that didn't exist the night before, then into fairly
faithful dialogue territory. He succesfully carried what was originally two
sides of a conversation, and the still missing but still necessary
information was conveyed in a later scene.
> The door knocker was entertaining too, she sat in the background and
> observed and reacted to whatever was going on and talked quite well
> round the knocker <g>
I tried this when I got home the second time and found it very hard to
emulate. I found that clasping the pen (substitute knocker) as far into the
mouth as possible seems to help mroe than between the frontmost teeth.
Still not easy.
The "Stunt Hourglass" didn't work as planned in the Saturday AM performance,
but that was covered well, too.
> > All in all, an enjoyable production.
> yup
AOL.
> > Subsequently, the meet went on to 'take over' a local
> > Lebanese restaurant and indulge ourselves with some
> > very nice food. I hope that future meets in the area
> > might return here.
Not my usual haunt, round there, but I'm trying hard to find a good reason
to frequent the place in future... How'bout an AFPmeet? We haven't had one
round here in a couple of weeks, now and I've got the bug... :)
> > Following the meal, those remaining visited the nearby
> > second hand bookshop "Rare n Racy" (the largest in central
> > Sheffield) and a few bargains were found.
Had to pull out immediately post-meal, glad to hear you had a good time.
[1] In case local AFPers are wondering, you'd like him, but I don't know who
I shouldn't be inflicting on the other... :)
[2] Now everyone with the script should be able to work out who it is, by
process of elimination...
--
Len Oil,
the man with no imaginative .sig yet.