Kiwiblog

Eight is a play of six monologues, at Circa. Six you ask, not eight? Why? Well because you can vote before your show on which six of the eight monologues you want to see.

On Sunday I got to see Millie, Danny, Bobby, Astrid, Miles and Jude – and hence not Mona and Andre.

The four actors – Chelsea Bognuda, Jonathan Kenyon, Jessica Robinson and Paul Waggott play two characters each. Also several of them appear as props in other scenes.

I enjoyed the show. My favourite monologue was Astrid arrives home early in the morning with torn stockings etc looking like she has had a good night out. She has – too good a night in that she scored – and struggles with whether to tell her boyfriend asleep in the bed what happened.

Also very powerful was Miles – the Merrill Lynch trader who got caught up in the 7/7 bombings in London, and used them as a way to escape his normal life for a couple of years.

The characters are all English, or in one case an American in England. But they are all characters Kiwis can relate to – either from our own experiences, or from good TV dramas.

The actors did a very good job of making their characters real. You could relate to them, and always the sign of a good monologue is that often I was disappointed they finished so quickly (around 13 minutes each).

At times though I did struggle a bit with how they all fitted together. They were individually all very good, but it was only when I read the writer’s note that I saw they were all meant to be about “growing up in a world in which the central value system is based on an ethic of commercial, aesthetic and excess” which leads to a generation who are apathetic and have lost belief in themselves and the world around them.

When I posted recently on the All Blacks test I was at, a reader called me a Steve Tew rugby fan. By that he meant someone who enjoys the game, but is not overly skilled in interpreting what is happening. I thought it a fair critique, and to some degree that applies to me with plays also.

I greatly enjoy going to the theatre and love good humour, or terrifying suspense, or experiencing emotional roller coasters. But I fear all too often I miss some of the “meta data” or hidden messages which expert theatre goers can observe and analyse.

So I guess my reviews are what one might call the “Average Joe” perspective. From that perspective I definitely enjoyed “Eight”, and seeing a talented bunch of actors pull off their monologues. However I didn’t really pick up on the common theme running through them, but that may well be more my failing, than anyone else’s.

Related posts:

1. An Oak Tree
2. Me and Robert McKee
3. Floral Notes
4. He Reo Aroha

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 11th, 2011 at 8:10 am and is filed under DPF, New Zealand. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.