The best part of the play was when Mickey and Eddie were 7 years old. I loved the way the actors played their characters. They made the character so believable. They also made the character believable by doing some of the things a 7 year old would do, For example, pretend that they are getting on a horse and riding on it and stretching their jumper to make it fit around his knees. It actually made me, the audience; feel that we are watching little 7 year olds playing. I never at any point in the play feel that ” this is an actor”. Their make up was also like a 7 years olds too; they were dirty with mud and dust on their faces. That’s how 7 year old boys look when they are playing.
I feel that, by having songs in the play are very effective, because it contributes to the effect the director is trying to make. I also feel that is there is a sad scene and there is sad music on in the background, it adds an effect that makes the audience cry or upset. And having dancing in it adds the finishing touches. I also sense that lighting in a stage production is compulsory, I think this because when we do pieces of drama in our lessons and we use lighting, the drama looks much better than before because the lighting changes the whole mood of the story, for example when Mrs. Lyons sits on the floor and cries, red gels drop down on her, which makes us think that she is in the wrong. Also when the narrator (devil and conscience) comes and stands behind her the gels drop. That mainly happens in the mini nightmare sequence.
I reckon that the best costumes in the whole play were Mickey and Eddie’s costumes, because I feel that those costumes suited the character and his status. If you look at Mickey’s clothes you can see that his clothes are torn and have holes in them, from there you can see that the nor he or his mum can afford better clothes for him, on the other hand, Eddie is dressed in posh and expensive clothes to show that he is rich and can afford all these clothes.
I judge that the stage was set beautifully in the play, when I say this I imply, it had backdrops that changed at the interval to show that the have moved into a new house. It also changed when Mrs. Lyons comes to Mrs. Johnstone’s house to talk to her then a kitchen backdrop was dropped. On the stage there was always a lamppost in right-hand corner of the stage, which was a continuous prop. The actors acted around the lamppost styling it out.
As this has been the first time I have seen a professional drama performance, I submit to myself that, nearly all the actors in the play made their character incredibly believable, the three that stood out the most were, Mickey’s actor (Stephen Palfreman), Eddie’s actor (Mark Hutchinson) and Sammy’s actor (Daniel Taylor). All three of these actors preformed tremendously. And made their characters so believable that I didn’t think for one second that they were acting.
For example when they were performing the song, kids play. The way they were running around was like they don’t have a worry in the world and that’s how 7 year olds are. As I said before this is the first stage production I’ve ever seen, and from my experience I feel that this was a remarkable piece of drama. I feel this way because of the acting, the story, the technical side and the musical side too. I really don’t think that there is any room for improvement, because it is a marvellous the way it is.
