Friday Fearta

[smokingboot]

Because our wallets and livers could not stand the wreckage of another friday night (and because larians planned it as a surprise) we headed off down to Macclesfield. Macclesfield is a sweet enough place; it has markets and restaurants, pubs and clubs, terraced cottages and cobbled streets, industrial estates and antique shops. What it doesn't have is a local cinema, which may be why the local theatre gets so much custom.

Friday night and the place is packed. Three times I've been here, and it's always the same. The sponsors are Macc businesses, the audience is made up of people who live nearby, and bums on seats never seem lacking, from the local yoof to the mayor, the occasional pensioner posse and lots of, well, just people really. The whole thing's a community dream, a nicely fitted up little theatre (called, unsurprisingly, The Little Theatre) which houses the efforts of Macclesfield Amateur Dramatics Society to full house audiences on a regular basis. It's all a bit strange. Maybe they sacrifice non-locals to an effigy of Dagon down in the cellar at the end of each run, because otherwise, I just don't understand all this keenness and good behaviour.*

MADS has been around since 1947, and the town has had amateur theatricals since the 1920s. The usual sins of Ayckbourn et al get trotted out regularly, but they try other things too.
They tried another thing last night: 'The Haunting of Hill House.'



Hmm. I remember this as a film, the black and white version, not the one with Catherine Zeta-Jones. The photography and the atmosphere made it amazing. I am not convinced that it translates well to stage. I begin to wonder if films ever really do.

The set was beautifully put together, the changes of scene well managed, but the sound system was not subtly deployed, and I wonder why they don't take the Plunkett and Maclean cd and just chuck it away. It didn't help their production of Dracula last year, and it didn't help Hill House last night.

Acting, well, all credit to those who gave it their best. One terrifying rendition was the part of Theo; in the film, there is an odd, almost but not quite lesbian subtext to the part. Well, there was nothing almost but not quite about this. She was a strange amalgamation of Quentin Crisp, Carmen Miranda, and Joel Grey in Cabaret, with her rolling rabid eyeballs and her hands all over the unfortunate Eleanor at every opportunity. If she had spoken to me of horrible bangings, my mind would not have instantly flown to phantom knocks on the wall; I was expecting her to turn up wearing a double-ended soho delight, popperjar in one hand, g+t in the other. And she wore green sequins.

larians liked her. He seemed to think she brought spark and verve to a rather lacklustre production and I suppose in a way she did. Eleanor had a strange monotonal fret to her voice - personally, I thought a night in the arms of the sequined avenger could only improve her. I didn't believe in Eleanor, but I believed that she believed, and you can't ask for more, for a fiver. But they were none of them helped by very old fashioned direction. Lots of action off stage, lots of static figures on stage. And the dialogue...but let's not go there.




Still, a fun evening out. It left me looking at the stage and thinking, how do you frighten an audience? How do you unsettle them? Assume that you could hack out some of the more churning dialogue from something like Equus,** and you could really make the audience feel. But Equus and its ilk might not suit the Macc audience. This might be a spurious judgement as they've supported such edifying attempts as Anna Karenina, so they don't balk at 'heavy' stuff, but no, I don't see horse mutilation winning any fans. Shock and anger are easy. Real fear is delicate and rare, and it grows in a setting that seems small while having lots of resource. I would like to see such a play.

And today? I am at half way stage in my work. The flaws are too complicated for me to discuss. Last night, I had strange dreams of being a muse/dancer connected to the Yellow King. I ran and I ran...

And I am positively not going to discuss Interflora or Mothers Day flowers at all.

* You can take the girl out of London...

** No 'little torches shining in the dim cave of the psyche', if it can possibly be avoided.

Comments

[spiraltower.livejournal.com]

It left me looking at the stage and thinking, how do you frighten an audience?

It's many years since I saw it, admittedly, but 'the Woman in Black' was very scary indeed and very entertainingly staged. I shan't go into details for fear of spoiling it for those who may yet go, but it's a play a highly recommend.

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

You know, all my friends tell me to shut up about that blasted play! I thought I was the only person ever to have seen it, and even then, only on TV. It still frightened the bejasus out of me! From what you recall, would it need amazing stage-craft to make it work, or do you think the script's the magic?

[spiraltower.livejournal.com]

The television film is a fairly simple adaptation of Susan Hill's novel, as I recall. The stage play (adapted from the book by Stephen Malatrat, I think) requires more imaginative adaptation.

It's achieved by ditching almost any attempt to stage it realistically. The 'set' is a theatre stage with a few bits of scenery, baskets and props scattered around as if left over from some other production.

The conceit of the play is that 'Kipps' is hiring 'The Actor' to give a reading of his tale (ie the novel) many years after the event. The young actor is far too arty for that and insists on turning it into a performance in which he plays the young Kipps and Kipps himself plays everyone else. The stuff on stage at various times becomes gravestones, desks, carts, beds etc, and much is made of "the modern innovation of 'recorded electric sound'!". It works very well and was suitably raved about in my 'A' level Theatre studies exam (which says something about how long ago I saw it!).

Of the three versions I now know (book, play, film), the play is far and away my favourite. Even if you know another version, however, the play still has some genuine frights in store.

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

Sounds very interesting. I will definitely keep an eye out for it.