Therese Raquin
Oct. 29th, 2004 11:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidLast night I went to the first play of the BU season, Therese Raquin (Neal Bell, based on the Emile Zola novel). It was excellent.
The story is of a rather odd young woman, married off to her cousin, who finds love with someone else, and how their relationship withers after the murder of the husband. I was impressed with the ability of these (undergraduate, I believe) actors, who were fully in their roles.*
There was seating around three sides of the stage area, and the set was a huge dropcloth over the floor, a couple of chairs (used in both traditional and innovative ways), and a translucent screen behind. There were few props, the most important of which were some black block 'dominoes', used more for sound than for gaming potential. Costumes were historical, around 19th century-ish. The lighting and sound made this play work so effectively with such a minimal set. The lights shifted, and the place changed, a cool narrow room, a skylit garret full of sunlight, reflections on the water. The sound included some haunting music (returned to time and again), a lightly babbling brook, a crackling fire, and the sound of blocks hit together, again and again and again.
Oh, one bit of dialogue struck me oddly. It's obviously a play set in France, and the aunt says something about "French letters", which is a term I'd not expect a French person to use. English, sure (those stinking French, after all). But not French.
I'm even more looking forward to the rest of their season, having seen such ability with this one.
* Such a contrast to the Harvard play I'd tried to watch the night before, but had to walk out of due to excess smoke. I didn't regret it either, with such wooden acting.
The story is of a rather odd young woman, married off to her cousin, who finds love with someone else, and how their relationship withers after the murder of the husband. I was impressed with the ability of these (undergraduate, I believe) actors, who were fully in their roles.*
There was seating around three sides of the stage area, and the set was a huge dropcloth over the floor, a couple of chairs (used in both traditional and innovative ways), and a translucent screen behind. There were few props, the most important of which were some black block 'dominoes', used more for sound than for gaming potential. Costumes were historical, around 19th century-ish. The lighting and sound made this play work so effectively with such a minimal set. The lights shifted, and the place changed, a cool narrow room, a skylit garret full of sunlight, reflections on the water. The sound included some haunting music (returned to time and again), a lightly babbling brook, a crackling fire, and the sound of blocks hit together, again and again and again.
Oh, one bit of dialogue struck me oddly. It's obviously a play set in France, and the aunt says something about "French letters", which is a term I'd not expect a French person to use. English, sure (those stinking French, after all). But not French.
I'm even more looking forward to the rest of their season, having seen such ability with this one.
* Such a contrast to the Harvard play I'd tried to watch the night before, but had to walk out of due to excess smoke. I didn't regret it either, with such wooden acting.