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The Pearl
Adaption - by Visible Fictions from John Steinbeck's novel of the
same name
Director - Douglas Irvine
Set Designer - Mark Leese
Lighting Designer - Paul Ancell
Composer - Tommy Fowler
Company - Visible Fictions + Paisley Arts Centre
Venues & Dates - 7 Feb - 16 March 2002 for details
see end of review
Reviewer - Thelma Good
Steinbeck's original
gains a lively chorus
Designed for 12+ age group Visible Fiction's adaptation has a film-like
start with the title appearing 5 minutes in. This dramatisation of Steinbeck's
original also has a lively chorus and two main actors who in classical
Greek style play the central characters, a couple whose lives are changed
by chance. Well cast Kino, Tim Settle and Juana, Gillian Kerr have
problems - a baby who's stung by a scorpion, nosey, sometimes jealous
villagers, and the pearl dealers who look after themselves as does the
local doctor.
The production is staged on a circular dais which is sea bed, hut floor
and mountain side as required. The bamboo poles set in the background
and the scarves the cast wore are used to create the boat they go out
in to fish for pearls, gusts of wind, a baby and massive rocky outcrops
the couple scramble over to escape the people after their pearl. As the
chorus Kate Bailsford, Ali de Souza, Stewart Cairns and Claire Knight
all perform their share of the various supporting roles, Cairns' heavily
pregnant woman with her full-of-beans kids were a particular delight.
Although told with some energy and pace, it's hard to care for the ghastly,
increasingly awful changes in Kino and Juana's lives despite their seemingly
good fortune in finding the pearl. The direction style undermines the
drama, more suggestive of jolly children's tales as characters chase,
or walk round the dais. Generally irritating were the too regularly produced
mirrors though they do work well when used by the actors to suggest the
underwater swim of Kino.
And why this story for 12+? The style isn't surprising enough to stop
an audience in its tracks and the story's moral - settle for what you've
got or you will lose it all, is surprisingly conservative, even New Labour.
This is Visible Fiction's first go at creating theatre for this age group,
more dramatic tension could get an audience bolt upright in their seats
and actively gasping with emotion rather than watching a strangely untroubling
story.
© Thelma Good 14 February 2002.
Other EdinburghGuide reviews of VIsible Fictions Productions
Emily's House. I Beethoven's
Brother | Song
From The Sea |
Bill's New Frock.
Tour Begins
7 - 9 Feb 2002 at 7:30pm Paisley Arts Centre 0141 887 1010
14 - 16 Feb at 8pm Edinburgh Traverse Theatre 0131 228 1404
18 Feb at 8pm Inverness Eden Court Theatre 01463 234234
21 Feb at 8pm St Helens Citadel Arts Centre 01744 735436
27 Feb at 7:30pm Kirkcaldy Adam Smith 01592 412929
1 March at 7:30pm Musselburgh Brunton Theatre 0131 665 2240
5 March at 7pm Oban Corran Halls 01631 567333
7 March at 7:30pm Stonehaven Town Hall 01569 762001
8 March at 7:30pm Fraserburgh Dalrymple Hall Arts Centre 01346 515145
9 March at 7:30pm Aberdeen Arts Centre 01224 641122
11 March at 7pm Invergordon Arts Centre 01349 868487
13 - 16 March at 7:30pm Glasgow Gilmorehill G12 0141 330 5522
Tour Ends
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