The Play: Arthur Miller's The Crucible
The Company: The Australian Shakespeare Company
The Theatre: Upstairs at the Athenaeum
Stars: 2
Closed: 25 June
I like The Crucible as a play. It's a standard, like Macbeth. You go along what they are going to do with it. Wonder what the staging is going to be like, enjoy the tension that starts to build as John and Lizzie Proctor try to get out of their witchy pickle in Salem in the 1690s.
My friend Kit suggested going along to the Australian Shakespeare Company's rendition of this classic play, upstairs at the Athenaeum.
For those not in Melbourne, The Athenaeum is an old theatre on Collins Street. Along with the Comedy Theatre on Exhibition Street, it's not really been renovated. It's a beloved space. I didn't know there was a theatre space upstairs. Discovering this space was the only saving grace for this performance.
The evening didn't start out that well. The theatre is also home to The Rocky Horror Picture Show which was starting a bit later. The foyer was full, the ticketing system archaic, there were people everywhere. It didn't bode well.
We found our seats.
And yeah. What can I say?
Maybe it was a last night thing, as this was the closing night.
It was appalling.
Looking back, I'm not surprised there were no reviews online.
I'm all for stripped back performances, but yeah... nah. This was akin to a bad high school performance. I'd say that you're probably going to see a better performance from the Year 12s at Frankston High.
And this is a professional company. The Australian Shakespeare Company are the crew who does Shakespeare in the Park each year. They're great in the park. Mind you, you forgive a lot when you're seeing Shakespeare under the stars, sitting on the ground with a picnic and a glass of wine.
In a theatre, you're trapped. You can't quietly run out and find your car located on the Tan track if you don't like what you're seeing.
And yes, this is not the Melbourne Theatre Company, but still. We paid $45 each for the tickets.
My two main beefs - every actor had an appropriation of some English accent. There were a couple of Irish accents, one part Scot, a Yorkshireman and a Geordie on recollection. There were probably more accents. Not a good start. This jarred on me no end. If the actors had kept their own native Australian accents, it might have worked a little better.
The costumes were all over the place. They looked like most of the characters had raided the dress up box. Yes, this is a small company, but this was beyond the pale. Why some characters were dressed out of the 1800s, while others looked like they were out of the 1920s made no sense.
And the acting was patchy. The guy playing John Proctor was passable - but that was about it. Being on a small stage, with a number of people on the stage, when there were group scenes, those not speaking took up too much energy, taking away from the action (and the bad accents). A lot of them seemed to break character regularly as they were standing around. I spent more time watched those who were supposed to be doing nothing, missing out on the action.
"Is it me, or is this bad?" I asked Kit, during a scene change.
"It's bad."
It was so bad that we left at the interval, not bothering with the last two acts.
This was disappointing - but being closing night, at least you don't have the opportunity to see it.
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