{"id":915,"date":"2014-05-05T20:26:20","date_gmt":"2014-05-05T20:26:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ballyshannondrama.com\/?p=915"},"modified":"2014-05-05T20:26:20","modified_gmt":"2014-05-05T20:26:20","slug":"ballyshannon-shatter-myth-in-athlone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ballyshannondrama.com\/ballyshannon-shatter-myth-in-athlone\/","title":{"rendered":"Ballyshannon Shatter Myth in Athlone"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Gingerbread
Cast & Crew of ‘The Gingerbread Lady’ following their myth-shattering performance in the Dean Crowe Theatre, Athlone, in the All Ireland Drama Final 2014.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Report on Dr. Russell Boyce’s adjudication taken from dramafestival.ie:<\/em><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a myth that Neil Simon\u2019s plays don\u2019t work on this side of the Atlantic. But All Ireland Drama Festival adjudicator Russell Boyce said it was nice to see how Ballyshannon Drama Society\u2019s production of “The Gingerbread Lady” shattered that myth.<\/p>\n

He so much loved the detailed set constructed by the Ballyshannon crew that he asked the audience to think especially of those who had spent the winter months building the stage with its fireplace and recessed window, and sourcing furniture and props, including the piano and radiogram (which he told the younger members of the audience was the 1970s equivalent of the MP3 player). \u00a0It\u2019s quite a while since he had seen a box set, but this was a lovely set for this play to work, gloriously old fashioned but also gloriously right.\u00a0It was neatly constructed, clever and used well, with the furniture creating identifiable acting areas.<\/p>\n

Dr Boyce had two general points to make about acting.\u00a0He admired the level of vocal projection used by the entire cast. While the BBC is taking a hammering because the audience can\u2019t understand what the actors are saying in their new production Jamaica Inn, he said there was no mumbling to criticize in the Ballyshannon production.<\/p>\n

He suggested that some of the cast could relax a little more. Some were using very small gesture patterns, and sometimes they weren\u2019t using their arms. Usually this boils down to the nerves that feed into the shoulders, and which can cause the tension that prevents actors making a relaxed gesture, especially on the stage at the All Ireland Finals in Athlone.<\/p>\n

Rachel O\u2019Connor inhabited the role of Evy so well, it was hard to imagine anyone else playing the part. There was lovely, lovely strength in her characterization, and she drove the momentum of the play, particularly in the first act.\u00a0She was a superbly good drunk, and showed very good use of speech tunes by not repeating patterns in the melody of her voice. Hers was a lively vocal performance.<\/p>\n

Richard Hurst struck a very good balance as Jimmy, playing him just as Simon intended \u2013 as \u201cprobably homosexual.\u201d It was so right that Jimmy didn\u2019t play the part in a big, camp way. \u00a0Richard\u2019s timing was good, and his plaid trousers in the second act caught the adjudicator\u2019s eye.<\/p>\n

Toby was played in a nicely natural way by Trisha Keane, who beautifully handled Toby\u2019s mixed emotions, especially when she related story of her forthcoming divorce.\u00a0While her performance was natural, her hair \u2013 in true 1970s style \u2013 didn\u2019t move at all and was admirably more hairspray than actual hair.<\/p>\n

Sinead Luke was suitably young to play the role of Polly, and struck a nice balance between the necessary subservience required by Evy\u2019s daughter, and the argumentative side and the strength that comes through in the second act.\u00a0She was vocally very good.<\/p>\n

Anne McHugh\u2019s direction was very clever, and her spatial awareness was impressive, because characters may need to be close to each other or further apart, depending on the circumstance.\u00a0But most of all, she managed the emotional changes within the play very well indeed. Although some of the language roots the play very much in the 70s and some of it could even be uncomfortable to a 2014 audience, Anne McHugh made it relevant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Report on Dr. Russell Boyce’s adjudication taken from dramafestival.ie: There\u2019s a myth that Neil Simon\u2019s plays don\u2019t work on this side of the Atlantic. But All Ireland Drama Festival adjudicator Russell Boyce said it was nice to see how Ballyshannon Drama Society\u2019s production of “The Gingerbread Lady” shattered that myth. He so much loved the detailed set constructed by the Ballyshannon crew that he asked the audience to think especially of those who had spent the winter months building the stage with its fireplace and recessed window, and sourcing furniture and props, including the piano and radiogram (which he told the younger members of the audience was the 1970s equivalent of the MP3 player). \u00a0It\u2019s quite a while since he…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,18],"tags":[26,30,42,45],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ballyshannondrama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ballyshannondrama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ballyshannondrama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ballyshannondrama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ballyshannondrama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/ballyshannondrama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ballyshannondrama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ballyshannondrama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ballyshannondrama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}