Featuring Anonymous Blog Comment: Audience Review 2

Now here's a thing! Trawling through, tidying up and editing this funny miscellany of posts, I find hidden in one of the cupboards in the blog storeroom, this little understated gem! But you know what you don't get away that easily as to leave this just as a comment. Oh no you don't! Yours truly with a forensic eye for such deprecating behaviour spotted this thoughtful post. Now you didn't tell us who you are, but I think there is a distinct possibility that I know. Education would appear to be your field, and a clear knowledge and interest in the teaching of singing! Mmm  -I shall be asking a few questions of my MD today!

Anyway folks..... This is what Anonymous has to say on Cinderella.

Anonymous said yesterday..........

Well its taken me several weeks of blog reading and my daughter and I watching one performance (so far!!) of Cinderella for me to finally comment, but here (with a big gulp) it goes.

You might wonder why today and not after watching the show or after reading a particularly insightful Carole Blog and the answer is quite simple. Twice today I have been forced, care of Radio 4, to actively think about Cinderella, its uniqueness in the world of panto and what an amazing thing the human voice is!

So the conscious jolters.... since I do love a bit of scientific fact. Word of Mouth in which Michael Rosen explored the effect of alcohol on speech and voice quality was fascinating. Amongst other things he visited the Royal College of Music to discuss voice care and the kinds of food and drink professional singers have to avoid in order to prolong their careers. I have found a new respect for vocal folds (as I now know they should be called), and be warned I can now be very geeky about the quantity of mucus on them that causes fractions of a second delay in sound production when singing,the need for super hydration to keep them at their peak and the necessity to avoid chillies and alcohol too close to a performance!

The other programme was called 'Grimms Tales', http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01pjjzs (editor's addition)
which traces the tales right back to their ancient origins, hoping to answer the question of why we find parallels with the Grimm's stories in texts across cultures throughout time. 

Today's search centred on Cinderella in the tale's oldest known incarnation - an ancient Egyptian manuscript that tells the rags-to-riches story of the 'rosy-cheeked' Rhodopis ane was a (perhaps fittingly) precious find, recovered from a rubbish dump! 

It also told of the variations in interpretations of the story over time and across the world, with the same underlying theme.

Your Cinderella as a new reincarnation moves the story another notch up the evolutionary tree from the panto we all know and love. Whilst it has the elements of the current 'traditional panto',in the splosh scene and audience song board 
(even without a song board, since who needs one with a yodelling goldfish!) it does however perhaps intetionally (or maybe not) take it back to the origins of the the story and really is a piece of true musical theatre.

The scenary is simplistically lovely; we especially liked the wave-like transito from kitchen to woods and back again moving across the stage. 

The costumes are entirely suited to the characters portrayed and of course the dress transformation is magical, though sadly we were also intrigued by the broken shoe transformation as well!

The cast are all brilliant, there have been plenty of superlatives written about them all which we entirely endorse but us the mice are particularly loveable. The grumpy mouse trying to prevent the other mouse joining in and then having to give in with such unadulterated pleasure is just so endearing!

Finally the Creative Team in terms of script, direction, musical score and choreography has done a wonderful job, and although we admit to knowing two of them, that actually means we would be more critical and given them a 'hard time' if there were things we didn't like! 

Bravo Arc and Broadway Theatre....job far more than well done!......can't wait until next year's panto!!!! 




Editor's Notes:

Goodness me Anonymous(e) Ah is that why you have a fondness for our little micies?
This is a very humbling piece for me to read and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for the time you have taken to post your comments.

I cannot resist but to pick up a couple of your points. Its quite funny but you may have seen a post from our Costume Maker, Alison Jacobson.Although in her post she didn't refer to it, on our Team Cinderella private Facebook group she said. " I can recommend Grimm's Thoughts, episode 2 on Radio 4. About Cinderella. It's a global fairy story. Apparently in China, Cinders best friend was a fish! Maybe it yodelled?

You are absolutely right Anonymouse, we did indeed excavate in depth the original Grimm's fairy tale in our rehearsals for Cinderella. I refer you also to the blog I wrote (need to check number and get back to you) in which I talked a little about how I use Archetypes as the starting point for understanding narrative and framing character in my process. Theatrical style is often a choice usually dictated by the playwright. In this case of course the style is pantomime. In my view however, the fundamental essence of any piece of work such as this has to be the story.

In this case the territory is the ubiquitous substance of the rags to riches narrative, so familiar throughout time and cultures. An understanding of the meaning of the metaphor(s) consciously enables a forensically analytical approach to story and text. 

So by this I mean the shadow and light of Cinderella's journey of transformation sits underneath whatever style through which you determine to channel it theatrically. 

As you will know this is my first foray into directing panto and as I have said on many occasions now it is the most terrifying of undertakings with the greatest risk I have ever taken in my directing life.

Because years of working with text, actors, dynamics and emotions I think I have a reasonably well developed understanding of the difference between content and form in theatre. In the case of this version of Cinderella I understood that in the first instance I needed to uncouple form from content. 

In other words to be authentic and faithful to the original "learning story and metaphor" and then to express that through a familiar form which is this case is pantomime.

My influences and training in theatre, though text rich are largely physical, ie; training in Commedia del'arte, Contact improvisation, Meyerhold's Bio-mechanics system and physical image realisation.(sorry to get all technical here!) So I had no other choice but to call on the DNA of my theatrical background to approach this show. 

I am thrilled that you describe our show as a musical with recognisable panto elements. This is a hole in one! It is precisely how I described my vision and ambition for the panto from the get go to the creative team and then to the technical team and cast. Its profoundly satisfying to hear those words played back to me by you. 

Finally the Rosen programme points also to the need to foster the performer's technical armoury, with the voice, both spoken and in song understood to and values as part of the core expressive instrument and importantly the ways in which it must be cared for. The voice needs and must be integrated fully as the body itself houses all of it along with the imagination, emotion and physicality to enable a pure and unblocked flow of expression.

This is rather a long editor's note, though entirely prompted by your review for which I thank you.
Carole

PS: Here is a link to some snippet phone videos of a couple of numbers from the show! 

 http://www.youtube.com/user/ArcTheatre1?feature=watch