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The 68th Newry Drama Festival kicked off on Monday with Rosemary Drama Group presenting Tartuffe by Moliere.
It was a welcome return to Newry Town Hall for the audience who had missed their quota of drama for over two years due to the pandemic.
The Chairperson Maire Donaghey welcomed everyone back after the enforced two year interval and thanked the event sponsors.
Rosemary took to the stage and the festival was off. Adjudicator Brian Marjoribanks spoke afterwards.
"I would like to see I hate Adjudicators who stand up and refer to previous performances and compare them, but that's exactly what we're going to do tonight.
"The last time I saw Tartuffe was about 1990 when I was in Paris where one of the top companies gave a performance and they did it the way the set would have been done back in 1664. It was extremely static, there was no movement whatsoever. They wanted the verse to comes through rather than anything else but it was the worst production I've ever seen in my life. So I would really say to Rosemary tonight, you are far far better than that production back in 1990 so well done there.
"It's written obviously in verse and I wondered how you would cope with the verse and get it over to the audience. I wondered how you would respond to it too. I was interested in seeing it? Some long speeches for the characters in it as well so how would they tackle it? Well when we saw the set, I liked it enormously. I liked for example the white entrance here, centre stage, whenever a new character came in, you could see very clearly who that person was
I thought the set was extremely well thought out."
Marjoribanks continued "Lighting generally was quite good throughout it. I would have liked just a touch more on Dorine as she was leaning against the proscenium arch down there because she looked so inviting against the proscenium arch"
Speaking on the Production he said "There were so many things that that I like enormously. For example, the movement, I thought the movement was very well thought out, very well motivated by the producer. Too often in productions you see the cast wandering around for no apparent reason and not relaxed in doing it. This was not the case tonight. I thought that they knew exactly where they were going, why they were doing it and I thought the producer had looked that out and talked about it a great deal. Very, very well motivated. He also used every square inch of the stage here
"There was a lot of visual variety, which was lovely to see. I thought that the producer also created the characters quite functionally and by and large, they blended quite well together, one or two problems I did have with them, I'll go back to that in a moment. I thought the producer captured the humour and the wit of the play. Vocals were extremely well orchestrated and so we had a lovely vocal blend and contrast.
"I also liked the grouping of characters, at times there was 11 people on stage. You may have thought that was quite tricky to do, but I thought the producer had thought it out and got them in the right groupings, especially when they were all on at the one time, that was remarkably well done. I also loved too some of the scenes in particular for Orgon and Cleante, the pace of the scene between them was lovely. I thought that they and the cast elsewhere created a rhythm about the production, and if you get the rhythm right it will hold the attention of audience"
Marjoribanks added "There were degrees of uncertainty throughout the production particularly Act One Scene Two with Orgon, Dorine and Marianne, and that worried me just a little bit. I wonder if someone got the wrong cue. or were uncertain about that part of it, those things do happen. I felt that there was a degree of overacting in the production which I didn't actually feels was necessary, and when you get overacting and over projection of the voice, clarity sometimes goes and I thought it did at times, so I was just a little bit disappointed by that.
"But then when I look back on it and I think to myself, the seduction scenes, the one in Act Two Scene One was beautifully done. The business of the table cloth with him under there, taking the cloth down, I thought that was handled remarkably well too. And oh yes the actual seduction of her to him, I wish I had been on stage at that point I must confess, although I also admit I'm more than 10 years to old for her!"
The Characters
"Madame Pernelle, excellent stage presence right at the start of the play. I'm a big believer in public speaking. It's important to get the person at the back of the audience in with you on stage and you've got to do it from the word go. if you leave it to in your second paragraph or your third paragraph you have to work twice as hard to get the audience with you. She didn't have to. She got it from the word go. She dominated the whole stage when she was on here. I thought she was confident, she was at ease, her stage movement particularly good in character.
"Orgon, I liked his entrance. When a character comes on they should give the play a lift and he did. He came across the back here, straight on to the stage and when he was there he dominated the piece, to allow someone else to relax while he was on stage. He was required to dominate and he certainly did, his stage movement was so relaxed and so good
"Elmire looked the part, played her first seduction scene extremely well but in Act Two Scene One I thought the seduction scene was even better so well done you.
"Damis an unusual but very acceptable character which was interesting to see.
"Marianne played with a degree of sparkle and acting ability as well. Some of the smaller scenes she had I thought she made a distinct impression on me.
"Valere his entry gave the play a new lift but beware of dropping projection.
"Cleante, good relaxed performance. Technically and vocally I thought he was extremely good in both voice and movement, handled his big speeches well, most enjoyable.
"Tartuffe himself - I'd like to see this just toned down a little bit more than he did. I'd like to see the scheming type of person he was. He tended to marginally overact. I don't really mind overacting because if you get somebody who's not acting at all and bringing them up to square one, it's a tricky thing to do.
I thought there was scope for more subtlety at times in the performance.
"Dorine had a lovely comic instinct which was very good. Her one liners within the verse was extremely good, she got the most out of them. Movement was good. Be wary of throw away lines Dorine too, indistinct at times so be aware of that.
"M Loyal slightly over projected, but yes, toned down would be even more effective than it was.
"The officer was a splendid character. He was on stage for a good 45 seconds before you really notice him and then he fired to life and opening he was extremely good and it was lovely to see."
In Conclusion
Concluding the Adjudicator said he thought the positives massively outweighed the negatives.
"The characters were grouped extremely well to create visual variety throughout which I thought was lovely to see and a cast in double figures. They created an interesting group of people and I was genuinely interested in them.
"On the debit side, there were elements of overacting and I felt that was a great pity. But overall, a most enjoyable performance of this classic play and thank you very much indeed Rosemary for a lovely start to the festival."
