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Wednesday 23 March saw Bart Players perform The Cemetery Club by Ivan Menchell at Newry Drama Festival. The Adjudicator Brian Marjoribanks enjoyed the blend of humour and deeper moods in the production but was slightly concerned about the staging.
Bart Players perform The Cemetery Club by Ivan Menchell
Speaking about the play Adjudicator Brian Marjoribanks said "It's extremely witty all the way throughout it. It manoeuveres from being extremely humorous to being rather deep and very moving at times for some of the characters in the reading of the play. It's quite a long play with eight different scenes, and I wondered how they would capture the scenes, how would they move through them and get the various touches we were looking for in it, and that depth to it as well. I also wondered too how that scene where they throw the milk and then the water afterwards on to one another. How would it go? I thought it went absolutely brilliantly and it got a lovely response from you as an audience with it.
"So as in every production the lights come on at the beginning and I looked at it and I thought what about the set, I looked at it and I thought a lovely. block set, a nice shade of blue all the way throughout. I liked the lines that came through. I thought that the rest of it was quite remarkable not only all the pictures and the framings and things like that. I rather liked this [window at door] I thought initially it's a mirror and then I realised later on you could actually see through it and see someone coming on."
The Adjudicator continued "I wondered too. I mentioned yesterday that I'm looking for visual variety on stage, every square inch has to be used up. If you put a rostrum on as we have here, it gives you the opportunity to get different heights come in as well. But then some warning signs came through to me,
"You have people as they came on being masked by the furniture. And as it progressed, I wondered if we had enough space for the action to continue. I've got to be wary what I say about that, careful about that because they put a vast amount of thought into the set and I'm not wanting to knock the set in any way, but I wonder if the production continued, it would be a bit of a problem the lack of space for the number of things they actually have to do on stage."
He added "Lighting was extremely good. Where you've got comedy, you've got to be able to see faces quite clearly and it was extremely well lit and you could see the faces clearly so that was good. The costumes had style and they came across extremely well against that neutral background they'd created on the stage.
"Sound I loved all the choice of the music, it's from the right period. This play was first performed in 1987, then 1990. I thought the music reflected it. I loved the music. Loved the sound effects especially that kettle!
"Production wise, I thought all of the cast played the comedy side remarkably well. So I was delighted to actually get that. I was also delighted to see the response from the audience. I had to clip the ear of the audience last night for not responding to the set initially. You responded well as an audience tonight, picked up all of the laughter and I could tell, you could hear a pin drop during some of the tense moments, that was coming across to you as well. So I thought the producer handled that remarkably well.
"Various scenes throughout it. My two older sisters fighting. I thought that sequence was absolutely excellent, sparked into life. The three separate graves down here I thought captured the moods of the play and we got the touch of not just the humor coming across, but the depth in the play was lovely.
Marjoribanks continued "I liked the accents from them all, I was left with no doubt as to where the play was actually set. I thought it was a little bit slow to start with, but by the time they got to Act One Scene Three they were on a roll as a company and that was lovely to see.
"I loved the Ida Sam scene in Act One Scene Three. There was a lovely pause so full of mood between the two of them. I liked watching that and the teamwork of the group of them was absolutely splendid on stage and I thought that as they progressed later on in Act One Scene Three, the production, the rhythm at that point, there was pace there it was lovely. Slow at the beginning but when the rhythm was established, once it was established you wanted to listen to it.
"Elsewhere the lighting changed in Act Two with a warmth about it, it was lovely. I thought that was quite imaginative of the lighting designer. Discreet change of costume for the ladies, too, I thought was very, very well done. Again the pace and the rhythm continued on to Act Two and I loved that, that was very nice to see. Also loved Mildred's entrance too. When I looked at the two women a I thought heavens above! Lucille, I thought once we get to the final adjudication afterwards, we insist she's on the opposite side of the room from me because I wouldn't trust her. On the other hand Mildred was more acceptable to me. In truth I get terrified by women like that.
"I loved the opening of Act Two Scene Two at the door as they come in when they were obviously under the weather. It's so easy to over act that and over project it, they didn't! I genuinely believe that they had been at the wedding, been drunk and had far too much and they set the tone for it. Lucille she wanted more, it was absolutely splendid. Again shortly after that she got an extreme touching moment, that blend of comedy the mood and the atmosphere was lovely to see. You could hear a pin drop in the audience doing that. To my mind the theme was lonliness and I thought they captured the loneliness of those women and indeed the man as well, so effectively done."
Individual Performances
Speaking about the actors performances the Adjudicator said
"Ida, movement was so relaxed to start of with which I rather liked seeing, and then the speedy movement in Act One Scene Three, it came to the character, It's coming from inside her. I truly believed in her and the predicament she had.
"Lucille good bold projection right from the start, captured me. Her responses at the grave in Act One Scene Two were absolutely splendid. I loved her phone call later on Act Two Scene Two, it was so believable across here.
"Doris, there was a sparkle to her performance when she came along , it gave the play a tremendous lift and I've been saying this for the past two nights, when a new character comes on it's got to lift the play for us and I thought Doris did that very very well. Then her character developed very nicely because it was actually quite poignant when we actually lost her later on in the play
"Sam, lovely, deep resonant voice contrasting with the ladies on stage which was good. He too gave the play a lift. He developed a lovely, believable character and when he had to take over a scene to let the ladies relax he did that remarkably well. So it was a lovely performance from him.
"Mildred, lovely entry she made and I liked her movement and I genuinely believed in her. Again I'm going to keep her at arms length."
Conclusion
In conclusion Marjoribanks said "So overall what were my thoughts. The slight problems caused by the staging. I only have two hours of the production to look through and think of what would I have done? I'll discuss it willingly afterwards. There was a lack of space, a lack of grouping at times. I thought the teamwork was remarkably good. It was really quite excellent. The characters were splendid, lovely blend of humor and the deeper moods that I wanted to see from it and that theme of loneliness. So to me it resulted in a most entertaining performance from Bart Players. So thank you very much indeed to them."
