Booked on 2017-10-14 for $28.00 + $5.95 booking fee split with The Changeling, which I'll go to next Monday. These are the some of the end-of-year productions for the second year (?) students; I went to the mid-year ones back in June. As always I took the opportunity to have dinner at the seemingly timeless Pinocchio Sushi beforehand. UNSW was overflowing with students pretending to study.
This was the opening night and they started fifteen minutes late. (They finished up around 10pm, thirty minutes late.) From the map I thought seat D-16 (centre, two rows from the front) would be alright but the eyeline is approximately at the shin level of the players. The set was a moderately sophisticated two-level balcony/staircase construction that effectively evoked the interiors of various residences but not really the mean streets of pivotal action. The acting was uniformly excellent, playfully hamming up what could have been some stodgy raw material; Tom Wright directed his cast brilliantly. They were (listed here because NIDA appears not to):
- Margery Pinchwife — Emma Kew (made everything of her scenes)
- Harry Horner — Andrew Fraser (effortless, lethally charismatic; Tom Cruise in Interview with the Vampire mode)
- Jack Pinchwife — Joshua Crane (flawless, demonstrating a strong will to be cuckholded)
- Sparkish — Jack Richardson (skillful; the character is too vapid)
- Alithea Pinchwife — Chika Ikogwe (a difficult character: she escapes an "honorable" marriage for one with a man who seems quite shallow, though there are some good lines amongst the hand wringing.)
- Lady Fidget — Laura Jackson (perfectly arch as an honourably randy lady, determined to get in first)
- Dainty Fidget — Bridie McKim (a completely effective and amusingly ditzy wanton; I wonder how I can see her film work)
- Mrs Squeamish — Daya Czepanski (fine, a largely auxiliary character)
- Lucy — Heidi May (an effective too-wise lady-in-waiting)
- Sir Jasper Fidget — Nyx Calder (solid; I think I saw him earlier in the year)
- Frank Harcourt — Danen Engelenberg (a bit too quiet somehow; above it all)
- A Quack/Old Lady Squeamish — Vivienne Awosoga (very good as the doctor; the other character seems completely dispensable)
It deserved a far longer run than it got.