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I find my own writing verbose and passive, which is probably why I don’t post as often as I’d like. I read other personal blogs, like Megan’s Head and Defective Yeti, and I long to have their skill with the written word. The ability to make a point, set a scene, tap into my emotions or just to twist that critical knife in a minimum of words is something I long to do.

To demonstrate my own sorry skills I will point out another blog that I read on a semi-regular bases: the real review. It’s the blog of Brent Meersman, a theatre critic, author and all round raconteur. He has just done a review for Merchant of Venice for the Mail & Guardian which has in a couple of lines has summed up my take on the the production. Scroll down for my own layman review. I will quote from his review here to illustrate:

And Jeremy Crutchley is everything one wants in such a Shylock. His performance is studied, nuanced and moving, and his Shylock’s humiliation a masterclass in achieving dramatic impact. Graham Weir, as the merchant Antonio, is a perfect counterpart, as refined and controlled. The two play exceptionally well off one another.

And this:

This fault line is exacerbated by the vast gap between Crutchley and Weir’s naturalism, and the uninspiring leads (Clayton Boyd as Bassanio and Tessa Jubber as Portia) with their supporting cast who with a few exceptions (such as John Caviggia) are over the top, vulgarised, comic mummers.

There, my whole rambling review summed up with both economy and eloquence.  But I must admit that I didn’t find Tessa Jubber that uninspiring and I’d be very happy to see her in more productions.

My writing is like a monsoon on the senses whereas people like Megan, Brent and Matthew refresh like a summer shower. 

Read Brent’s review here and then go and see the show, Jeremy and Graham need to be seen and appreciated.

As the spouse of the ‘Assistant Director & Voice Coach" of this years production of Shakespeare @ Maynardville I was invited to attend the open night of Merchant of Venice on Saturday night. I got progressively more nervous as the night approached and I’m convinced that my ‘illness’ last week was a subconscious plot to get out the evening. I’ve been to a number of productions at Maynardville and on average have left at interval more often then not. I battle with Shakespeare at the best of times and the norm for Maynardville productions for me is two or three ‘star’ actors sandwiching a gooey unappetising blob of mediocre acting and directing that I find hard to swallow. You get the idea from whence I come? So it’s with these ghosts of past productions that I was having to gird my loins to sit through Merchant of Venice no matter what.

Now that the tone has been set for a bleak and negative layman’s review I’m going to have to disappoint my readers (all 2 of you) and say that I loved the production. I found the whole experience to be great fun. The interpretation and editing done by Roy Sargeant made the play accessible and contemporary. The good performances far overshadowed the bad, or in this case mediocre, with strong characters created by Jeremy Crutchley, Graham Weir, Tessa Jubber, Juliet Jenkin, David Johnson and Darron Araujo.

Even if Jeremy Crutchley is billed as the star of the show it was, in fact, the performance of Graham Weir that for me was the most subtle and memorable.  As a character central to the story and plot but with the least amount of stage time I found Graham’s character full of depth and personality and worthy of a standing ovation in his own right. So Graham, here I stand in my lounge applauding your performance. Bravo!

Jeremy delivered a great performance and his Shylock is memorable, but I can’t help but feel that at times what was being projected was a caricature of jewishness. Almost a propaganda poster of "how to identify a jew" that the Nazis would have undoubtedly created for the time this production is set in.

Tessa can now be forgiven her stint on Isidingo, she created a strong character and more importantly, for me, her delivery was clear and audible.  I will be quite keen to see her in other stage productions.

The set was great and suited the interpretation of the play. At no time did it dominate the performances, it held and presented the performers in a manner that allowed for fluid movement.

The two stand out improvements on past productions was the sound and the aisle down the middle. Sound was amazing and the new aisle made entering and exiting the seating area much more pleasurable.

This an a production worth supporting, pack a picnic hamper and spend a few hours feeding yourself. You will end the evening feeling like it was time well spent.