Reviewing a performance

by Inès Haller

The performance was called An ultimate decision. It took place on Monday 17th March 2014, at our High school . Shane, Rory, Mollie and Eve were the diferent characters in  the play. The person who wrote the performance was Xavier Hock.

The performance fell into a comedy andeven more specifically  into a romantic comedy because of the love story between Mollie and Rory.

The actors were good. They were  deeply involved in  their characters. The characters were stereotypical. Mollie stood out because she was the main character. The actors used their voices, movements and gestures a lot. There was sometimes dancing and clapping in the hands .... and the actors moved a lot across the stage. We liked all the actings.

The stage was bare, it wasn’t decorated. From my point of view we didn’t need a pompous set because the  costumes told the story. The lighting was effective. It captured the attention of the spectators. We noticed different props like a water gun, a hat and a book. The technical aspects of the performance ran smoothly.

During the performance we were interested and a little bit upset because, at some points, the story was hard to understand. The audience was interested and implied into the play. The students who took part to the play were good but some of them were a bit too shy. We could wonder what was going to happen afterwards. I recommend this play to others because the story is interesting and funny.

An Ultimate Decision

 On The 17th March, our class met the "Red Eagle" and watched their performance called “An Ultimate Decision” which took place at the lycée Leclerc. It was an EITC production with 4 actors, 2 men: DANIEL ANDREWS and JACK SIMPSON and 2 girls: JENNA SAIZ and RACHEL WILE. The play was  a comedy written by Xavier Hock and performed by: EITC.

 Now let’s speak about the acting! Although every actor portrayed his character differently, they had a common point: they enjoyed the acting and had fun at playing their roles. We could not imagine that the characters could be interpreted in another way. Some characters were shallow, like Jim, Jesse and Miss Twining and if we take Molly, she was a stereotypical character because, as  she was an artist , she wore glasses, and pink overalls. (the props for an intellectual character: the glasses and artistic fantasy: the pink overalls) If someone asked us if an actor stood out in this play, we would unhesitatingly answer “Yes, Jack Simpson amazed us with his overacted playing”. Indeed, although every actor had exaggerated gesture and movements, Jack was the best at using his voice ....to hurt our ears.

 The set was simple but not bare. We could just see a curtain on the right and on the left . The curtain was black. Even if the set was simple, it showed well the theme of the play: two different worlds, the world of imagination and the real world. Only the stage was illuminated. There were some spotlights which focused on the actors. Costumes were different in both worlds. In the real world they were dressed "normally". In the Realm of Imagination they were dressed with bright colors, with Harlequin clothes, showing the colourful world of imagination. There were different props like Mollie's book, the guitar and the water gun. We were particularly surprised when the actor wet the public with the water gun. For us that was the funniest part. (OK it was an easy trick...but it worked!) Without the costumes and the curtain to show us the different worlds, we would have had difficulties to understand.

From our point of view this performance was very well played, even if we understood the girls better than the boys. They shouted less, so their part was more understandable. During the play we were interested and entertained because the actors played with the students. The audience laughed a lot and danced with the actors. The pupils playing in the performance were very good too. They learned their part well and looked like real actors. I certainly recommend this play to my friends because the actors were really kind. They played well with the audience but they spoke fast. Even if we did not understand everything it was a very good experience. The funniest moment was when students danced with the actors. The end was slightly predictable. To conclude the performance was very funny and very interesting for us.