An Evaluation of ‘Strange Orchestra’ at the (Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond) - page 1
Keywords: An Evaluation of ‘Strange Orchestra’ at the (Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond) GCSE Drama Coursework
By slashwk on 23/11/2006 17:23:00
Level: GCSE Key Stage 4 (Years 10-11)
Page Number: 1 of 3 pages: 1 2 3
The piece was set in a 1930’s house at which the main landlady (Vera) is a host to a group of colourful, contrasting, conflicting characters with many different aspects to each of them which grabs ones attention and engrosses them in their individual storylines and sub-plots.
I liked the way the very first scene gets people laughing straight away. We see George playing a small guitar whilst wearing his authentic looking dressing gown. He starts looking at himself in the mirror and changing positions (as if no-one can see him) whilst he plays his instrument. This made quite a few people laugh as we like to see what weird things people get up to when they think nobody is watching. This playing of the guitar starts to connote humour throughout the piece. In a later scene everyone is frantic, worried and noisy as they have come downstairs in the morning to find out that the somewhat-happy couple have locked themselves in their room (and suspecting suicide). People are banging on the door, shouting their names, and screaming at each other over what to do. Then hear comes George with his little guitar playing his tune and humming his song. That was even successful in making most of our hardened Tiffin audience laugh.
I thought that the stage area was very interesting and very effective indeed. The stage is roughly a simple 10x10 metre area in the centre, with seating along all four sides. The stage isn’t raised, so this gave a certain Roman amphitheatrical look to the place as the seating raised the audience slightly above the space. I thought this 360-degree perspective was ingenious because every single person had a completely different angle from which to view the entirety of the piece. This means that what people saw could be interpreted differently because of the different angles, and therefore create a different reaction for each and every member of the audience.
The actors and actresses came on and off stage via the four corners of the square-shaped area. I thought this was a clever idea because people would come from different corners and make people look more peripherally for when actors came on and off and made the space seem larger than it actually was. However, I did find it quite annoying as one of the people right next to a corner, to have to keep moving my legs out of the
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