Snakeskin Jacket is proud to present:
MARY ROSE by J.M. Barrie
Directed by George Toles
Friday, July 15 at 11:00 pm to July 23 at 12:00 pm
Venue #6 MTC Warehouse
Featuring: Jane Burpee, Nancy Drake, Ivan Henwood, Tobias Hughes, Robert Smith, Thomas Toles, Jane Walker
Have you had an Adventure in Time lately?
Welcome to MARY ROSE.
Alfred Hitchcock was obsessed with this ghost play by Peter Pan author J.M. Barrie. We will be combining Barrie's play with ideas from Hitchcock's attempts to adapt it.
Mary Rose disappears, often for very long periods, then reappears, without having aged.
Wow! Never have I seen a play fall so absolutely flat on its face at the Fringe! Well, OK, perhaps I'm being a little harsh, but Mary Rose is definitely on my Worst of the Fringe list of 2011. In short, I was ready for the whole performance to be over about 20 minutes into the 75 min. production.
ReplyDeleteWhy so awful you ask? Several reasons to be frank. Partially it's a fault of timing, partially a fault of acting and partially a fault of production values, I'll allow you to take your personal pick. The end effect is that much of this play feels like the uncomfortable exercise of something that never really connected with what it was trying to portray.
Not that everything is terrible about this play of course; the supporting cast of this production is worth their weight in gold, helping to brake the tedium and offering genuine characters you can invest a few meager minutes of interest in.
Still, take my word for it, if you're unsure about this play at all, chances are fairly good that you'd rather enjoy your second options. This is a play that could likely have done with several more months of rehearsal and likely a couple of other things on the side too.
Never have I seen a more beautifully acted fringe play (or any play, for that matter). The performances were nuanced and gave me goosebumps. A couple of the supporting roles offered welcomed comic-relief to a play that is equal part chilling, haunting, beautiful and tragic. I was literally on the edge of my seat for the second and third acts of the play. This production had a very cinematic and stylized feel that was a welcome change to the abundance of sketch-comedy and musicals at this year's Fringe. Mary Rose was definitely the highlight for me at the Big Top Fringe. I am ever so thankful I had the opportunity to see it.
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