She Sails – Production Review
Philip on Mar 12 2006 at 4:07 pm | Filed under: Reviews
The first thing that I would have to admit is that I am not a poetry aficionado. I also have to admit that I have a bias that is based on two productions of poetry that I was involved with, as the Artistic Director of the Dundas Repertory Season. Four Billion Circles and Still Standing were both staged during the time of the Repertory Season and both productions were brilliant in their own right so it is difficult for me to watch anything poetry related without comparing it to one or both of those productions.
She Sails a One Woman Poetic Drama – “A lamentation in the music of my voice now [and forevermore]“ by Nathalie Wood was presented at the Dundas Centre for the Performing Arts on Saturday, March 11th at 8:00 p.m. There is no doubt in my mind that Ms. Wood is a talented writer and performer. I will not try to analyze her poetry as I don’t really feel qualified to do so. I will, however, talk a little about the theatrical production of this work.
My main thought as I left the theatre was that this production would have been better served by having a director, or a third eye to ensure that the technical problems were taken care of.
There was one technical aspect of the production that was not the fault of anyone involved with Ms. Wood’s production team. It was something that was totally under the control of the Dundas. There was some sort of fan or motor or something that went on periodically and ran for approximately a minute and then shut off again. This was a most annoying noise that was quite distracting to me and I’m sure to other members of the audience and to the performer.
The production started shortly after eight with the first two acts, Love and Inspiration and Sex. The first piece, She Sails, is delivered in a presentational style and it has been my experience that most poets tend to suffer in this style, depending on the length of the piece. The difficulty comes in creating variety to keep the audience focused on what is being said. Ms. Wood handled this task better than most but it was evident that she is even more comfortable when she gets into character, which is what she did well for pretty much the rest of the first act.
There were a few things about the second act that created problems for me. One was a lighting change that seemed arbitrary. At one point in the middle of a piece the lights faded to sort of reddish hue which I thought was effective for that particular piece but the lights then stayed that way for the rest of the act. I’m not sure if this was something that was thought out by the production team or if it was just the choice of the person operating the lights that decided to add some variety to the lighting of the production. The piece Statistics seemed to run into some trouble. I’m not sure if Ms. Wood just blanked or if she was distracted by the numerous camera flashes that were taking place during the show. She took a moment, went back to a place that I assumed was the most comfortable for her in the piece, picked it up again and got through.
After intermission there was act three and four that consisted of Pain and Spiritual Awareness. Here is where someone should have checked the balance of the music with the voice of the performer. I can’t say how this might have affected everyone else in the house but I was sitting on the aisle in row I and there was a fight in my head to keep the voice of Ms. Wood from being drowned out by the music from the CD. When she got into the “crying” part there was no problem hearing her but she should be careful as to just how far that piece is taken because it can easily go over the top and get into that area of being “acted”.
I quite enjoyed the story about the ex-homosexual preacher. My personal choice would not have been to tape it and have the audience look at an empty stage while they listened to it. It’s not a very short story and it would have been more pleasing, to me, to see Ms. Wood tell this story to us, even if it was something that she might have had to read.
I have said a number of things that might lead some to believe that this was not an entertaining evening. It was. As a director, there are things that just jump out at you that you wish you could get up and fix, or that will make you say “why did they not think about that?” I point these things out so that hopefully, in the future, others will take note and make their productions run even smoother.
For me, this evening was a bargain at only $10 for the ticket and I spent another $10 on the purchase of Ms. Wood’s book She Sails. It’s very rare to get so much for $20 these days. I congratulate Ms. Wood on a job well done and I see the potential there for not only poetry performances but also maybe some acting in plays in her future?
She Sails is available at these fine stores: Chapter One, Island Shop, Nassau Stationers and INVU. For information contact 557-0001 (pin:242-556-3613)
