After a half-day at college, we jetted off to The National Theatre and set about meeting the Digital Department who run, as you can tell from the name, the digital side of the theatre . From there, we sat down and had a great, lenghtly discussion about what The National Theatre do, how they are trying to move into the Digital Age, and more, which was extremely insightful for someone who doesn't know too much about how a theatre operates.
After this talk, our group then joined a school trip and had a great inside tour from Katherine, our tour guide. What was most impressive about the tour was something I didn't expect to love so much, and that was the workshop. To see all the goings-on on the set building side of the theatre was great, and something I really enjoyed learning about.
Our day ended with the performances of two plays from the Connection series: Frank and Ferdinand, and Children of Killers.
First up, we had, what in my eyes, was the weaker play - Frank and Ferdinand.
Though I am a fan of things that I can't explain (David Lynch is one of my favourite artists), Frank and Ferdinand, to me, was all over the place. There were glimmers of hope - for example the actress that played Sarah was great -, but the rest was quite a struggle for me as a viewer to get through and I still can't understand what the play was trying to get at; what it was about.
The staging proved another problem to me. Though it was definitely original, I think it didn't work for what the play was trying to get at.
Even through the weaker points, I still found myself laughing a few times, though I thought the play as a whole wasn't for me.
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| The young cast of Children of Killers |
The second and last play of the day was Children of Killers. Now, like with Frank and Ferdinand, there were problems, but this was the play out of the two that I enjoyed the most and connected to. The staging was wonderful here, and was definitely the strongest point of the production. The rape scene was played out superbly, and definitely had me feeling uncomfortable. Yes, there were hiccups in the acting (I found it hard to connect with the lead actor in particular), but it was a much better play than Frank and Ferdinand, previously. Especially in the writing.
What was great about seeing these two plays, though, is that I had a surgance of writing inspiration hit me. As someone who wants to write for a living, working at my placement at the moment, I have begun to realise that though I love film, I love writing more, and this is the avenue I want to explore - whether that be with comics, short stories, or scripts, I want to have my finger in every pie, as the saying goes. In my eyes, having that surgance of writing is always a price I am willing to pay, and I am thoroughly glad I went to see the two plays.
They were no Sucker Punch - a play I can speak about until the cows come home -, that is true, but both plays were gallant efforts, and gave me more than I could have asked for, (writing inspiration!).
Overall, it was a really good experience visiting The National Theatre, a place which I really enjoyed when I went to see FELA! a few months back, and one that I now know I will definitely be revisiting in the future. (And maybe for a work experience placement!)
Nice post Cherokee, definatly agree with you on the Children of killers play being the stronger of the two, even though the lead role should have been played by one of the support characters ...the angry one I cant remember his name in the play.
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