March 8, 2007
A slice of whodunnit / thriller / horror with a “thick vein” of comedy (Sorry: had to be done). The cast and crew were mainly recruited from the local schools while the script was written by Tim Kelly.
The action is focused on a dark, ‘spooky’, Scottish castle on a small island separated from the mainland by a deadly stretch of water, on a dark and stormy night with flickering lights and lots of lightning etc, etc. After that pretty much standard intro, almost all pretence of horror was dropped and painful clichés and penguins were introduced. Yep; penguins. The script was half decent: making a few slip-ups; a werewolf on a night with no full moon? Overall though; it was an enjoyable watch. The acting was pretty good for students, with each of the actors really getting into their characters and playing them really well. I’m having a devil of a job singling out the best piece of acting but the central character, Buzz, was played well, nailing each one of his horrible cliché/asides (example; heir today; gone tomorrow) with perfect comedy timing. The cast threw themselves into their Scottish accents with gusto; producing mixed but entertaining results. They managed the comedy aspects fairly well; not quite able to maintain straight faces but trying valiantly nonetheless. The crew should also be given a special mention for pressing that ‘howl’ button at just the right time and getting the lightning sorted; go them!
The play finished abruptly; lacking the tension and suspense of a full blooded (yep, had to be done again) whodunnit. It was a disappointing anticlimax to the otherwise decent play but I wouldn¹t know whether to blame the cast, the crew or the writer.
The Curse of the Werewolf will be visiting the Edinburgh Festival later in the year.
The action is focused on a dark, ‘spooky’, Scottish castle on a small island separated from the mainland by a deadly stretch of water, on a dark and stormy night with flickering lights and lots of lightning etc, etc. After that pretty much standard intro, almost all pretence of horror was dropped and painful clichés and penguins were introduced. Yep; penguins. The script was half decent: making a few slip-ups; a werewolf on a night with no full moon? Overall though; it was an enjoyable watch. The acting was pretty good for students, with each of the actors really getting into their characters and playing them really well. I’m having a devil of a job singling out the best piece of acting but the central character, Buzz, was played well, nailing each one of his horrible cliché/asides (example; heir today; gone tomorrow) with perfect comedy timing. The cast threw themselves into their Scottish accents with gusto; producing mixed but entertaining results. They managed the comedy aspects fairly well; not quite able to maintain straight faces but trying valiantly nonetheless. The crew should also be given a special mention for pressing that ‘howl’ button at just the right time and getting the lightning sorted; go them!
The play finished abruptly; lacking the tension and suspense of a full blooded (yep, had to be done again) whodunnit. It was a disappointing anticlimax to the otherwise decent play but I wouldn¹t know whether to blame the cast, the crew or the writer.
The Curse of the Werewolf will be visiting the Edinburgh Festival later in the year.