The first of our Glenorchy workshops was with a drama production class at Rosetta High School.  Half of the class performed in the This is Living show at the DEC.  It was fantastic that the other half of the class joined in the Everyone’s a Critic workshop.  Thanks Rosetta High - we thoroughly enjoyed your contributions to the workshops.

This is Living – Review 

What I thought about the play, This Is Living, was that it was boring. It was not funny at all. I thought it would have made sense between the old people and the younger people.

 I did not like the younger people being at the back of the stage. You could not see any of the people in our class (the young actors) at the back of the stage that well. The younger kids hardy did anything. All that I saw was they were sitting down the whole time. When we came back and talked about it, even the people that were in the play did not get the key points to the play.

But there was one thing that I thought about the play that was good and it was the set up of the stage. It was well thought out.  I liked the way the stage was going down a bit at the front rather than it being flat.

What else I thought did not make sense was the man when he was in that circle. I am not sure what it was but when we came back and talked about it, we found out that it was him in the ball of his life.

Overall I thought it was a play more for the older pubic than the younger public. I would give it a rating of 3 out of 10.

Daniel Fitzallen

 

This is Living - Review

This is Living. Firstly I would like to congratulate the cast and crew of this production, you all did very well to bring this show together. The three main actors on the centre stage were wonderful. They portrayed their characters to a tee and made you believe that maybe they really were the people they played.

While on topic of the stage, I would like to mention the innovation and creativity shown: it was like nothing I had ever seen before. But I do have a one little thing to say about it.  The back of the stage needed to be less covered up, as in some seats it wasn’t seen clearly or at all (so go for a seat in the centre.)

This storyline was a fantastic idea and something that almost everyone could relate to; which is a very important thing in a production like this, aimed at smaller communities. But the ‘ghosts’ or ‘witnesses’ as they were referred to on the ground stage, needed to be clearer about who or what they were and why they were there. The lighting was very clever and different but at some stages looked accidental as if the weren’t operating correctly - maybe the lighting could be made more deliberately, or changed.  

This production made me think so much about the circle of life. To be honest it frightened me to the core. If you were intending on going to see a play that would be an escape from the troubles of life today, I would not recommend this to you. But if you are open the challenges this show presents you with then it’s worth going to have a look at.

Lana Castle

 

This is Living - Review

In the performance, ‘This is Living’, I found it interesting but at times it got a bit boring.  For example, when the old people talked for a long period of time. I also thought the backstage skater people weren’t in it enough. For example, they should have actually been in the show more than what they were and instead of being at the back of the stage they could have been up the front.

The play wasn’t my type; I don’t think it was suitable for high school children because it is for suited to adults and not younger children or teenagers.  The pictures on the side of the curtains with the projector were also a bit of a problem because then the audience got side-tracked watching them instead of actually watching the performance.  A lot of people also thought they were a pretty silly thing because you could also not see them properly.  Projecting onto curtains was not a good idea.

Other than those few things, I think Big hART did a pretty good job to get the show up and running.  They also did a good job in organizing it.  It was good that some of our local community were involved.

Emma Currie

 

This is Living - Review

Ten Days on the Island festival featured the show This is Living at the Derwent Entertainment Centre. The show was more like reality than anything else. The storyline was based on a married couple and the wife had been cheating on her husband for the 40 years they had been married.

The three layers were hard to follow. People who had heard news back about the show said there was a connection between the older people and youth but that we probably wouldn’t have understood it. The staging seemed to separate them even more than they probably should have been. The lighting of the show was rather different and gave it an ominous feeling.

Overall the show was good, whether the staging was how they wanted it or not, the show had to go on. It may have worked better in a smaller theatre.

Kristen Gatty

 

This is Living - Review

This is Living is a theatre piece which is part of the Ten Days on the Island Festival. This show was produced by Big hART, an Australian drama company. The show has three main actors positioned centre stage. The whole play was completely different to any I have seen. The idea was to create layers.  At the back were the young carefree group of people, the middle layer featured the middle-aged retired couple and their friend, and the third layer were the old people who were dead, ghosts or witnesses as Scott Rankin, the director, called them. I think the show was meant to show aging and how different you are when you become older.

The show was meant to convey the connection between young and old, but I feel it failed to do so for several reasons. The young people were younger than what the actors were remembering. The random skating and dance was exactly that, random and out of place. There was a screen between the young people and the rest of the cast further separating them. You couldn’t see the young people at all from my seat. There was also a light on a stand also making it hard to see the youth.

The show in itself was pretty good in spite of a few obvious mistakes. The three main actors did a fabulous job at keeping their characters; you didn’t feel like you were watching a play but actually their life. The show is great for anyone else who actually wants to sit and think about what they are seeing and get something out of the experience.

Tash Cantlay

 

This is Living - Review

For a production that was only put together in a matter of weeks, this was quality. This is Living was based around three main characters and a group of skaters who were members of the community. The whole production was about the three main characters and their life growing up. Since they were experienced actors, they made the show believable. It felt like they were actually telling us the story of their life.

This is Living was a big circle. They went from being in one year then back to their teen years, back to where they were at the beginning of the production.

This is Living made me, and others, think about what it is going to be like when we’re older, and it makes you want to enjoy being young. Since the DEC was such a big space, there wasn’t very good lighting or seating which wasn’t good for watching the show. 

This is Living made me and others think about what it’s going to be like when we’re older and it makes you want to enjoy being young. For a small community show, this was fantastic and definitely one to go and see, especially if you lived or grew up in the Glenorchy area.

Katelin Jones

This is Living - Review

This Is Living was a part of the Ten Days on the Island Festival, a show that was chosen to be seen by our grade 9/10 students. The story was based on a connection between three people and how their life has gone on and how it has changed since then.

My first thought of the play was it was going to be about the elderly people connecting with the young people, but after watching it I didn’t really see any connection there. They could have added a bit more to connect all the people (elderly and young). Other than that, the production was good and at some time humorous; but at some stages it did get to the point of being quite boring and I didn’t see the whole message of what the production was trying to put out there.

I thought the professional actors did well, and acted out all their parts with clear speaking and good use of stage. I also thought the rest of the actors, like the young and elderly, did well in their parts; like the old people walking around being ghosts, and the young people going on with life without a care in the world

For a big place like the Derwent Entertainment Centre, the lighting could have been better. I thought they did a good job adding the pictures of the things the actor had taken in previous years and how they added sound effects during the car crash; and this gave it more meaning to the play. Until we discussed it, I didn’t see what some things meant like the rolling cage the man was in or the effect of the slanted stage.

The recommendation I would give is to older people to go watch it because they know what it’s all about since they were there back then; and young people like me probably don’t get the whole message and miss out on certain points.

By Brett Green

 

This is Living Review

By Natalie Wood

This is Living was a creative out-there show. It was very different to all the other shows I have seen.

I enjoyed some aspects of the show. One thing I didn’t really understand was the connection between the elderly and the youth. I think if I wasn’t told, before the show, that there was a connection it would have made a little bit more sense. Having the expectation sort of ruined the performance.

The lighting of the show was fairly distracting to people sitting in lower levels. If the audience wasn’t down as far as it was the lighting would have been better.

 I liked the twist of the story and how the story made you think when it finished because there was no happy ending.

 I think the show was very realistic in a way and the actors portrayed their characters to a level where you could actually believe they were them and it was happening. It was like we had a window on their life.

This is Living was probably more targeted at older people because they have had the experience to understand what was happening in the show. I think the idea of a community-based show is great as it really intrigues the audience that bit more because they know people in it.

I would rate This is Living a 3 out of 5 because it was a very creative interesting show, but there were some aspects of the show I didn’t understand because it isn’t something I’ve experienced.

By Natalie Wood

 

This is Living – A Review

This is Living was a very complicated show because we were told that there was a big connection between the young and the elder. A lot of people really did not see this  - including me.

I thought that the centre-stage bit was pretty cool, but it would have been better if the young and the elder were more involved on that stage.

The lighting was pretty awesome. I liked the bit when they had the camera flash and when there was a car accident.

The set up was alright but I didn’t see the point of putting the kids in the back. When I first saw that I thought that it was kind of steps like the young were first and the middle was the older people fighting. I think that the dead people were showing what will happen to them. At the start you could not tell that the elders were dead.  Smoke effects might have helped me understand more.

But overall the show was held under good control: even when a lady fell off the stage, they all stayed well in focus. I liked how all the actors were actually friends in real life; it made more sense in the end.

 Thank you for the opportunity to see something different!

By Luke Turner

 

This is Living Review by Tom Kirk

The production was about three friends, two who were married and a single friend. The wife and the husband’s best friend were having an affair. The central plot also revealed that the friend had a fatal illness. The illness seemed to trigger a divorce and exposed the affair.  The main characters talked a lot about the past and their interests and their failures and their lost dreams. That segment was very strong because the actors were good at portraying their roles. 

There were freeze snapshots of the younger generation who didn’t seem to have much of a part as the older generation. Their role was probably unsatisfying because it was too small and the scenes too short to really develop a feel for young people today.

A bright light three feet in front of me prevented me from seeing some of the right side of the stage.

The old people were good because of their timing and voice.

The costuming was bland but I suppose it was meant to be like that because it was a dark play.

I didn’t know that the dead people were meant to be ghosts. I didn’t realise that they were meant to be dead either. I thought they were from an old folks’ home that the friend refused to go to for care.

I think the show had a strong message which was live life and cherish what you have. Overall I would give it 3.5 out of 5 because the message was powerful and true but, as a teenager, I would have liked more shown about our generation.

By Tom Kirk

 

This is Living

Review

This is Living wrapped up its final performance at the Derwent Entertainment Centre, performing to crowds of young teenagers and the elderly.

The show was about relationship battles and sending everyone a message to live your life while you have the time.

The three main actors were all exceptional and delivered their parts with great energy. However many members of the audience didn’t feel the same about other members of the cast such as the youth (skateboarders).

The show was not designed to be performed in a big theatre. It was more suited for a small town hall and suffered for that at the DEC.

But apart from those small things the show was a huge success and delivered a strong message to all people with its twist at the end. It wasn’t your average happy ending.

By Hannah Knight.