Post by tylerlennon2007 on Oct 29, 2023 16:55:23 GMT
I had the pleasure of being able to see Troupe 900's opening night of their fall play, Spider's Web, with my father and, as always, I am here to give a little review of it. This does contain spoilers for the play, so you've been warned.
For the uninitiated, the plot follows a few characters, but the most important to kick this off is probably Clarissa Hailsham-Brown, who recently moved into a pretty nice house at a cheap price with her new husband Henry. Clarissa is also friends with a few gentlemen by the names of Sir Rowland Delahaye, Hugo Birch, and Jeremy Warrender. She has a step-daughter named Pippa, and there is also a butler (Elgin) and a gardener (Miss Peake) on the premises.
Early on in the play, the new husband of Henry's ex-wife, a man named Oliver Costello, comes by the house and while he's there he threatens to take Pippa away. Later that night, he returns to look through a drawer (for reasons unknown to the audience at that point) and is hit on the head with a golf club by a cloaked figure, killing him instantly.
When Clarissa finds his body behind the couch, Pippa comes in and says that she was the one who killed the man. Not wanting the girl to go to jail, Clarissa calls up the three previously mentioned friends and they all eventually agree to hide the body together, settling on hiding him in a secret passageway behind the desk that leads to the library.
A call is made to the local police, and two officers (Inspector Lord and Constable Jones) arrive at the scene, saying that they received a call about a murder occurring in that house. They have no luck in locating a body but, by the end of the first act, the secret passageway is opened and the body falls out.
The second act is largely comprised of various interrogation scenes. Clarissa, who both wants to protect Pippa and who also was established earlier in the play to be a bit of a compulsive liar, tells various stories but the only one that the officers actually believe is one where she herself mistook Oliver for a burglar and killed him in a panic. During all this, Miss Peake also hides the body to distract the police.
It is eventually revealed that it was not actually Pippa who killed the man, but it was Jeremy Warrender, one of Clarissa's friends. He did this over an expensive stamp that was presumably located in the drawer that Oliver was going through and he killed Oliver so that he could get it first. He is arrested, and everyone soon moves on as though the whole thing never happened.
Sarah Venable as Clarissa Hailsham-Brown - I feel very lucky to have now seen Sarah play a number of roles and, as always, she absolutely nailed this one. All of the accents in the show were admittedly hard to adjust to at first, though this is not by fault of the actors and more by fault of me just having a tiny, American brain. Once I adjusted, I was able to understand everything she said perfectly and, while I may not have much of a leg to stand on, I do think her accent was very good as well. She perfectly managed to execute the over-the-top nature of a lot of her characters scenes (Clarissa is rather overdramatic at many points) while also being able to appear grounded enough so as to not make more genuine moments (such as her scenes with Pippa) feel jarring, which surely cannot be an easy balance to maintain.
Luis Garcia as Sir Rowland Delahaye - Luis continues to impress me more and more with each role I see him play, which I think is one of the more fun parts of educational theater. Sir Rowland Delahaye is easy to write off as comic relief as that is largely his role in the play, and yet he never felt disposable while on-stage. It also did not feel too jarring when this man who could not tell that the wines he was tasting were all the same was also the smartest one in the interrogations, which I believe largely comes down to good acting. Luis portrayed this character with a soft dignity that fit the character very well and I very muchly look forward to seeing him in this troupe's one act at Districts.
Joshua Frechette as Hugo Birch - Joshua is very good at character voices of various sorts, and now I am happy to add silly British man to that list. Another comic relief character but, as with Luis as Sir Rowland, he never felt disposable on stage even when the script wasn't doing anything with him. Joshua's presence on-stage was very engaging from beginning to end and the dynamic between Hugo and Sir Rowland also translated very well. I am excited to see him in the one act this Districts.
Boyd Daniels as Jeremy Warrender - As the twist villain, Boyd had the task to carefully maintain a likeable character who you can still buy as the bad guy at the end of it, and I am happy to say that I was sold. I did find him to be a likeable character, even at points in the beginning where he was doing morally iffy things (like hitting on a married woman), but the transition from nice-guy to stone-cold murderer did not feel jarring or out of place. While it was a bit hard to understand what he was saying at points, it was never to the point where I became lost in a scene, and the performance overall more than made up for it. I hope to see Boyd perform in other things in the future.
A. Oldfield as Pippa Hailsham-Brown - It is important to note that I absolutely despise small children and, by extension, characters that are small children. So it is extra impressive to me that I was never too annoyed by Pippa, and even found myself liking her as a character. While a lot of these characters' likability can be at least partially chalked up to the script, I really do believe that this one is largely because of the actor, as this character could've really easily been grating. Oldfield delivered their lines with a cheeriness that was infectious and even got me smiling to myself in the audience, and the more serious scenes were delivered very believably as a small child would if they were driven into that situation. The accent was also on point, and I found myself actually angry when Jeremy attempted on her life towards the end. Honestly one of my favorite performances out of the whole play.
Riley Golden as Miss Peake - I'm not very good at placing accents (this was either Irish or Scottish, I believe) so I'm just running with calling what Riley did here as a Scottish accent. Either way, the accent was incredibly good, as was this performance overall. I feel like the character could've easily come across as too mean or too dull, but Riley perfectly nailed the chaotic neutral energy that the character, I believe, should come with. It's hard to sell a character who can turn a blind eye at Jeremy's sketchy behavior at the beginning of the play but also having the thought to hide the body to distract the police, but she did it with flying colors. This was probably my favorite performance in the play, and that's certainly saying something because this was a very impressive cast. Yeah, just amazing work all around and I can't wait to see Riley in the one act at Districts.
CJ McGuire as Inspector Lord - Another strong performance from CJ, Inspector Lord spends a lot of the second act basically speaking in occasionally-interrupted monologue. How they were able to remember all of those lines is beyond me, but that's just one impressive part of the performance. The accent/character voice was maintained solidly through the entire thing and the occasional fumbling of lines (which I can't even fault them for because come on) were played off quickly and remarkably well. While the character may not be exactly the type that I care for, the performance was fantastic and easily one of the strongest out of the cast, and I hope to see CJ in more performances in the future.
Aiden Hamilton as Constable Jones - While Jones is a relatively minor role, I enjoyed his time on stage very much. The accent was very strong and maintained well throughout the show and even his background acting and occasionally wandering around stage was very firmly in-character the full time. At several points, I even found myself conciously breaking full focus from the main point of the scene just to see if the constable was up to anything. Very good performance and I hope Aiden continues to perform in things in the future.
Sebastian Ragosta as Henry Hailsham-Brown - While Henry is only in about two scenes, those being at the beginning and the end of the play, he easily became one of my favorites, in large part due to the bubbly, comedic air that Sebastian carried with him in the role. The comedic expressions, body language, and delivery made for what I would consider the funniest performance (in a good way, of course) in the show.
Ayden Stencil-Raddatz as Oliver Costello - Another role to tack onto the list of Ayden's very versatile catalogue, Oliver Costello also jolted towards the top of the list of best performances. The character himself is rather unlikable and one can't feel too bad when he ends up getting killed, but the short amount of time we saw him alive was very captivating. The character voice was very entertaining and so starkly different from, say, SpongeBob, that my father (who also saw SpongeBob) admitted he wouldn't have even recognized him as the same actor had I not told him that he was going to be in this show. The performance had what I can only describe as Dan Backslide energy (minus the screaming), which I absolutely adore, and I'm excited to see Ayden perform in the one act this Districts.
Michael Hanley as Elgin - No one likes a narc but Elgin is an exception. While I was unable to make out some of what he was saying, it was never disruptive to the story and it was overall a very fun performance. Whoever made the decision to make Michael a butler, thank you, because it worked very well and I hope to see him perform more in the future.
Costumes (*Zay Martin, *Astrid Turner, Aleigha Bingham, Jakeb Wentling, Lauren Morahan) - Carrying on the tradition established with all the other shows I've seen from this troupe, the costumes were all absolutely stellar and fit the characters very well. In particular, I'd like to acknowledge Oliver's costume, which managed to perfectly capture the whole dignified gentleman who's also very, very evil and a drug dealer vibe that the character had, as well as Pippa's costume, which felt very appropriate for a bubbly young schoolgirl.
Hair/Makeup (Trombetta, Finley Casey, Sloane Magaziner) - Hair and makeup was also spot-on, and even managed to overall fit the period that the show takes place in, which can be hard to pin down. Clarissa's makeup in particular stood out not only as period-typical and fitting of the character but also really good stage makeup, as the eyes and lips were defined even at a distance. Pippa's wig (I'm assuming it was a wig but please do correct me if that is inaccurate) also looked very good. Those are just two specific examples, but all of the stage makeup and hair choices were wonderful.
It is to my understanding that there is a new director since Sai's departure, so I was very curious to see how the blocking would differ from that of the shows I saw directed by him, and I do really like Ms. Wills' (I believe that's her name) blocking choices as well. The whole thing was staged pretty nicely, with all movement on stage feeling motivated and well thought out, but the one moment that really stood out to me was during the scene where Clarissa realizes Jeremy was the killer and, for a moment, they circle each other around the table in a manner not unlike scenes in a number of horror films where a man stalks a woman around a table with the intention to kill her. It certainly helped add to the idea of Jeremy as a dangerous person and was really cool to see play out.
Sound (*Syd Sikorski, Jt Thomas, Ashlee Padilla) - The occasional sound effects all worked very well and, at least from an audience perspective, were all timed near-perfectly. The effects themselves all fit whatever they were for and, as far as mics go (I'm assuming people were mic'd cause I could here them so clearly, though I didn't actually see the mics so they were hidden quite well if they were mic'd), I could hear everyone very clearly on stage. Volume was never an issue.
Lights (*Amanda Green, John Redway, Keegan Brisard) - Apart from an unfortunate moment where the lights came up as the dead body was repositioning in between scenes, the lighting was very nice. In particular, I found it quite cool during the scene of the murder how all the lights went red, both effectively framing the scene as one involving danger/violence but also obscuring the audience's view enough to still justify a murder mystery. Nothing ever felt too dark or too bright and the lighting always felt appropriate to the scene.
Set (*Elizabeth Frizzle, Alexander Radomski, Joshua Hittler) - The set was very good as well. It can sometimes be hard to contain a whole play within the same set without feeling boring or trapped, but the set was dynamic enough to where I kept noticing new things about it. And, of course, I can't talk about the set without talking about the secret door. I'm guessing that it's opening function was a stage tech opening/closing the door and not an actual secret door mechanism, but the cues were all really on-point. There was never an awkward moment of pause between the book being pulled and the door being open or shut, which surely must've taken a hot second to get down right. Very impressive.
Props (*Mackenzie Shackton, Logan Small, Atlas Lehr, Autumn Christy, Will Banaszak) - The props all looked professional, time-appropriate, and it was never hard to tell what they were. In particular, I quite enjoyed how the golf club (actual murder weapon) and bedpost (assumed murder weapon) looked just similar enough (especially given the obscure lighting during the murder scene) to where the audience (myself included) was easily gaslit into believing one was the other. The glasses also looked really nice and I do wonder what liquid was in them, as it obviously couldn't have actually been wine. The gloves also looked comfy.
Publicity (Chloe Hodges, Piper Lindfors) - The programs were very sleek and looked quite good. I also do always enjoy seeing the posts on Instagram showing off the cast and crew of the shows. The additional posts and reels about the show were also really fun to see and now the cast of our winter show wants to do a "shake my hand in character" video as well.
And, of course, one mustn't forget to pay tribute to the stage manager, Jordan Pescio, and assistant stage manager, Shelby Wilson. Keeping so many things in order always sounds like such a stressful job, and so it always sticks out all the more to me with a show like this with such tight cues (like the secret door) and so many things going on, especially when it goes as well as this did. An absolute tip of my hat to both of the stage managers as well as all the techs for this show.
Surprise, surprise, another amazing show from Countryside. Seriously, I was expecting a good show and, even then, it soared above my expectations tenfold. I can't wait to see the Districts one-act and whatever musical you guys have in store this year, and also thank you for your continued kindness off-stage.
- Tyler L. Hogan, Troupe 2055
Plot Synopsis
Early on in the play, the new husband of Henry's ex-wife, a man named Oliver Costello, comes by the house and while he's there he threatens to take Pippa away. Later that night, he returns to look through a drawer (for reasons unknown to the audience at that point) and is hit on the head with a golf club by a cloaked figure, killing him instantly.
When Clarissa finds his body behind the couch, Pippa comes in and says that she was the one who killed the man. Not wanting the girl to go to jail, Clarissa calls up the three previously mentioned friends and they all eventually agree to hide the body together, settling on hiding him in a secret passageway behind the desk that leads to the library.
A call is made to the local police, and two officers (Inspector Lord and Constable Jones) arrive at the scene, saying that they received a call about a murder occurring in that house. They have no luck in locating a body but, by the end of the first act, the secret passageway is opened and the body falls out.
The second act is largely comprised of various interrogation scenes. Clarissa, who both wants to protect Pippa and who also was established earlier in the play to be a bit of a compulsive liar, tells various stories but the only one that the officers actually believe is one where she herself mistook Oliver for a burglar and killed him in a panic. During all this, Miss Peake also hides the body to distract the police.
It is eventually revealed that it was not actually Pippa who killed the man, but it was Jeremy Warrender, one of Clarissa's friends. He did this over an expensive stamp that was presumably located in the drawer that Oliver was going through and he killed Oliver so that he could get it first. He is arrested, and everyone soon moves on as though the whole thing never happened.
Individual Cast Performances
Luis Garcia as Sir Rowland Delahaye - Luis continues to impress me more and more with each role I see him play, which I think is one of the more fun parts of educational theater. Sir Rowland Delahaye is easy to write off as comic relief as that is largely his role in the play, and yet he never felt disposable while on-stage. It also did not feel too jarring when this man who could not tell that the wines he was tasting were all the same was also the smartest one in the interrogations, which I believe largely comes down to good acting. Luis portrayed this character with a soft dignity that fit the character very well and I very muchly look forward to seeing him in this troupe's one act at Districts.
Joshua Frechette as Hugo Birch - Joshua is very good at character voices of various sorts, and now I am happy to add silly British man to that list. Another comic relief character but, as with Luis as Sir Rowland, he never felt disposable on stage even when the script wasn't doing anything with him. Joshua's presence on-stage was very engaging from beginning to end and the dynamic between Hugo and Sir Rowland also translated very well. I am excited to see him in the one act this Districts.
Boyd Daniels as Jeremy Warrender - As the twist villain, Boyd had the task to carefully maintain a likeable character who you can still buy as the bad guy at the end of it, and I am happy to say that I was sold. I did find him to be a likeable character, even at points in the beginning where he was doing morally iffy things (like hitting on a married woman), but the transition from nice-guy to stone-cold murderer did not feel jarring or out of place. While it was a bit hard to understand what he was saying at points, it was never to the point where I became lost in a scene, and the performance overall more than made up for it. I hope to see Boyd perform in other things in the future.
A. Oldfield as Pippa Hailsham-Brown - It is important to note that I absolutely despise small children and, by extension, characters that are small children. So it is extra impressive to me that I was never too annoyed by Pippa, and even found myself liking her as a character. While a lot of these characters' likability can be at least partially chalked up to the script, I really do believe that this one is largely because of the actor, as this character could've really easily been grating. Oldfield delivered their lines with a cheeriness that was infectious and even got me smiling to myself in the audience, and the more serious scenes were delivered very believably as a small child would if they were driven into that situation. The accent was also on point, and I found myself actually angry when Jeremy attempted on her life towards the end. Honestly one of my favorite performances out of the whole play.
Riley Golden as Miss Peake - I'm not very good at placing accents (this was either Irish or Scottish, I believe) so I'm just running with calling what Riley did here as a Scottish accent. Either way, the accent was incredibly good, as was this performance overall. I feel like the character could've easily come across as too mean or too dull, but Riley perfectly nailed the chaotic neutral energy that the character, I believe, should come with. It's hard to sell a character who can turn a blind eye at Jeremy's sketchy behavior at the beginning of the play but also having the thought to hide the body to distract the police, but she did it with flying colors. This was probably my favorite performance in the play, and that's certainly saying something because this was a very impressive cast. Yeah, just amazing work all around and I can't wait to see Riley in the one act at Districts.
CJ McGuire as Inspector Lord - Another strong performance from CJ, Inspector Lord spends a lot of the second act basically speaking in occasionally-interrupted monologue. How they were able to remember all of those lines is beyond me, but that's just one impressive part of the performance. The accent/character voice was maintained solidly through the entire thing and the occasional fumbling of lines (which I can't even fault them for because come on) were played off quickly and remarkably well. While the character may not be exactly the type that I care for, the performance was fantastic and easily one of the strongest out of the cast, and I hope to see CJ in more performances in the future.
Aiden Hamilton as Constable Jones - While Jones is a relatively minor role, I enjoyed his time on stage very much. The accent was very strong and maintained well throughout the show and even his background acting and occasionally wandering around stage was very firmly in-character the full time. At several points, I even found myself conciously breaking full focus from the main point of the scene just to see if the constable was up to anything. Very good performance and I hope Aiden continues to perform in things in the future.
Sebastian Ragosta as Henry Hailsham-Brown - While Henry is only in about two scenes, those being at the beginning and the end of the play, he easily became one of my favorites, in large part due to the bubbly, comedic air that Sebastian carried with him in the role. The comedic expressions, body language, and delivery made for what I would consider the funniest performance (in a good way, of course) in the show.
Ayden Stencil-Raddatz as Oliver Costello - Another role to tack onto the list of Ayden's very versatile catalogue, Oliver Costello also jolted towards the top of the list of best performances. The character himself is rather unlikable and one can't feel too bad when he ends up getting killed, but the short amount of time we saw him alive was very captivating. The character voice was very entertaining and so starkly different from, say, SpongeBob, that my father (who also saw SpongeBob) admitted he wouldn't have even recognized him as the same actor had I not told him that he was going to be in this show. The performance had what I can only describe as Dan Backslide energy (minus the screaming), which I absolutely adore, and I'm excited to see Ayden perform in the one act this Districts.
Michael Hanley as Elgin - No one likes a narc but Elgin is an exception. While I was unable to make out some of what he was saying, it was never disruptive to the story and it was overall a very fun performance. Whoever made the decision to make Michael a butler, thank you, because it worked very well and I hope to see him perform more in the future.
Costumes/Makeup
Hair/Makeup (Trombetta, Finley Casey, Sloane Magaziner) - Hair and makeup was also spot-on, and even managed to overall fit the period that the show takes place in, which can be hard to pin down. Clarissa's makeup in particular stood out not only as period-typical and fitting of the character but also really good stage makeup, as the eyes and lips were defined even at a distance. Pippa's wig (I'm assuming it was a wig but please do correct me if that is inaccurate) also looked very good. Those are just two specific examples, but all of the stage makeup and hair choices were wonderful.
Blocking/Staging
Sound/Lights/Other Tech
Lights (*Amanda Green, John Redway, Keegan Brisard) - Apart from an unfortunate moment where the lights came up as the dead body was repositioning in between scenes, the lighting was very nice. In particular, I found it quite cool during the scene of the murder how all the lights went red, both effectively framing the scene as one involving danger/violence but also obscuring the audience's view enough to still justify a murder mystery. Nothing ever felt too dark or too bright and the lighting always felt appropriate to the scene.
Set (*Elizabeth Frizzle, Alexander Radomski, Joshua Hittler) - The set was very good as well. It can sometimes be hard to contain a whole play within the same set without feeling boring or trapped, but the set was dynamic enough to where I kept noticing new things about it. And, of course, I can't talk about the set without talking about the secret door. I'm guessing that it's opening function was a stage tech opening/closing the door and not an actual secret door mechanism, but the cues were all really on-point. There was never an awkward moment of pause between the book being pulled and the door being open or shut, which surely must've taken a hot second to get down right. Very impressive.
Props (*Mackenzie Shackton, Logan Small, Atlas Lehr, Autumn Christy, Will Banaszak) - The props all looked professional, time-appropriate, and it was never hard to tell what they were. In particular, I quite enjoyed how the golf club (actual murder weapon) and bedpost (assumed murder weapon) looked just similar enough (especially given the obscure lighting during the murder scene) to where the audience (myself included) was easily gaslit into believing one was the other. The glasses also looked really nice and I do wonder what liquid was in them, as it obviously couldn't have actually been wine. The gloves also looked comfy.
Publicity (Chloe Hodges, Piper Lindfors) - The programs were very sleek and looked quite good. I also do always enjoy seeing the posts on Instagram showing off the cast and crew of the shows. The additional posts and reels about the show were also really fun to see and now the cast of our winter show wants to do a "shake my hand in character" video as well.
And, of course, one mustn't forget to pay tribute to the stage manager, Jordan Pescio, and assistant stage manager, Shelby Wilson. Keeping so many things in order always sounds like such a stressful job, and so it always sticks out all the more to me with a show like this with such tight cues (like the secret door) and so many things going on, especially when it goes as well as this did. An absolute tip of my hat to both of the stage managers as well as all the techs for this show.
Closing Thoughts
- Tyler L. Hogan, Troupe 2055