Posts Tagged ‘The Children’s Hour’
Friday night, Sean and I had the pleasure of enjoying The Children’s Hour in the Cultural Centre’s Blackbox Theatre. The play began promptly at 7:30 and the high-quality of the acting was immediately evident. I have never seen such excellent acting in a Medicine Hat production, many of the actors in The Children’s Hour were near the calibre of the actor’s I’ve seen on Broadway (however, that is hard to judge without numerous over-the-top dance numbers). The storyline was thought provoking and had no shortage of moral dilemmas to ponder following the performance. The bleachers were packed, and the rest of the audience seemed to enjoy the performance as much as Sean and I.
I have only one minor critique to offer, as I usually do in reviews like this. First of all, the play began at 7:30 and ended at 10:10, and it definitely felt that long due to the slow progression of the plot. This fact was not helped along by the two ten-minute intermission that coincided with set changes. In most, if not all, other plays I’ve been to the customary practice is to have one intermission following the longer section of the play, with a significantly shorter section following the break. Until now I had not realized how beneficial such a practice is. The play last night seemed much longer than it was, since the first scene was 45 minutes long, the second roughly 20 minutes, and the final scene was approximately 30 minutes with short intermissions between the scenes. In short, it felt like it was dragging toward the end, which is unfortunate since the play was excellent otherwise.
I hope this play precedes many more excellent performances in this city!