As Dr. Q wanted us to do before seeing a play was to do a little research about each play that we were meant to see in the duration of our semester, I did just that. Lo and behold, we get to see a scary story on Halloween. Seeing as Halloween was a school night, I truly was not going to be able to celebrate Halloween in any other way that night. I know a very responsible boring thing to do that night. I had high expectations for this to be a ghost-filled night with scary sounds and creepy performances. It was a packed house, on a Monday night! To have so many seats filled, my expectations rose, and then the play started. Oh, how I was scared… that I would die of boredom.
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| If the play was more exorcist-y like this picture, it might have been better. |
This production was overall an un-scary waste of the National Theatre’s time. The story is set in “1822, rural Ireland.”[1] It follows a family’s decision to marry off the daughter of the house to a Marquis, which would ensure the debts on the property would be settled. This however does not go down to smoothly with the daughter in question. It seems to be a very opportune time for her sudden sixth sense to emerge.
There is nothing wrong with a dreary ending or a dreary play, but in at least one respect, the play would have the audience feel sorry for one or more of the characters, to sympathize with the characters and their not out of the ordinary fates. This play did not allow this to happen. The daughter seemed to want to leave the Marquis at the altar in the beginning but turned out to be dutiful albeit unwilling daughter. Her performance read bratty child that was unappreciative of the life that would follow: a stable life with a husband and relatively low chance of her starving to death, which would almost certainly happen if she did not get married. Somehow when they were talking of this marriage it was like the mother was making her choose Stanford University over UC Berkeley, to the daughter’s dismay. She was not convincing at all as a daughter that would try to leave or convince her mother this decision was wrong. The mother had a strange relationship with the alcoholic child-abusing worker of the house that culminated in an awkward kissing session in front of all the guests including the men that were supposed to safely bring the daughter to London and report to the husband-to-be’s family, which could be reasonably concluded because aside from escorting could that job entail. The only saving grace of the play was the slightly senile Grandmother that was the comic relief of the play. Her timing was great, but no suspenseful play should rely on the performance of the comic relief to carry it.
It was a predictable play that was not able to move me into anything besides a stupor.
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