The Veil

The Veil

By: Elizabeth Marshall

    

            It was Halloween night and I was rather excited to see The Veil. I had heard that it was a scary play, and therefore perfect for a night like Halloween. Unfortunately I was in store for a long boarder line three hours of watching people talk on stage.

         

            When getting into the theatre and sitting down I was pleased with the set and the theatre itself. Although it was not the first time I had been in the theatre, since all of a week ago we had the tour, I was still in rather high spirits for what awaited me. The set was set with walls and doors of an old failing estate, and it looked wonderful on stage. The set made you want to go onto stage and explore the rest of the haunted looking house. The dark lit rooms with only candles to see by and the old dirty walls and fraying curtains really put you inside a house that someone would assume to be haunted. Once the play started and you began to get a feel for the characters, it still seemed to have promise. Even though it got off to a slow start I was still involved and entranced with the play. The lighting in particular kept me interested for a good ten minutes. The way the stage was set up to show the changing of night and day, and even though the set was only actually one room in a house they utilized the rest of the area to make it seem much larger. By decorating the room the way they did, you were able to imagine what it would be like in the rest of the house and outside the estate. Unfortunately the set was as far as the good review goes. As I watched the play I was waiting for the intensity to pick up and the horrors to start, but unfortunately they continuously fell flat. During the middle of the first act, when there was the ‘big bang’, I was sure that the play was going to develop into a great exciting piece of entertainment, but it just returned to being monotone. There was so much talking about nothing that nothing ended up happening, and the characters were so continuously unhappy with their lives I thought surely that was going to change, but in truth nothing did. The characters continued to be unhappy and were married off to prolong not only their unhappiness, but also the unhappiness of their children creating a vicious circle of unhappiness. The play began with unhappy characters and ended with unhappy patrons. At least unlike the play and its unhappy characters on that all hallows eve, I could still change the ending to my play and the outcome of my night. So instead of ending it on a sour boring note because of the play, in good Halloween cheer we all drank to the spirits beyond the veil, because in truth, they deserved more recognition than a couple of thumps and a ghostly little girl.