Students nod off at The Veil- October 31, 2011

By: Samantha Pappas

As a class, we saw the Veil at the National Theatre, and although I, too, had trouble keeping form nodding off along with the majority of our class because of the plays length and extensive dialogue, I would not call the play a “bore.” I actually think the play was quite good; I think the audience is the problem. Audiences today, myself included, expect much more thrill because of Hollywood blockbusters and TV Shows.  I have a low tolerance for spookiness, so I was creeped out by them just talking about hearing a ghost, and although I thought the little girl running on stage was a very exciting part, I think the play “gave in” a little bit to producing a frightening reaction from the audience. Same goes for the two enormous bangs that happened throughout the play. The first one, I felt, only served the purpose of waking everyone up, and perhaps, again, trying to scare the audience that is looking for more than just a ghost story and wants some scary action. The second bang, was like “Okay, we get it, a bang is the only scary thing you can do to make us jump.” I felt the play went wrong when it tried to hard to scare, and please the modern audience, who watch people in movies cutting off their own limbs. I, on the other hand, stay far away from Saw and any other sort of gory horror film, so I was scared enough just by the ghost story, and the excess loud noises just distracted me. They were also misleading, making people thing the play was going to get louder and scarier, passed the bang, but it did not. I found the play spooky without the need to be artificial, and I think that is what deferred people away from liking it. They were waiting for more because of the bangs and the ghostly little girl, that lead you on to think this was going to become a horror film like what we are used to.

I will give it to people that kiss between the mother and the Irishman seemed a bit random, perhaps the story did not display us with enough background, or maybe the mother was just as shocked as we were. I still thought the play was interesting, and a fun ghost story.

On a different note, the set was spectacular, and I was in awe the first time the lighting crew brought daytime to the play, shining “sun” through the windows of the house. The set was extremely detailed and I felt as though I was watching a wide screen movie scene because of this proscenium arch theatre.