'Blood Harmony' is a play which tackles that uncomfortable situation in life, when you lose your parents, and their siblings, disparate as ever, are left to pick up the pieces. With a script that is written to resemble actual dialogue as closely as possible, the story of these three sisters felt utterly real. Thick Skin's production in this respect hit home hard. It is only earlier this year that I lost my mother to the Great White Palace In The Sky, and much of what was happening on stage hit just a little too close to home for comfort at times. This is all praise to the script, the acting, and the directing, as indeed, all three aspects came together to make it real and naturalistic.
Where the play falls down, is in the strange mix of styles presented in this 105 minute-long piece performed without interval. Just as the dialogue and acting is grounded, natural, and visceral; then the movement and the lighting go in completely opposing directions. There are several original songs sung throughout this play, and although I do believe the play might have worked better without them, they were beautifully sung, and the harmonies were just wonderful; however, they had been directed to make certain movements (it couldn't be called choreography - it wasn't dancing) during them, and they were a cross between dream-sequence-esque and cult-ritualistic; and didn't really add anything at all to the play; but rather diminished the grit and realism that had been created by the acting. I simply couldn't understand how they were able to traverse through, up and round the roof, and moreover, why. Whilst the lighting, which was apt and appropriate during the dialogue scenes, changed to angular, stark, and almost futuristic for the songs, using long flourescent type lights shining directly into the audience from the beams of the roof framework. Again, this detracted and distracted form the story and our ability to emote with a seemingly very real pot of raw emotion being stirred by the three siblings, each grieving in their own way and finding a way back to being a family unit again.
Chloe (Eve de Leon Allen) the youngst of the three siblings had been living with her mum for the last 6 years, being her only carer, attending to her needs after her strokes. Maia (Keshini Misha), the middle child; the renegade, the fiery one, and (we learn later on), the mistake. And Anna (Philippa Hogg), the eldest daughter, career-minded, focussed, doing well in the corporate world, living in the USA, and money seemingly no object. And yet, the death of their mother forces them to come together again, reconcile their differences, and as they learn more about each other, the undulating dynamics of the piece switch and change, and we are taken on their journey with them. It's not an easy journey, but it is one that most people will be able to sympathise with; and the chemistry that the three share onstage is just electric. But as beautiful as the singing is, it diffuses this electricty each time it happens, and the lighting (if you'll excuse the complete irony here), just switches it off completely.
In a time when smaller scale productions are trying to cut costs at every step; it was surprising, and also excellent, that the set was so detailed and full. I truly enjoyed the fact that real props were used, and the set design looked very much like an attic full of a life-time's worth of possessions. A Stage Manager's nightmare, but an audience's delight. Thank you.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 14/6/22
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