By using physical theatre to make Christopher seem like he was in space, the actors gave a cosmological atmosphere to the scene which bought many of the audience members to the brink of wonder, awe …show more content…
Whilst his Mother read out her letter, Christopher assembled the set angrily, presumably to give us an indication of his emotion at the time he read it – he was probably angry as he was lied to and left with a volatile father. As the monologue was long, Elliot added the train set into this scene to change the pace throughout the scene so the audience remained captivated. This gave us time to admire the spectacle that was the train set. As Christopher ignored his Mother whilst she was speaking to him (right up until the end which was a direct hit to the heart), you felt that you had to pay attention to her speaking but it also allowed you to see Christopher’s emotion about it without an overload of dialogue.
However it seems that I was fortunate with my near front seats – as the second time I watched from the back row – the beautiful detail that was so clear near the front had been lost completely – it seemed that the magic of that moment had been destroyed. Even though the solution could have been a simple projected close up video on the back wall showing what was going on (as used in the Nottingham Playhouse’s production of “1984”), Elliot did not take the opportunity here to enhance the performance and make the show more incredible for all audience