The play was presented in the black box on Cheshire Academy, I reviewed the play on November 11th, 2017. The major actors are Samantha Weed, Yuheng Deng, Amalia Gutierrez, Yuanjun Luo, David Mathisson, Jiaxin Li, Zhengxian Lin, Erin King, Zoe Genden, Huijin Zheng, and Krystal Charter. The director of this play is Mr. Aronson.
The prologue talks about two factories which both wanted to occupy the same land. One was there before but they discarded the land; another one wanted to use the land to grow fruits. Eventually the land was given to the one who grew fruits because they fit the land. It relates to the ending.The story happens around World War II. There are actually two stories, but they ended together. The protagonist, Grusha, was a maid in governor's house. Her lord had a baby who is called Michael. One day after the death of the governor, her wife, Natella, decided to flee away. But because she wanted to bring all her clothing with her, she abandoned her child. When Grusha found the baby, she decided to raise him. She used all her money and dignity to exchange milk for little Michael. On her way to her brother, she was chasing by the soldiers, because the government knew that the baby in her hands was the son of the governor. In order to save Michael, she even walked through a dangerous bridge. In order to save Michael, she even married with a drunk. Then another story started. Azdak was originally a town recorder. Once he mocked at the noble and her son which wanted to be the new judge, soldiers picked him to be the new judge. When Grusha was caught by the soldiers and sent to the court, Azdak presided over it. While Grusha was truly loved the child, governor's wife just wanted to use the child to inherit the heritage from the governor. At last, Azdak used a smart trick to find out that Grusha was the mom who really loved Michael and awarded the child to Grusha and her boyfriend, Simon. The ending was similar with the prologue, Grusha was better as a mom. The main themes of this play are love, injustice, and political turbulence. The love in the play not only appears between Grusha and Simon, but also appears on Grusha and Michael as maternal love. She did not abandon Michael and kept raising him. The injustice typically shows at the court. people used money to bribe Azdak. Author used this to ridicule the justice at that time. The political turbulence also appeared a lot in the play. The governor died, world war II started. Because of the eruption of the government, the poor were starving. In the program, director stated that they want the audience to see the corruption and injustice of the system that underlies the action, which was the same as my themes.
In the play, costume is the most important staging. Costumes are used to distinguish different characters, by given different characters different hat. Lighting is also an important staging. In the play, lighting is used to highlight some scenes or characters; it is also used to switch the scenes. Sound/Music is also important because it helps the audience to comprehend the play and also express the emotion to the audience. Arusha was highlighted as the important one. Because when she was on the stage, all the lights gather in her spot. Also Arusha was the one who appears a lot in the scenes. In the play, Arusha and Georgi Abashwili(Governor's wife) are standing at the opposite. Because they are both mother of Michael. One is rich and one is poor. One is noble and one is peasant.
Peter is my favorite actor. Because in the play, the character he depicted is a person who really loved money and who is extremely selfish; Peter used his facial expression and his body movement to exaggerate the characteristics of the character. For example, in the last scene, Peter's finger twist, it shows that the person that he talks with need to give some or more money to him.
Overall, I like this play. Because it depicts peasants' life at that time, showing that how poor they are. But in order to make it attractive, it also has some humor in the play, through the sentences or actors' body movement. It also shows the love from parents to the child. By watching this play, I learn that costumes really help to distinguish different characters. Because sometimes one actor has multiple characters, using the hat for different characters make audience easier to understand the play.
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