Prejudice review by Grace

 

 Prejudice - ‘A Rollicking Retelling of Everyone’s Favourite Romance’

By Rob Brannen

I went to see this play with my Mum and Grandma on opening night, 

7th February 2024, at the Shakespeare North Playhouse. 

It was a modern retelling of Jane Austen’s famous romantic comedy 

“Pride and Prejudice”, by a local amateur theatre group. Also it was

 a musical which we didn't realise until we got there

 (I am not a fan of live musicals and I am not convinced that 

this wasn't a set-up).

The play starts with a confusing but enthusiastic opening number 

performed by the Bennet sisters introducing themselves

 and talking about boys. They’re on Tinder

 (because it’s 2024 people, get with the times!)

 and they’ve never had any boyfriends. Elizabeth says the famous first

 line from the book “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a man of

 good fortune, must be in want of a wife” to which one of her sisters’ reply

 “what did you say?”

 and Lizzy shrugs, saying “I dunno, it’s from some old book”.

Next they all go to a party to meet their new neighbours -

 Bingley and his friend Darcy; Bingley is delightful and Darcy

 is quite ill-mannered, however, they are both rich, 

so Darcy gets away with it. Except, Lizzy is annoyed 

with him because he isn’t dancing and she overhears him insulting her.

 However, her sister, Jane, is getting along nicely with Bingley. 

This sets up the rest of the story, in which

 it becomes apparent that Darcy actually quite likes Lizzy

 as they meet several times throughout the play. 

The story progresses much as the original, except halfway

 through the play “Jane Austen” (really just an actor but I guess

 the real Jane Austen was busy) interrupts the play

 because she doesn’t like what they’ve done with it. 

Both Jane and Lizzy break the fourth wall and talk to the

 audience a few times. Jane tells Lizzy that she’s doing

 the story wrong, Lizzy argues that it’s not a story, it's her life,

 and in the end they compromise to do a 50/50 mix of modern

 and Austen story telling. I thought this twist was quite clever 

because a lot of the original story cannot be told in a modern

 way without some ‘Austen-time’ values. I also thought the 

scenes between these two characters were quite witty.

Although Elizabeth Bennet was the main protagonist, 

she came across to me as quite unlikeable. 

I think the audience should have seen or heard a bit more of her

 to better understand her behaviour, which at times didn’t make

 sense for her character. (Fun fact: my middle name is Elizabeth

 because my mum is a big dork and she loves Jane Austen). 

However, I think the actor did a good job with her performance.

 I also think that the actor who played the main antagonist, G Wickham,

 did a good job portraying a seemingly nice person who then turns 

out to be a big creep. In this version of the story,

 Wickham is a DJ with a large social media presence

 (which should have been an immediate red flag for Lizzy). 

My mum and I both thought that most of his scenes had a much

 more serious tone than the rest of the show which temporarily spoiled

 the mood for the light-hearted scenes that followed.

My favourite character in the whole production was Collin Collins 

because he reminded me of Michael Scott and Dwight Schrute 

(both from “The Office U.S”) because he was quite ridiculous and 

pathetic but at the same time, he took himself very seriously. 

His scenes were some of the funniest, one of which included 

him doing a very awkward version of the robot at a party, 

successfully making everyone around him

 (including the audience) uncomfortable.  

Most of the performances were pretty good despite it being the opening

 night and an amateur theatre production. There were a few mistakes

 but I think the actors handled them very well. 

The set dressing mostly consisted of cardboard boxes which was quite fun

 because it turns out you can do a lot of things with such a simple shape - 

with a few changes the boxes became beds, chairs, drawers, tables and, 

of course, more boxes. They probably chose this setup because 

the stage was in the round so they had to be able to change things 

quickly and have it look good from all angles. The one thing

 I really didn’t like about the production was the artificial smoke

 they sprayed in at the beginning for ‘atmosphere’. 

We were sitting in the top row and all the smoke was hurting my

 beautiful face and eyes. It had a really strong smell and made

 the first part of the play quite uncomfortable for me. 

On a final note, I really enjoyed my ice cream during the intermission. 

The play was cool too, although I would have preferred less atmosphere

 and more character development.

One of the things I enjoyed the most was the way social media 

and phones are used and referenced in the story. It seemed to me,

 that the play had been written by an older person as opposed to a

 younger person; they refer to Instagram, Tinder,

 TikTok and images ‘going viral’ in a way that a lot of TV and

 films do when they have teenage characters  

(I’m looking at you, Netflix Original Series). 

I think the play is trying to tackle some important modern day issues

 like cyber-bullying and mental health but it’s not handled particularly

 well and seems out of place. Wickham is exposed as a vile predator 

by the end of the play and this is treated as if his career is over, but in

 reality I think it would be more likely that he would just make an

 ‘apology’ video, talking about how he’s made ‘a severe and

continuous’ lapse in his judgement. Then he would bring out an energy 

drink called ‘Supreme’ the next week.

4 out of 5 stars (originally 3 but with an extra star awarded because I really appreciate that everybody worked so hard on this)

Martha's Review Of Stranger Things

 

Stranger Things, the first shadow review.

Stranger Things the first shadow was by far one of the best stage shows I have ever seen.

 The set was flawless, the lighting was perfect and the actors couldn’t have been better for the 

roles.

 I loved how it was all portrayed, how accurate it was, live in front of me and it looked so real.

 The sound effects and lights flickering gave a brilliant expression of fear and suspense,

 it had you on the edge of your seat.

Every time there was a jump scare, the lights flickered and the actors looked so genuine. 

The interactions with the audience was amazing, they had actors walking through the isles, really

 topping off the sense of the show. 

The performance was a perfect mix of humor, scares and suspense.

It was exhilarating to watch and I would recommend it to anyone. 

I felt so in awe at the show that it just sucked you in, I didn’t want it to end. 

I have a newfound respect for the people who worked in the show. Not just the actors but the set

 designers 

and coordinators, the people who wrote it and the ones controlling special effects like sounds

 and lights and much more.

I especially admire the actors who have been touring with this show, 

performing night after night and always giving off a utterly shockingly good performance.

 I can’t imagine how proud they are to have achieved what they have, it’s amazing. Like I 

said at the start, one of the best shows I have ever watched.

Alfie's Review of The Lion King at Disneyland

 

Review of The Lion King, Rhythms of the Pride Lands at Disneyland Paris 

On Tuesday 16th May I watched the Lion King Show at Disneyland Paris with my Dad, Mum and little sister.  It’s a 30-minute show with acrobats and live performers.

It was in the Frontierland theatre which has a semi-circle of bench seats. We sat at the back, but the view was great as the seats were tiered. The cast members got everyone clapping and chanting Hakuna Matata before the show started which got everyone in a cheerful mood excited for the show.

The Theatre went dark before the curtains opened. The show started with smoke and Rafik shadow on the curtain singing The Circle of Life, he was joined by other characters all dressed in tribal outfits and animal headdresses. The show told the story of the Lion king through songs which included; I can’t wait to be King, He lives in you and Hakuna Matata.

Two characters that looked like zebras were playing the bongo drums in the background which created a great beat. The songs and music made you feel good, I couldn’t stop singing them afterwards. 

The stage lighting/smoke was cleverly used in the songs to create different atmospheres. 

The songs were amazing and the actors' costumes were magnificent. My favourite character was Puma, I liked how his costume looked and the actor was funny and suited the role.

 

My favourite scene was the fighting scene with Muffat and Simba, the moving scenery, acrobatics and the transition from happy to evil was amazing.

The acrobats were incredible how they swung around the stage, but for some reason I felt scared for them. 

My overall rating is a 10/10.

 It is an amazing show and you must go to see it if you go to Disneyland Paris. 

Mia's Review Of Guardian's Of The Galaxy

 

Morgan's Review Of Ceramic Wales.

 

Frankie's Film Review

 

Film Review by Francesca Plant 

Spirited Away (2001) 

Spirited Away is a Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki

 and has themes from the Shinto religion. 

The Plot 

A girl called Chihiro moves away from her school friends and house and moves to

 a new house on a hill in a new town. They go through woods and find an 

entrance to a field. In the field is a tiny 

field with a food market. The parents start eating the food without paying and say they

 will pay later. They eat the spirit food and the spirits turn them into pigs.

 The little girl, Chihiro runs away and meets a boy called Haku who is a spirit

 and he says that she can’t stay there because the boss,

 Yababa, will punish her but he also says that because he doesn’t want humans on spirit ground). 

So she goes to the boiler man called Kamaji who has six arms who says “Go to Yababa 

and get a job and then she won’t hurt you”. So she gets a job in the bathhouse cleaning the

 dirtiest room and filling up the bath. Yababa steals her name and everyone else’s 

name who works for her. Chihiro is now called Sen. 

A water spirit that everyone thought was a stink spirit but just needed a bath gives her a tiny rice ball

 that’s green and thinks it will bring her parents back but it doesn’t because she gave it to the boy

 because he was hurt. Eventually Yubaba says “I’ll give you your parents back if you can guess which

 pigs they are” but this was a trick question and she guesses it right – none of the pigs were her parents. 

So then she gets her parents back but they had no knowledge of what happened. They thought she

 had just gone for an adventure on the rocks and they were just waiting for her in the field. 

Message of the Film 

I think there are two messages in the film. The first message is don’t be greedy and the second one is to

 always be yourself because Chihiro had her name stolen. 

Character Summary 

Chihiro - She is human and is brave, kind and generous 

Haku – He is a water spirit and slightly selfish because his is Yubaba’s servant. He is two faced because

 he seemed nice to Chihiro but didn’t actually care. He was actually evil because he worked for Yubaba

 and she is evil. 

No Face - He is an evil spirit who only like Chihiro. He brings the story together from the middle to

 end of story. He is a rich spirit who can generate gold out of his hands and wants to give Chihiro

 gold because she wasn’t greedy and was kind and she gives her a little bit but then she doesn’t

 want any more. 

Yababa – She is evil. 

Were the characters believable? 

Yes a little bit. Chihiro was believable because she was all sulky when she had to move house.

 Yubaba wasn’t very believable because she has magical powers and telekinesis and can drag people

 with her hand by beckoning people. 

What was interesting about the characters and the relationship between them? 

The most interesting character was Yubaba’s twin sister called Zeniba because she is nice version

 of Yubaba and lived in the countryside and the ocean. She has the same powers as Yubaba but

 doesn’t use them for evil only for small things to help herself with things like knitting. 

What was your favourite scene? 

My favourite scene was where Chihiro was eating the rice in the field and crying with the flowers

 because she has to eat spirit food or she will fade away and not exist. I liked the pretty flowers and

 rice in this scene and visually they looked good. 

Was the film maker good at telling a story in this movie? What makes you say that? 

The story kept me gripped. Most scenes had a cliff hanger.

What did you like about the animation/aesthetic?

I liked all the colours they used. The animation was anime but still a developing animation because

 it was when anime films were first being created in the early 2000s. Even though it was one of the

 earlier anime films to be made it has stood up to the test of time and I agree with others that is one

 of the greatest animation films of all time. It won an award for the best animated feature film. 

How do the animation enhance or distract from the story? 

The way they drew tear drops was good. I liked the detail and the way they drew food was also very detailed. 

What did you like about the plot?

I liked the way No Face held the plot together and the cliff hangers so that the story kept my interest 

because there were lots of different characters doing different things. The spirits were the most 

interesting thing about the film. 

Would you change anything about the plot? Could it have been better?

I would change a few things. There were things that didn’t make sense but I’m not sure how to describe them. 

What else would you have liked to see happen in this film?

A bit more context because a few things aren’t explained specifically. Maybe things about Shinto

 religion or Japanese culture could have been given more context. 

What was the worst thing about the film? 

The quality of the animation and how they drew human’s faces because they had long faces and

 wide mouths and small eyes. The spirits had nothing wrong with how they were drawn because 

no one really knows what a spirit looks like. 

The music was too calming and classical and I would preferred more modern and upbeat music. 

What was the best thing about the film? 

The characters and the colours. 

What rating would you give this film out of 10? 

9/10

Grace's Review Of The Film "Puss In Boots"

 

Trip to the Cinema - Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

s

Puss in Boots

I went to the cinema to see ‘Puss In Boots: The Last Wish’ 

on Monday the 27th of March. 

We went that day because the tickets are cheaper on Mondays. 

The movie was surprisingly good!

 I really like the animation style during the action scenes.

 It was deliberately more cartoonish

 (sort of like anime) similar to the movie ‘The Bad Guys’ and 

‘Spiderman: Into the Spider-verse’. 

The Bad Guys Spiderman: Into the Spider-verse

I found an article about the animation and Nate Wragg, the Production

 Designer said

 “We wanted to make sure it was grounded in something that actually mattered for the character. 

And so, we took it back to his roots as a character born out of fairy tale stories and illustrations”.

 I think it worked really well, it looked a lot better than the original. 

And some of it was genuinely scary! The main villain was

Death as a wolf (the Big Bad Wolf). 

Which makes sense because one of the writers (Tommy Swerdlow) wrote

 ‘Childs Play’! 

There was a bit where Puss in Boots was having a panic attack after seeing the wolf

 and my brother Joe (very loudly) said “he’s having a heart attack!” which was funny.

 The scene was very cute though because Puss’s friend helps him. 

The wolf

My favorite character was Big Jack Horner, played by John Mulaney 

who also voiced 

Peter Porker/Spider-Ham in ‘Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse’.

I liked his character design and the way his face was smaller than the rest of hm.

 I also liked all the funny fairytale jokes and references in the background like

 the "ethical bug” which tries (and fails) to make Jack a better person. 

Big Jack Horner

Puss in Boots is voiced by Antonio Bandaras and he first appeared in Shrek 2 in 2004.

 I was surprised by how many years ago that was – it was before I was born!

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022) - IMDb 

‘Puss in Boots: The Last Wish’ Returns to its Fairy-Tale Illustration Roots

 | Animation World Network (awn.com)