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New Plymouth Little Theatre’s production of Ache, written by Pip Hall and directed by John Lawson and the late, great, Terry Darby, is a beautifully presented romantic comedy exploring all the highs and lows of love in the modern world.
Presented in a series of vignettes, with a projector screen helping set the scene – along with some slightly snarky commentary at times, the play takes us through a series of meetings between a man and a woman as they navigate love and life and the challenge of seizing the day, or not.
The play starts with the word Ache, and its meaning, projected onto the screen, taking the audience through all the possible emotions the word can represent. That range of emotion, from longing to grief, desire to suffering, misery to love, is then brought to life over the course of the various chapters.
The scene setting is simplistic yet effective, with the audience taken from a smoker’s balcony at a wedding to a fancy pop-up restaurant to a hospital waiting room or a police station with just the addition of a few signs, a poster or two, and some basic furniture or trees.
The lighting follows in the same vein – we move from a gentle evening to the artificial brightness of hospital lights to a beautiful sunset with some great colour changes on stage.
As the main characters – woman and man – Cat Jordan and Shawn Stanley are a delight to watch. They draw the audience in and keep us in the palms of their hands throughout the show, demanding our sympathy along with our laughs, and ensuring the audience is cheering them on throughout the ups and downs of their individual, yet occasionally intertwined, lives.
From an emotional drunk to a grammar-correcting lawyer, from a want-to-be designer to a bridesmaid in painful shoes, every one of their moments on stage brings one of the meanings of ache to the forefront of the audience’s mind.
The two actors are well matched on stage, with some great physical comedy (watch out for the doggy paddle) as well as some raw emotion that really draws the audience in.
As secondary characters – girl and boy – Alex Sheehan and Josh McKee play a delightful range extra characters, getting plenty of laughs throughout. Josh’s range of accents is great fun to listen to while Alex is the perfect chameleon moving from student to girlfriend with a quick change of costume complemented by her excellent physicality to show the character changes.
The play had been on Terry’s bucket list to direct, and he had chosen the cast before he passed away from cancer last year. John Lawson then took on the directing of the show, creating a beautiful and fitting tribute to Terry’s vision.
Just as the word ache has any meanings, and this production takes us through so many of them, so the word theatre can mean a lot. The art of performing. An experience that takes us outside of our own experience and world view. A collaborative art form. A sense of drama. An emotional storytelling. A place where an idea is brought to life.
New Plymouth Little Theatre’s production of Ache is all of that and more.
Be prepared to leave the show with an ache in your own heart – an aching for more, for more great plays produced by more great actors, and an ache for all that theatre can offer us, thanks to the vision of creatives like Terry Darby.
The play starts with the word Ache, and its meaning, projected onto the screen, taking the audience through all the possible emotions the word can represent. That range of emotion, from longing to grief, desire to suffering, misery to love, is then brought to life over the course of the various chapters.
The scene setting is simplistic yet effective, with the audience taken from a smoker’s balcony at a wedding to a fancy pop-up restaurant to a hospital waiting room or a police station with just the addition of a few signs, a poster or two, and some basic furniture or trees.
The lighting follows in the same vein – we move from a gentle evening to the artificial brightness of hospital lights to a beautiful sunset with some great colour changes on stage.
As the main characters – woman and man – Cat Jordan and Shawn Stanley are a delight to watch. They draw the audience in and keep us in the palms of their hands throughout the show, demanding our sympathy along with our laughs, and ensuring the audience is cheering them on throughout the ups and downs of their individual, yet occasionally intertwined, lives.
From an emotional drunk to a grammar-correcting lawyer, from a want-to-be designer to a bridesmaid in painful shoes, every one of their moments on stage brings one of the meanings of ache to the forefront of the audience’s mind.
The two actors are well matched on stage, with some great physical comedy (watch out for the doggy paddle) as well as some raw emotion that really draws the audience in.
As secondary characters – girl and boy – Alex Sheehan and Josh McKee play a delightful range extra characters, getting plenty of laughs throughout. Josh’s range of accents is great fun to listen to while Alex is the perfect chameleon moving from student to girlfriend with a quick change of costume complemented by her excellent physicality to show the character changes.
The play had been on Terry’s bucket list to direct, and he had chosen the cast before he passed away from cancer last year. John Lawson then took on the directing of the show, creating a beautiful and fitting tribute to Terry’s vision.
Just as the word ache has any meanings, and this production takes us through so many of them, so the word theatre can mean a lot. The art of performing. An experience that takes us outside of our own experience and world view. A collaborative art form. A sense of drama. An emotional storytelling. A place where an idea is brought to life.
New Plymouth Little Theatre’s production of Ache is all of that and more.
Be prepared to leave the show with an ache in your own heart – an aching for more, for more great plays produced by more great actors, and an ache for all that theatre can offer us, thanks to the vision of creatives like Terry Darby.
Review by Ilona Hanne for Stratford Press
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