In a Forest, Dark and Deep (03/09/2011)
Last night I went to see In a Forest, Dark and Deep at the Vaudeville Theatre which stars Matthew Fox and Olivia Williams (and only them as it's a two-hander). The play centres around two siblings, Bobby and Betty, and their rather complicated relationship. It's supposed to be provocative and disturbing and while at points I did think: "They did not just go there...", let's be honest the storyline was also highly predictable and the 'shocking' twist near the end could be seen from miles away. Highlight by far to me was the dialogue given to the character of Bobby. It got a fair few laughs from the audience throughout, both when intentionally funny as well as after the more cringeworthy moments 'shocking' the audience into a sudden burst of laughter.
Unfortunately there were no jears to be seen at any point during or after the performance, I was a tad disappointed by that I have to say. However I thought Matthew was absolutely fabulous as Bobby in every other aspect (and he plays a mean air guitar!). Admittedly no matter how much I love Lost and Party of Five I did not have very high hopes for his live acting skills, but I was pleasantly surprised when proven wrong. Olivia Williams on the other hand I have to say was underwhelming. She was by no means terrible but I did not find her to have a very strong stage presence either. And her American accent was nowhere near as believable as in Dollhouse making me question for a while if I was watching the understudy instead.
The performance we went to was part of a What's On Stage outing and because of that was followed by a Q/A with Matthew, Olivia and writer/director Neil LaBute. It lasted for about half an hour and we got warned beforehand that the only questions allowed had to focus on the play and not anything else the actors have been involved in "such as TV-shows they may be known from". In other words: don't mention jears, the numbers, Dharma or randomly shout omgwtfpolarbear. For the most part of the Q/A it was Neil who was speaking though both Olivia and Matthew talked briefly about their opinion on Neil, the play and their characters as well. I recorded a few answers but I think the sound quality is fairly poor and I can't check properly right now because my headphone jack seems to be buggered (ie. when watching movies I can't hear the dialogue though the sound effects and background music sound flawless and when listening to music the sound wavers. Anyone familiar with this problem? I think it's the headphone jack but ugh I don't want to send my laptop away - who knows how long it takes to be returned?). I do have pictures, which you can find below. The programme looks fabulous and has a few fantastic photos in it so I included those as well (and completely unrelated but it mentions both Benedict Cumberbatch and David Tennant - can't escape those two!).
Afterwards some people moved towards the stage to see if they could get pictures and their programme signed (think Jeffster after the Comic Con panel) so we followed suit and I believe all tree of use managed to get our programme signed by both actors. They were both personalising which was fantastic (& Olivia said she liked my name, pronouncing it with a long z and very rolling r and Matthew had to ask me to spell it about 25 times before he got it right).
Official production photos
Unfortunately there were no jears to be seen at any point during or after the performance, I was a tad disappointed by that I have to say. However I thought Matthew was absolutely fabulous as Bobby in every other aspect (and he plays a mean air guitar!). Admittedly no matter how much I love Lost and Party of Five I did not have very high hopes for his live acting skills, but I was pleasantly surprised when proven wrong. Olivia Williams on the other hand I have to say was underwhelming. She was by no means terrible but I did not find her to have a very strong stage presence either. And her American accent was nowhere near as believable as in Dollhouse making me question for a while if I was watching the understudy instead.
The performance we went to was part of a What's On Stage outing and because of that was followed by a Q/A with Matthew, Olivia and writer/director Neil LaBute. It lasted for about half an hour and we got warned beforehand that the only questions allowed had to focus on the play and not anything else the actors have been involved in "such as TV-shows they may be known from". In other words: don't mention jears, the numbers, Dharma or randomly shout omgwtfpolarbear. For the most part of the Q/A it was Neil who was speaking though both Olivia and Matthew talked briefly about their opinion on Neil, the play and their characters as well. I recorded a few answers but I think the sound quality is fairly poor and I can't check properly right now because my headphone jack seems to be buggered (ie. when watching movies I can't hear the dialogue though the sound effects and background music sound flawless and when listening to music the sound wavers. Anyone familiar with this problem? I think it's the headphone jack but ugh I don't want to send my laptop away - who knows how long it takes to be returned?). I do have pictures, which you can find below. The programme looks fabulous and has a few fantastic photos in it so I included those as well (and completely unrelated but it mentions both Benedict Cumberbatch and David Tennant - can't escape those two!).
Afterwards some people moved towards the stage to see if they could get pictures and their programme signed (think Jeffster after the Comic Con panel) so we followed suit and I believe all tree of use managed to get our programme signed by both actors. They were both personalising which was fantastic (& Olivia said she liked my name, pronouncing it with a long z and very rolling r and Matthew had to ask me to spell it about 25 times before he got it right).
Official production photos