More Ashland Reviews

[efilsiertaeht]

OSF part 2: The Clay Cart
On Thursday afternoon we saw Bill Rauch's production of The Clay Cart. The set, designed by Christopher Acebo, was gorgeous. Beautiful Indian practicals hung over both the stage and the house, the set was a circular playing space with seating space for actors to watch, and then beyond that a raised level from which

Comments

[badassartiste]

I disagree with your criticism of the design of Othello. I felt that the set and lights worked perfectly together, there was a very stark quality to both that set the mood of the show and kept the focus on the character development. (and i would like to add, whoever thought to use those fluorescent lights like that is a genius) Admittedly the set clashed some with the tudor architecture of the theatre itself, but I didn't find it to be distracting. The choice to use black and white for the set instead of the brown and white of the building was, if nothing else, worth it for the moment when Othello stabs Iago and blood sprays over the stage. If that center line had been brown, the bright red of the blood would have lost a lot of it's effect

[badassartiste]

I definitely agree that the use of white and black for the set was a better design choice than browns, etc., i just found it frustrating that they didn't seem to use it enough. The blood wasn't all that striking to me, maybe that was just the performance I saw.

Unfortunately for me, the set and lights were far more distracting than focusing, so I didn't pay any attention to the character development, and certainly didn't connect with them. Instead, I found myself counting the number of flourescent lights, tracing their shape with my fingers, etc... which is always a bad sign for me. I am glad to hear that you didn't have that same experience though... obviously the point of writing such a review is to have people respond and disagree, not to have people take my word for whatever I happen to be thinking at the time. So thanks for replying! :-)