The Birthday Party

This play fell short on entertainment value for me personally, and as confusing as the play-writer himself. Having sat through it I have to confess as to not understanding one bit of it and having spoken to several members of the audience I felt vindicated for feeling this way. Whilst I appreciate the effort by all the cast and crew alike the substance of the play I cannot comment on, and will confine my critique to the cast and set, the set was of a rundown nature for a supposedly run down boarding house dressed what I consider right for the period so well done the set and props. The wardrobe had also delivered with relatively period costumes. Meg (Dee Melia) an excellent portrayal of the confused and bewildered landlady / wife always on the edge, really quite worrying as to where she was going with the character but constantly battling to please, and I think for me as confused as I was she held my attention with every appearance she made well done. Petey (David Burt) a sure fire candidate for the home of the befuddled yet again good character acting. Stanley (John Beech) scary or what with the mood swings, as was the interaction with Meg I half expected a murder!!!! well done. The parts of Goldberg and McCann were suitable roles played out well as was that of Lulu, but I did have a problem with accent of McCann as some of the dialogue was lost.

As I said at the beginning a play which I personally didn’t appreciate. Many thanks for the hospitality during my visit           

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.