LTT Review: A Gaggle of Saints

by Jen Aitken | 4:52 am 23/08/2010

Written by Neil Labute Directed by Katie King Starring William Tait-Jamieson and Emere Leitch-Munro (2.5/5)

    A Gaggle of Saints, taken from Neil Labute’s Bash trilogy, is a confronting piece about homophobia. What is so wonderful about this piece is that it provides a director with a perfect blank canvas, presenting this fourth-year student with an excellent choice of play with which to display her abilities. Labute produced this canvas and he invites directors to colour it and smother it in anything they desire. What we saw from King was not so much ‘colour and smother’ but instead a simple framing of the canvas that Labute had created. 

   When directing a piece you need to make sure you and your actors know a number of things. Where is the action taking place? There was an office chair and a bar stool in King’s stage; they were aesthetically pleasing, but why were they there? Where were these characters? Who are the characters talking to? What are the characters saying and how do they feel about it? I would suggest the actors, if not the director as well, could not answer any of these questions. There was no substance, no investment in the drama and tragedy of the narrative.

   It is hard to decide whether it was through a lack of ability on the part of the actors or the director but the actors struggled, visually and audibly. The actors sat eagerly awaiting their next line – this was obvious. Tait-Jamieson’s tackled his debut to the Lunchtime Theatre stage with much gusto but a certain naiveté as he was denied the support and encouragement to feel secure in his knowledge of the script. The crux of the narrative relied on him and his ability to audibly evoke a scene in the minds of the audience and do so in a way that allowed us to feel some emotion and judgment of the actions undertaken by his character. Where Tait-Jamieson struggled, Leith-Munro (in a stunning ball gown) managed to hold the piece together. Her ability to remain in character while sitting still and staring at the audience was commendable as she provided the piece with some foundation. 

   The actors sat still, until the very end when they got up, hugged, and danced in the dark and posed for a photo together, only to be lit momentarily by the flash of a camera. This final moment, the ‘click’ and ‘flash’ of the camera, was my favourite. It displayed the innovative use of light and staging that I was expecting to see from King. 

   Knowing King as a stickler for breaking routine I was incredibly surprised to see that she did not do so throughout this piece. At one point her actor stood up and then sat back down and at another the lighting went down on her actress. This was all the audience was offered by way of a break from the paralyzed verbal onslaught her actors presented. She needed to take care to ‘sign-post’ the key changes in the narrative; such as when the stories of the two characters diverged from one another. I missed this moment.

   Having seen King’s work on two prior occasions I cannot help but think that this time she has let herself down slightly. I would suggest that she stage-managed this piece expertly but I feel a distinct lack of engagement with the action of the narrative and the characters within that narrative let this production down. 

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