DANCE CRITIQUE

The movements were flowy and had constant movement. The dancers, there being two of them,
did fast changes in their movement to a strong strum of the guitar in the song, which added to the flow.
The arms and legs were emphasized a lot to show the fluidity of the song. The dancers started off
crawling on the floor, but once they were standing there was a decent amount of spinning, and the man
picked up and manipulated the woman frequently. For the most part, the song was slow, but at
moments the dancers speed up a little to meet the strums of the guitar. The dancers were fluid and
flowed together and around each other. There was a lot of repeated spinning and arm movements.

The dancers told a love story between two people without being too obvious. There was a clear short
beginning and short end with a clear middle. The dancer fluidly danced from one spot on the stage to
another and continued to use the whole stage during the dance. The use of slow movements broke up
with quick movements made the dance stand out. For the most part, the music was slow, but at
moments the guitar would have a fast few strums before slowing back down. There was more emphasis
on the rhythm of the song then there were the words in the song.

The music gave the feeling of a close and romantic bond between the man singing and the woman he
was talking to, which dancers conveyed in their movements. The costumes of the dancers were perfect
for the way the song was fluid, such as the dance of the woman flowing around them as they moved.
The dance reminds the viewers of the beauty of love and gives the feeling of happiness and longing.

PLAY REVIEW

The boisterous play has been reset from the fourteenth century and reborn into 1978, ‘the winter of
discontent’. I have to applaud set designer Vikki Mortimer who makes a brilliant choice for the
background scenery: stacking four rusty portable cabins- presumably containing the contraptions of a
funfair which shadows Don Johns ever moving lifestyle- to fashion the swiftly changing scene
arrangements, one for the musicians, on top, Elvira’s room and the set of creates on the right hand side
shows Anna’s house, later transformed into Don John’s room and on top, the vicars church -equipped
with a piano and plastic chairs- the metal containers are also used as playground climbing frames by Don
John. Another aspect of the set I would like to credit would be the black dustbin bags dumped towards
the very front of the stage, a symbolic prop discretely telling us of Don John’s treatment to women and
an authentic look at the dustbin strike that depressingly loomed over many towns at that period of time.
The most stunning prop of all, which is not the tacky neon cross that makes an unwelcome hanging
appearance every so often, is in fact the backdrop: a fairground sign spelling out, “Shelly’s Ride”, it later
proves to be an in genius idea when used in the play to spell the words, “She” and when at Don John’s
end, “Hell”. To downstage left, by the container housing the chorus, was a burning fire reflecting the
emotion on stage, not at all effective as most wouldn’t notice the contrast unless someone pacifically
pointed it out.
Footlights and side floods create a glaring wash as we watch the going ons in the small bleak town. You
can expect an impressive combination of flash lighting and heart pumping sound effects when Kneehigh
add in the typical seventies blackouts -creatively represented by pyrotechnic explosions- into the
scenarios and don’t be surprised to see the general lighting being cut off altogether- when Anna is raped
by Don John; the audience also a sense the blindness and the confused emotions connected with being
hidden from the truth like Anna was. A shock of strobe lighting creates the illusion of bullet shots which
effectively makes us squirm and jump up in horror and bright lights to accompany the scene with Don
John taking pills and getting high. However, the hands down best lighting effect is of the glitter ball that
created a dazzling wash of white spots dancing around the theatre.

One of Kneehigh’s traits is live sound throughout and it’s disappointing to see they don’t deliver on
catchy enough songs but would rather settle for a group of words sung in tune and set to the rhythm of
the band. Some of the songs mocked the seventies music like: ‘Desire’ played in a satirical Blondie style
and others like, ‘Viva Liberate’ tried to imitate the punk sex pistols style but most of the time the sound
was so off and the singing too loud the vocal talents of the actors and singers turned into an incoherent
slur of noise. The more retro instruments used were a harpsichord and lute, both slightly interesting to
see them being played. It was always an excited pleasure to hear the great use of sfx, such as: gunshots,
a heartbeat when Anna senses the captivating presence of Don John, the amusing touch of popular TV
show Grange Hill theme music, bells, news and shipping forecasts on the radio. A very good sound effect
was one created by popping balloons, which imitated the sounds of gunshots almost perfectly, in Don
John’s nightmare where all the people who’s lives he had effected comes at him with a balloon in hand
and he tries to fend them off with his gun but his attempt deems to be futile.

Seventies styled costumes armed with flare jeans and multicoloured tops with striped designs was
another feature of the show that took us back to the winter of 1978. Don John was dressed in a woollen
jumper, leggings and knee high boots, Zerlina flitted around the stage in scarlet platforms, Anna was
dressed in old brown clothes and Elvira, seen in a business like outfit later did a costume change and
transformed from her uptight persona and into a loose women in a red dress. The costumes were very
appropriate as each character was given some to wear that would reflect them over all, for example:
Zerlina’s zany skirt and high platforms mirrors a quirky personality whilst Anna, dressed in uninspiring
brown garments two sizes too big, reflected her plain personality. However, I was disappointed to see
Don John’s costume change into an ugly dress for the second half of the play.

References to the tedious time of 1978 pop up in dialogue and on the radio news/music, photographs
and mementoes. The narrator and lead singer of the band directly address the audience when telling us
of Don John’s story. Kneehigh use modern technology to approach the aspect of exactly how many
women Don John has been with and to let Elvira realise she needs to move on because she is not at all
special to him in anyway. They showed this by hanging a curtain up off of the crate containing Don
John’s hotel room and projecting a slideshow of women the main antagonist has left behind, it was
effective because it showed how Don John and his less than dashing side kick had the nerve to collect
pictures of his victims and treasure them in a proud collection, telling us just how sleazy they are.
The physical movement In this play can only be described as captivating, especially involving the sexual
acts between Don John and Zerlina. We see the two share a moment of short lived passionate emotion
which gives us an insight as to why exactly women find Don John an irritably delicious temptation,
supported by the rhythmatic flow of the band, they successfully symbolise a climax by the festoon and
fairground lights flaring, done in a more realistic way would have probably come across as tacky so
credit is due there. Another movement piece that I liked was acted out by the dancers who, in the song
‘Wantoness’, write the names of various girls on the foreground flooring of the stage and on crates, this
starts off as small actions but then extend to dramatic whole body movements, it, in my opinion, adds
the effects of a ghostly presence that follows Don John to ever town but is never noticed by the other
characters.

The actors that stood out to me were the ones who played the character of Don John and of Zerlina.
Don John managed to communicate a faux suave charm fantastically and injected charisma into the
mannerisms of his character. The best moment for Don John was the one involving him and Zerlina as
the relationship based purely on heat was conveyed though eye contact and physical movement. The
character of Zerlina was not only the most entertaining, setting aside Don John himself, but the only
character who brought across a certain energy to the dullest of scenes you would rather not watch.
With her amusing accent that ends every sentence with a high inflection of the voice, Zerlina the polish
cleaner is by far the strongest female in the entire performance. Her best scene is of her comically
multitasking the chore of hovering and dusting whilst having her nose stuck into a book bought for her
by nerdy fianc�, Alan. However the performance of drib-drab Anna was pronounced bland and
mundane the moment any of the other characters opened their mouths. Lacking any believable
emotion, every one of her lines that was said stood for the chance at winning the worst moments in Don
John. Although, at the very beginning, the rebellious drinking communion brought a slight smile to my
face. Her worst moments though, were in the scene where the three women, Elvira, Zerlina and Anna
decide to take their revenge on Don John by uniting and thus becoming stronger women. However,
Anna failed to show any change from stale vicars wife to an independent woman and in one of the final
scenes- where Anna is shown leaving her husband because the dreary woman was in search of a so-
called ‘adventure’- is painfully rubbish to watch mainly due to the same reason that crops up a many a
times in the play- Anna’s non existent personality.

Overall, the play was enjoyable and definitely a funny performance to watch. The alluring swagger of
Don John was hypnotic throughout and the highlights include everything Zerlina. However, if I was to
direct this play I would make the ending tilt towards the more realistic side and not be as symbolic with
the props, for example; the present for Elvira with a baby inside wasn’t that clever. Also, I would get rid
of the cheesy Barry White number at the end altogether- that kind of last ditch attempt to woo the
audience over in the form of a get-the-girls-off-the front-row-and-make-them-dance strategy, I expect
from some high school performance.
References:

Hood, S. (2021, July 13). Sample theatre review (Don John) Essay. Artscolumbia. Retrieved October 2, 2022, from
https://artscolumbia.org/sample-theatre-review-don-john-4823/

Mycustomessay.com Samples. (2020b, July 15). Dance Critique. Retrieved October 2, 2022, from https://mycustomessay.com/samples/dance-
critique.html