Comedy, tragedy, or… Ithaca road is a comedy production aimed at teenagers. However, it seems to overdo it in some instances. For instance, they seem to have read a textbook on how to write a play for a teenage audience. Yes, they keep the set simple and the stage never changes, but they do this at the expense of the simplicity of the plot and characters (which is vastly more important). Also, they make classical references. No teenage student nowadays is expected to have read the odyssey. Yet the play incorporates events and names from the poem to get its point across. For instance, the home of the children is known as Ithaca – Odysseus’s homeland. Like him, they are carried away for twenty years or there abouts, divorced from their parents and family, and eventually return. Then there are the sirens, the bully girls who try to carry her off. And here choice of themes and way of getting them across is worse. They seem to have done high school English and thought …show more content…
they could write a play for teenagers. They've got all the themes that they've been instructed will appeal to teenagers and chucked them all in higgledy piggledy. They've got bullying, relationship issues, the quest for liberty and the nostalgic home sicknessy stuff. Then the issues faced by young people trying to fight the world, of going to school, of being bullied, etc. But at least they had the acting right. They kept the set quite simple. And through it all runs the haunting figure of Emily. At first Tilly thinks she is her imaginary friend who talks to her but no one else can hear her… until one day her she plays a disappearing trick and her Dad gets worried and says “please don’t disappear, Emily”. The PICTURES (PROPS that they use) that they convey are some that anyone can relate to. Tilly arrives at school for the first time and is given for homework the Big Book of Boring, a book in the shape of a gaping mouth that chases school children, snapping its jaws. The grade nines are portrayed as wild animals who run wild round the school. Tilly is "lost in the wild" of the school, trying to find her way around with (the explorer) Dr. Livingstone's map. Context/Setting - relatable with the Odyssey Design elements - simple, made to be relatable - BUT CRANK THE RADIO UP! Themes - Acting - good Character representation - relatable (BBB) The different characters are represented very well, and the casual characters are almost stereotypical; which is necessary if you want to keep track of who's who when you have only one character to play all the minor roles. Character's attitudes, values and beliefs - very nostalgic (relatable?); anxious, hopeful, and fearful; Themes - state of flux, transition; Imaginary world - Man vs. wild, fame costs, LOST IN THE WILD From Robert Kronk, author of Snagged (2003) and Howard Cassidy, who teamed up with him again in 2013 to create Fly-In Fly-Out, came Ithaca Road (2010).
The play deals with the issues faced by young people growing up through the eyes of two children, Tilly and Ben. About to begin year eight and head off to boarding school, these two twins are full of anxieties, hopes, and fears about the future. They have built their own imaginary world, where they spend most of the time imagining what will happen. The play is very relatable to anyone who has been concerned about transition, and who has an imagination. But it fails to keep its audience engaged. Though it is aimed at teenagers, and manages to deal very weel with the issues it discusses, it does not do enough to hold its audience. It is not a slapstick comedy, like most productions aimed at young people. Neither does it seek to hold its audience emotionally. So it’s not a tragedy. Or a comedy. Or a tragicomedy. So what is it? It’s a literary
masterpiece. From Robert Kronk, author of Snagged (2003); and Howard Cassidy, who teamed up with him again in 2013 to create Fly-In Fly-Out, came Ithaca Road (2010). The play deals with the issues faced by young people growing up through the eyes of two children, Tilly and Ben. The play is very relatable to anyone who has been concerned about transition and change, and who has an imagination. But it fails to keep its audience engaged. Though it is aimed at teenagers, and manages to deal very well with the issues it discusses, it does not do enough to hold its audience. Unlike most productions aimed at young people, it is not a slapstick comedy. “It’s not a tragedy.” “Or a comedy”. Neither is it a tragicomedy. So what is it? It’s a literary masterpiece. Heading off to boarding school for the first time, these two twins are full of anxieties, hopes, fears and ambitions. Like all children, they have built their own imaginary world, where wildest dreams and worst nightmares come true. And through it all runs Emily, the haunting spectre who Tilly thought was just an imaginary friend... until her Granddad accidentally called her Emily, and Emily’s mysterious book... This weird character who forms the subplot of the play and who Emily realises is almost her second self, acts as the hook to engage the audience. With a very minimalistic set, no costume changes, and only one character to play all the minor roles, it’s necessary to have very good acting and representation of characters if you want your audience to be able to keep track of who’s who. The actors manage this very well, and the minor roles are portrayed almost stereotypically. The set, though limited, is very relatable and !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yet what good is all this if they entirely overshoot their audience? Why make classical allusions and make your plot parallel the Odyssey when no student nowadays could be expected to have read it? The title itself is an illusion to Odysseus’ long journey home to Ithaca, his native country. Such allusions are only calculated to lose your audience. And the play itself is so confusing: one never knows whether one is watching what Tilly is imagining will happen or what is actually taking place. They have succeeded in creating a masterpiece of art and in remarkably well portraying the issues and experiences of young people growing up. But this has been done at the expense of their audience and the engagingness of the play.
Without the use of stereotypical behaviours or even language is known universally, the naming of certain places in, but not really known to, Australia in ‘Drifters’ and ‘Reverie of a Swimmer’ convoluted with the overall message of the poems. The story of ‘Drifters’ looks at a family that moves around so much, that they feel as though they don’t belong. By utilising metaphors of planting in a ‘“vegetable-patch”, Dawe is referring to the family making roots, or settling down somewhere, which the audience assumes doesn’t occur, as the “green tomatoes are picked by off the vine”. The idea of feeling secure and settling down can be applied to any country and isn’t a stereotypical Australian behaviour - unless it is, in fact, referring to the continental
It was very nice to read something that had a lot of drama and suspense. This story has a mix of everything. It has a bit of suspense, drama, and comedy; therefore, it led it to be a very nice play. The people that would most like this play, has to be people who like suspense, drama, and thriller. These people would like it, because this story has a mix of everything, so the people who like to have a mix in their stories, they will love this story. It will suit them, and will give them a pleasure of reading a nice
Kim Addonizio’s “First Poem for You” portrays a speaker who contemplates the state of their romantic relationship though reflections of their partner’s tattoos. Addressing their partner, the speaker ambivalence towards the merits of the relationship, the speaker unhappily remains with their partner. Through the usage of contrasting visual and kinesthetic imagery, the speaker revels the reasons of their inability to embrace the relationship and showcases the extent of their paralysis. Exploring this theme, the poem discusses how inner conflicts can be powerful paralyzers.
the play. It looks at the person he is and the person he becomes. It
Each character, in some capacity, is learning something new about themselves. Whether it be new views, new feelings, newfound confidence, or a new realization of past events, each character involved in the play realizes something view-altering by the end of the play. Bonny is realizing that she is growing up and discovering how to deal with boys, and to lie to her parents; Elsie realizes that she doesn’t need her father for everything, and eventually overcomes her fear of driving on her own; Grace is discovering that she must let her children think for themselves at times, and that she must let Charlie choose what he wants to do; and Charlie, of course, is discovering that there are more ways to think than the status quo that society presents. Each character obviously goes through very different struggles throughout the play, but in the end, they all result in realizing something about themselves they didn’t at the beginning of the
Overall, the play sends a powerful message out to the audience. It tells us about the awful things that capitalism promotes and how it divides the world of the world. We are given a powerful and worrying incite to the future and we realise that we need to help our younger generation to make the world a better place. The Inspector makes us realise that we desperately need to work together with each other, help each other and looking out for one and the other.
This play is also a story about the coming of age of young women (Blo...
life in the mid to late twentieth century and the strains of society on African Americans. Set in a small neighborhood of a big city, this play holds much conflict between a father, Troy Maxson, and his two sons, Lyons and Cory. By analyzing the sources of this conflict, one can better appreciate and understand the way the conflict contributes to the meaning of the work.
...ly progressed from a way to tell stories about kings and gods to a way to tell stories about ordinary human beings. By moving our focus off of nobility, the language of plays became the language of every individual, and eventually, due to America’s “melting pot” culture, the language itself became individual. The unique language of American dramatic characters represents not only the diversity of the American people, but also the diversity of all human beings. These dramatically dissimilar differences were not typical of older plays when they were written, but now, they are what make American drama so valuable. Our acceptance and love for characters with different values than ours is representative of the love we can develop for those who are different from us. It represents the worldview that our current culture idealizes and strives to achieve: acceptance for all.
...the audience and parents that tragedy that could come to them. I think it is not only a lesson for teenagers, but a lesson for parents as well. Time, effort, and energy put into this play were definitely worthwhile, in my opinion. I believe all their practice, rehearsal, and hard work paid off.
This play put on by SI tells the story of a young teenager named Alice trying to figure out her life. After she was raped by a popular kid at school, there was no one she could talk to and figure out what to do. Her parents, the typical very religious family was obviously against having an abortion, something Alice wanted to have but didn’t know how to ask her parents. To gauge there response, she asked them through someone else, telling her exact story but saying it was someone else, and there were definitely against it. Another character named Lennie was struggling with a common problem amongst teens as well, bullying. He was being bullied at school by the same group of the people that Alice’s rapist was in. In Lennie’s family, his dad was catching wind of a
Folklore speculation states that the hymn “Rock of Ages” was allegedly written following a sudden and severe thunderstorm, that the author, Augustus Montague Toplady witnessed while being forced to take shelter under a rocky cliff. Although this composition was completed in 1776, it remains to be a source of inspiration for a multitude of people today. Salvation is the prime ingredient to this poetically constructed song, Toplady systematically captures biblical translations that masterfully support his concepts. The message he artistically conveys is simple, without God, more importantly, without the sacrifice of Christ Jesus, the human soul cannot be salvaged. Therefore, only by the grace of God can we enter freely and forgiven into his kingdom of heaven. Although the tone Toplady presents throughout his sentimentally driven work may be considered humbly somber it also provides an equally optimistic and triumphant significance.
In this poem, I think that one example of symbolism is “the Ivy green” (stanza 1). I believe it represents all the social issues and bad in the world taking over. The other possibility is that as the Ivy good, and is simply holding the world up straight while everything else crumbles and falls. Another word in the poem is “the huge Oak Tree” (stanza 2). I guess that the Oak Tree portrays the world. I say this because the Ivy is slowly creeping up the tree until it’s completely enrobed. This would mean that the issues and everything are gradually taking over the world until everything is complete chaos, or that as the world is crumbling and the little bit of good is growing to try to stop the world from corruption. I see imagery in this poem
Each member of the family struggle with the oppressive circumstances that rule their lives. Throughout the play their attitudes pretty much reflect off of their dreams. The only difference between the younger family and other families of th...
...h other or from their situation in general. The optimistic view of the play shows a range of human emotion and the need to share experiences alongside the suffering of finite existence; governed by the past, acting in the present and uncertain of the future.