this is a good way to end my first 2009 quarter!

a review from a person who watched our play! oh god, this moved me to tears!!!


Thanks so much for inviting me to see Measure for Measure. You made a very convincing Duke Vincentio and Friar Lodowick! I thought you portrayed the Dukes regal bearing and the friar's humility equally well. Your soliloquies were particularly good.

I've written down my observations but, while I studied drama for five years and performed in amateur productions, I am by no means an expert so treat my comments as purely the observations of an audience member ...

My only criticism was that sometimes lines were spoken a little fast so that someone unfamiliar with the script might lose the meaning ... but this is an observation that can be made of most performers ... nerves have this effect on many people! i found the indistinct lines much, much more distracting than when lines were forgotten.

While I was worried about my staying power in a play that lasted for more than two hours, I was very pleasantly surprised and was carried along by the very gripping plot, which was so creatively presented.

I loved the opening scene/dance. This both lured the audience into the production with its unusual choreography and catchy music, and served to familiarise us with the characters that we'd just read about in the programme. I thought it could have benefitted from being slightly shorter.

Al Leung as Angelo was a very convincing character who made me, by turns, despise or sympathise with him. I found his contrition at the end moving and real.

Anne Alarcon as Isabella gave a very compelling performance. She flawlessly "held" her character throughout the play, and even her silences/inaction conveyed a message. She used gesture and facial expression very powerfully and won the audience's sympathy almost immediately.

I thought Jay Martinez as Claudio was very well cast. He had a real stage presence even when not in the limelight and exuded a quiet strength and tenacity perfect to the character.

Christine Klitsie as the Provost had a marvellously compelling and androgynous stage presence. Early in the play I wondered "whose side" she was on and I think she presently her ambivalence very powerfully, slowly revealing through the course of the play where her sympathies lay. This good cop/bad cop male/female role added an important perspective to the play. I thought the wig really suited Christine!

Raymond Benoza as Lucio was magnificent .... his camp spitefulness tinged with humour was mesmerising. His gestural work was excellent and he vacillated between being a sympathetic figure and an outright rogue. Again, this carried one of the themes of the play: sin/virtue. The audience laughed heartily, yet perhaps a little uncomfortably, not certain whether to lend their support to a character in whom they saw their own "double-sidedness" reflected. Raymond should do more on stage!

Blosson Valiente as Pompey and Juliet was so convincing in each character that I only realised in the closing scene that the characters were played by the same person! Pompey won the audience immediately and Blossom played up his wit and charms perfectly. Her constant movement and animated facial expressions were wonderful. She definitely enjoyed the most laughs from the audience.

I saw Jong Inocencio as Escalus as a real "rock" in the production. I thought Jong portrayed him perfectly as a sturdy and constant influence amid a maelstrom of uncertainty and vacillation. Jong convincingly put across Escalus' measured and thoughtful approach to justice.

Karen Ghisella Li as Marianna was wonderfully mysterious and ethereal. I thought she played her part with the necessary restraint, always leaving the audience wanting to know more about her.

JR dela Cruz had a full plate of roles which he pulled off excellently. I thought his most poweful one was as the friar near the end of the play. Even in silence he exudes a powerful sympathy and almost palpable spiritual concern.

The "set" on the floor was magnificent and very imaginative. The costumes and props were inspired ... I particularly liked the quirky appearance of the top hat, the diaphonous shirts, the flagellant's whips, the suitcase, the comically huge pregnant belly, the fleecy hood worn by the "friar" in the last scene (as though he had just been on a hike in Sai Kung in winter!)

All in all a really excellent performance and well worth the $200 and trip to Kwai Chung. I only wish more people could have seen it! One observation: for its size, the audience was one of the most diverse I've ever seen at any HK performance -- Chinese, Americans, South Africans, South Asians, Philippinos, Scots! This was a triumph in itself.
Let me know when the next one is!