Directorial choices
The director has overall control of a production so donât forget to refer to how you think their input influenced the production. Think about the following:
- Did the director have a fixed concept or aim for the work? How was this communicated?
- What specific choices about style did they make?
- Did they make any significant changes or cuts to the script and if so, what did they achieve by this? Did it affect pace or structure?
- What was the emotional journey taken by the audience? Where and how were tension or contrast created?
- Read the programme notes and search online for any background information about the director that might help you. It may be that they are famous for a particular style or approach to work.
The theatre critic, Vicky Frost focuses on directorial choices in her review of Am I by Shaun Parker and Company at the Sydney Opera House. She also points out a weakness in the pace of the production but her overall tone is a positive one:
There's a focus on arms and hands â linked, repetitive actions that have a ritualistic, sometimes mechanical feel to them. The result is complex, layered and often playful â absorbing and rewarding to watch. Occasionally I yearn for more flow and variety â but the use of metal batons that glimmer and move almost in slow motion is compelling, as is a metal fan that slices and snaps more than it simpers and flirts. Bright slivers of movement and shine amid the black.
Telegraph critic, Charles Spencer is scathing in his opinion of director, David Farrâs production of Hamlet at the RSC:
Farr is the kind of director who has 20 bright ideas before breakfast and bungs them all on stage to prove how clever he is. Sometimes it works but a show-offy approach to Hamlet strikes me as verging on the obscene.
This is an example of a critic stating a strong negative opinion which needs to be backed up with examples explaining why he believes the directorâs vision was flawed. He does this by focusing on the setting and the lead actorâs performance:
Farr has set the play in the 1960s with the action taking place in a down-at heel gymnasium with the words âmens sana in corpore sanoâ inscribed on the wall, heavily underlining the point that Hamlet isnât always in his perfect mind. In fact the defining notes of Jonathan Slingerâs Hamlet are relentless anger and withering sarcasm, a reductive view of the character that becomes decidedly wearing.