On Monday February 24th the BA Theate Design course were lucky enough to acquire some tickets for a production of the comedy show 'Moonlight and Magnolias' which we saw at the Nottingham Playhouse by their theatre company.
The show is about how the 1950s Hollywood classic book to screen film 'Gone with the Wind' almost didn't happen! When big time Hollywood Producer David O. Selznick (played by Joe Alessi), fires the scriptwriter, because the script is a load of rubbish, and the director, because he doe not know what he is doing, a few weeks into filming of the 'Gone with the Wind' and halts production, he brings in renowned scriptwriter Ben Hecht (played by Dan Frendenburgh) to write a new script and persuades film director Victor Fleming (played by Oscar Pearce) to leave his current job directing The Wizard of Oz film and direct Gone with the Wind. However, Hecht only has a 5 days to turn an over 1000 novel into a just over 100 page script before production restarts and he has never read the book before. This leads to chaos as Selznick forces Hecht and Fleming to be locked in his office with him for 5 days so that he and Fleming can act out the story to Hecht who has to try and turn their acting into a script by the deadline whilst they are being fed walnuts and bananas being brought in for them by Selznick's assistant Miss Poppenghul (played by Hayley Doherty). The show involved lots of slapstick comedy, especially as the time the men were locked in the office for went by and the lack of sleep and a balanced diet of food caused them to bounce between different emotions and go crazy!
There was one overall set for the show (designed by Tim Meacock), which was David O. Selznick's office. Because there was only one set and no transitions, this meant that the set could be very realistic and detailed, which Meacock's set was, in my opinion. The actual set and the set dressing gave the illusion to the audience that they were in an American film producer's office. Also, during at the beginning of the second act the curtains open to reveal Selznick's office covered in prop walnut shells and prop banana skins, One aspect of the set that did change was the large window on the back wall of the office, which had images and silhouettes projected onto it. For a large proportion of the show it showed the sky and studio buildings that were opposite Selznick's office. However, at points the animations changed to show what Selznick pictures in his head happening at points during the film and at the end it shows scenes from the real life film which complemented the plot of the show and helped make it appeal more to the audience.
Each of the four characters had one costume, all of which suited the period of the play, which involved coats and jackets and hats which were taken off and put back on during points in the show. I think that each costume reflected each character very well.
Overall, I thought that the show was funny and I thought that the set was really well done and very accurately detailed and the costumes accurately portrayed the characters. However, I think that the show could have been more appealing had there been a change or transition in the set because the audience were watching the action take place all in one location which could cause a loss of engagement at points. But, I think that the projections did help to emphasise emotions and atmosphere during the show.
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