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Review: Scenes From a Memory (November 2005)
Danni Segal's undertaking of directing a play based on Dream Theater's concept album, Scenes from a Memory, was, to say the least, rather a large one.
The cast comprises local amateur talent, featuring Greg Hulks as Nicholas, Maureen Taylor as the hypnotist, Dominic Coughlan, a committee member of BATS, as the newspaper man, Clare Sayers as Victoria, Dave Bourne as Julian Baynes and Keith Bird as Edward Baynes, aided by the assistant director, Janine Hare.
The play begins with Nicholas seeking an audience with his therapist who recommends, having listened to Nicholas recounting his recurring nightmares featuring a woman and a strange forboding house, regression therapy.
Nicholas is regressed, through several sessions of therapy, each more revealing than the last, often with the closure of each session being met with an aside from the therapist, "I have a feeling we'll meet eachother again, Nicholas..."
The acting was, naturally, of an amateur standard and anyone expecting otherwise would be ill-advised. Having said that, the performance of Keith Bird, as Edward Baynes, is truly memorable and he is ably supported by Clare Sayers, whose truly ghost-like appearances served the script well, as Victoria.
The verbose script was hard to follow in places and a little contrived, probably due to Danni's requirement for the audience to understand the story: more complex on stage than in the Scenes from a Memory booklet. The soliqoquys were certainly interesting and afforded several members of the cast to shine, especially Clare Sayers and Keith Bird, fleshing out the story even more and providing some intriguing insight into the character's motivations.
As a tool for further exploration of Dream Theater's original premise, Danni Segal's play is wonderful. My understanding of the story has increased immeasurably and, on arriving home this evening, my listening enjoyment of a Scenes from a Memory has undoubtedly been embellished.
Mike, John, James, John and Jordan [Dream Theater] will undoubtedly be proud of the treatment their work received.
Danni Segal aka erasion: the boy done good.
- Paul (NoBloodyName), VoicesUK.net, 19/11/05
Review reproduced by permission
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