Comments for Rock 'n' Roll at http://www.australianstage.com.au , comment 1 to 3 out of 3 comments http://www.australianstage.com.au Fri, 19 Mar 2010 18:19:34 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.australianstage.com.au/reviews/sydney/rock-n-roll-1378.html#comment-301 Hi James, I did sit upstairs and I\'m sorry to have to report that the combination of acoustics, accents and distance added up to a show that was, for long stretches, incomprehensible. So - not an enjoyable, let alone engaging, production. - robertjarman Sat, 03 May 2008 18:10:13 +0100 http://www.australianstage.com.au/reviews/sydney/rock-n-roll-1378.html#comment-272 Good on you Chris. I\'m glad I\'m not the only one who thinks there\'s an acoustic problem at Sydney Theatre. Your points on pace and (not) reworking the production for the Sydney T stage are strong and valid too. You do have a good sharp eye and a strong mind. I hope STC reads what you say. If you missed the images because the lighting rigs that is a great pity. They were amazing. I was a reasonable way back, by the way, and I did wonder how much more fun it might have been closer up. For example, did questions I had about the arguments in the text (lack of clarity?)come from the audibility problem? I wonder what it was like from upstairs - better or worse? Can anybody tell us? cheers James - James Waites Tue, 22 Apr 2008 09:37:23 +0100 http://www.australianstage.com.au/reviews/sydney/rock-n-roll-1378.html#comment-271 Great play, but only if you’ve got good seats! I wish I’d caught more of Tom Stoppard’s Rock ‘n’ Roll at the STC, but sitting three quarters of the way back I missed lots of dialogue – which thanks to the Sydney Theatre’s bad acoustics often did not reach the back rows – and most of the images projected on the back screen were obscured by lighting booms. Thank God the sound quality of the amplified music was first class. That’s a shame because many of the performances were also great – particularly Genevieve Picot, William Zappa, Chloe Armstrong and Grant Cartwright. And it wasn’t just that I couldn’t hear and see everything. The production also lacked pace. Exchanges were punctuated with meaningless pauses – annoyingly exacerbated the halting Eastern European accent adopted by the central character, played by Matthew Newton. In many scenes the interaction between the characters seemed stilted and unrealistic. While the stage works at a rock concert level, it’s way too big most of the time, there’s just not enough going on to fill the space. It’s as if the production has never been scaled up to fit the Sydney Theatre. The director, Simon Phillips, doesn’t seem to have come to grips with the problems faced by the production in its current venue, leaving it to the actors to fend for themselves. And if the STC knows they have a problem with acoustics, why don’t they do something about it? What about putting in a thrust to bring the more intimate parts of the action closer to the audience so they can actually hear what is going on? Frankly, as a subscriber, I feel ripped off. Note to Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton - Tom Stoppard deserves more respect, and so do we. - Chris Bowes Mon, 21 Apr 2008 18:52:19 +0100