Comments for The Lower Depths at http://www.australianstage.com.au , comment 1 to 2 out of 2 comments http://www.australianstage.com.au Sat, 25 May 2013 07:05:03 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.australianstage.com.au/reviews/melbourne/the-lower-depths-2028.html#comment-679 This was an amazing piece of theatre. Well done to all involved. I don\'t think Melbourne was ready for it. - kk Sun, 30 Nov 2008 01:12:25 +0100 http://www.australianstage.com.au/reviews/melbourne/the-lower-depths-2028.html#comment-643 Watching \"The Lower Depths\" you get the feeling that apart from few scenes this show is really good old traditional dialog and monolog delivery. Yes, most actors have an opportunity to shine delivering their lines, but the whole play seems like a basketball game made of superstars who\'s the only purpose is to score individually to win the game but not passing the ball to make it an interesting show. And the show is static. Actors appear and disappear and but most of the time they have nothing to do apart from lot\'s of gesturing. While the set design is interesting and minimalistic the lack of creative solutions for each scene leaves actors to do what they do best - deliver their lines. And if not for Alex Menglet, Natalia Novikova and Adam Pierzchalski delivering some kind of Russian authenticity to this otherwise very Anglo-Saxon approach to Gorky - some characters are straight from Shakespeare, some are form Underbelly and some are from Home and Away leaving you with the feeling that you have been flipping channels with your TV remote. With the exception of few scenes where the audience is waken up with grand singing scene or Adam Pierzchalski\'s drunk-accordion-savvy Alyoshka\'s interventions, the whole production is amazingly minimalistic with the use of sound as it is with their use of lighting design. But the biggest minimalist of this production is the director of the play. No matter how deep Ariette Taylor tries to submerge the audience, it leaves you with the feeling that we are safely swimming in the shallow waters here. It\'s just not deep enough. Theatre Patron - Theatre Patron Mon, 10 Nov 2008 11:10:09 +0100