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Vinegar Tom Summary...

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Harmony Bates TH 110-05 Instructor Heebner December 8, 2018 Vinegar Tom by Caryl Churchill As a member of the audience, I assume that this play was difficult for the actors to execute. Due to the graphic content and “hands-on” acting (referring to the onstage violence), the actors have to maintain a level of professionalism while acting in scenes that are more controversial. Therefore, the use of specific acting tools throughout the play assisted the actors in conducting a smoother and more realistic scene. Among these tools were eye contact, hand gestures and facial expressions. Additionally, actors who connected well with their co-actors achieved a successful scene. – If two scene partners did well with acting with each other rather than two individuals acting on a shared stage, then even the more controversial scenes including sex and strong language would be executed well. The actors playing Jack and Margery had many scenes where they argued. The actors did well with keeping eye contact between each other during these scenes. The eye contact adds a sense of intenseness and realness to the argument. ALSO, there are some moments between these actors where the lack of eye contacts adds more to the scene. For example, in one scene, Jack gets upset with Margery for being lazy and says that she’s a “lazy woman”. He then proceeds to throw her to the ground. She gets up and he continues to antagonize her. In this moment, she is looking out into the audience, avoiding eye contact with her counterpart. This lack of eye contact is key because it shows how ashamed and scared she feels (without her having to say anything directly notifying the audience of how she’s feeling).

Additionally, the actors have to deal with being hands on with their other fellow actors. Whether it is violence or physical affection, the actors had to develop a level of comfortableness in order to allow the scene to flow smoothly without seeming awkward. Violence is a large part of the play, primarily with the women being thrown around by their male counterparts. Eye contact between the actors is important during physical scenes. It allows the actors to sync up so that a violent moment like when someone is thrown to the ground is executed perfectly between both actors. Although I did enjoy many of the play’s scenes, some of the actual acting was subpar and made it hard for the audience to follow what was going on. One thing I would like to point out is how hard it was to follow the dialect between multiple actors or a monologue with a single actor when the English accent was butchered. While the physical aspect of the acting was good, the slur of lines was quiet difficult to sit through. When watching scenes where Alice was talking to her mother, Alice sometimes failed to use annunciation with her English accent. So, although I got the general feel of what was going on in the scene, I felt disappointed when I couldn’t quite make out what some of the speech was. I would suggest more vocal/speech exercises before the production. The use of repeating various vowels, syllables, and consonants as practice can lead to better diction and improve the overall quality of the stage speech. In conclusion, this play had some good parts but it was not one of my favorites. Yes, some actors did well in making sure their dictation was not negatively impacted by the burden of using a foreign accent, but other actors struggled and I got lost multiple times while trying to follow the play. Generally, plays including things like singing along or sex aren’t usually plays that I enjoy. – So, my opinion of the performance may be somewhat affected by my preference for more standard plays not including the two items listed above. I don’t know what individual

acting practice each actor did to prepare for their role, but I do believe that some actors could have used more help with the vocalization of their lines. Overall, I would give this play a 5/10....