home    

glossary contact links
email Carter
Merlin - The Wild Boy, RSAMD, Glasgow

MAIL ON SUNDAY REVIEW
August 6, 2001

* * * * * Five Star Review


Walking into the Royal Scottish Academy Of Music And Drama's Chandler Studio was like experiencing the worst excesses of the Scottish Summer. The atmosphere was cloyingly humid, it was misty, there was a muddy mixture underfoot and there was a soundtrack of rain and thunder.

Designer and director Carter Ferguson was clearly leaving nothing to the imagination for this 25th anniversary production from Scottish Youth Theatre. And how brilliantly effective it was in summoning up the oppressive atmosphere of the legendary era of King Arthur, somewhere in Britain a long time ago.

With Joe Howe as Merlin and Scott MacDonald as Arthur, Paul Wignall's MERLIN - THE WILD BOY is a play that perhaps occupies the same territory as the stage versions of JRR Tolkien's fantasy stories.

But instead of falling into deep into the the ditch full of literary anoraks drawn by those works, Mr Wignall's piece is rich in the tradition of Malory's Chronicle of King Arthur and the other stories of the mythical King.

This was an exceptionally assured show, full of excellent performances from Scotland's most talented young actors. Its sheer style, pace and strong storytelling undoubtedly made it one of the best productions on the Scottish stage this year.

The pictures right are the performance stills from the Cai (Rhianna Andrews) and Mongan (Mark Roy) fight, the penultimate fight of the show.
Merlin, The Wild Boy

There were several fights in the show. Notably the fight between Medrawd and Arthur, the fight between Cai and Mongan, and also Lancelot v's Mongan in act one. This last fight was added by me to a rescue sequence to up the dramatic effect of the scene. With the audience sitting in "traverse", that is on two opposing sides, this posed very specific problems for staging theatrical combat. There were two slaps in the production, several struggles and feints and at the end five stabbings with the dagger and then finally a strangle... plenty to be getting on with I'm sure you'll agree. The following stills from rehearsal and performance should give a good idea of the production style etc.
I had an extremely heavy involvement in this production. Not only did I construct and rehearse the fights, I also directed and designed the piece. The end result was very strong. I include the following review for no other reason than to blow my own trumpet. The entire cast worked very hard and the end result was excellent. Keith Munro contributed as Musical Director and Julie Austin was the movement director for the show.


Above: Colin carver as Medrawd and Scott MacDonald as King Arthur - in performance. The special lighting in this scene means that my stills are limited.
In no particular order, the fight between Lancelot and Mongan from Act 1
 
All content is copyright FightDirector.com, no material may be reproduced in any form elsewhere without prior written permission. © 2006. Site by SDS