Share This:
November 9, 2017 | What Did You Think?,
What Did You Think of The State of Siege?
Thank you joining us for Théâtre De La Ville’s The State of Siege. We are so excited to have this esteemed company performing this rarely performed Camus play in Boston and are anxious to hear your thoughts.
Click here for an interview with director Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota.
We found Camus’ play to be so relevant to all that is going on today in our political world. Really and excellent production of it. Thank you!
The piece is enormously disturbing, but eventually, because of the performances, became almost a caricature, and a boring one at that: the screaming was relentless, and — continuing for 90 minutes — pointless. I might have felt more regarding, for example, Diego had he — along with everyone else — not turned every syllable into a rant. The physical production was, on the other hand, pretty stunning, particularly given the fact that it’s in town for only a couple of days.
J’ai beaucoup aimé cette représentation.
I found the surtitles above the stage very frustrating – if I looked up to get the dialogue I had to disengage from the action on stage, and if I watched the action on stage, I didn’t know what was being said so the whole play ended up being a series of disconnected bits and pieces. Exhausting, and ultimately highly unsatisfying. And for me, the exaggerated style of acting (high intensity rant) actually detracted from the terrifying relevance the play has to today’s political situation.
The play felt like a long and boring sermon on morality delivered in the style of a Racine play. There was very little real acting and theatricality. Quite disappointing.
This piece has many challenges (artistically, emotionally, technically, etc.), but we thank ArtsEmerson for bringing it to MA. We have been discussing it for far longer than the running time of the show, already a testament to the work.
First off, god bless for getting work like this into Boston – more strange stuff, please. Second: Sadly, this one was a pile driver pounding a steel pillar over and over, until we were numb. An assault on the senses and the mind, the point was made before it was made interesting – which it never quite was. Some whiz-bang tech wizardry, some attractive actors, all working in a range between 10 and 10. Oh yes, the language! You get removed from freshman poetry writing for that stuff. BUT – keep taking risks. Some work out, some don’t.
I didn’t feel that the problem was so much with the performers, but with the writing: too much (long winded) explanation of what you’d just seen.
I didn’t have that problem with the translations: I was far up front and could easily switch between the two side screens and the top screen depending upon the action — but the side screens might not have been readable from other parts of the theater.
I thought this play was an incredible experience to behold. The performances were strong and story itself was heart-wrenching. My favorite aspect has to be the sound design, which really helped me to connected emotionally despite not speaking French. Speaking of which, while the surtitles took a while to get used to, I didn’t find it all that hard to get used to, and by the end of the play felt as if I was following along like I was watching a foreign film. All-in-all a stellar performance and I’m very happy to have seen it!