Read Through & First Impressions

Though I briefly read through a few of Table's scenes in order to prepare for the audition, I hadn't read the entire thing. So not only was the Table cast read through beneficial as it allowed us all as a cast to follow the story, discover each other's characters and explore Tanya Ronder's writing, but it also allowed me to understand the story fully for the first time for myself.

My first impression of the play is that it is a lot more witty than I originally expected. The dialogue is clever and Ronder has written some extremely weird situations that I'll be interested to see our take on it. Her use of the different time frames that allow a variety of colourful characters add a flair to not only the table's story but also the family's. In Ronder's sense, the table isn't just presented as an everyday object, but also the sole anchor in this family's history. It ties all the different character's together, from the young nine year old Su-Lin in 2013 London, to the Mother Superior in 1950's Tanganyika to Veronique, an early 20th century prostitute. Ronder cleverly shows how an object so common in our everyday lives can be the symbol of an intricate story spanning over three different centuries. This idea is instantly introduced in the first scene with the youngest (in 2013) Su-Lin and one of oldest, Gideon - the beginning and the end of life, exploring the different moments marked onto the table and how they all represent the different events that have happened with the table present. This instantly gives the audience an idea where the play is going, this idea of travelling through time periods could easily be drab and confusing, however with the bold characters and location choices whilst intertwined with Ronder's chosen songs, give even the historic scenes a contemporary and fresh feel.

In a play that runs just over two hours, Ronder takes the audience from the 1890's all the way through to 2013. Not only does this time period see a complete change in technology - oil lmaps being switched for electricity - but it also see's various different political changes, for example Ronder places emphasis on the hippie movement during the 1960's and furthermore gives Su-Lin gay parents rather than your regular nuclear, cookie cutter type, parents - this is a big difference from David and Elizabeth Best from the table's earliest period. She explores the different changes in society, in people and various environments - yet the token symbol, the table, remains the exact same (apart from the cutting off of the legs in the hippie commune).

The play is littered with comedic moments, from the verging slapstick of Albert urinating on the table to the witty scene with the speaking stone in the hippie commune. She creates a perfect balance between the comedic moments, and the deep, emotional moments full on tension - the last scene between Gideon and Michelle in particular. This gives us, the cast, a range of different emotions to play with and explore, aided by her colourful character's and their setting.

I think now, after doing a read through, the large majority of the cast are feeling pretty confident with how the play is going to pane out, i'm definitely excited.