Angel
Street

Adair Whetstone

Amanda Peterson

Becky Diehl

Adair Whetstone

Mr. Stafford did a brave job with this production, choosing to go for a conventional take on the story, with realistic set and costumes. This can be difficult on a student production, but it came off beautifully. I love the Allen Bales theater the small theater wraps around a thrust stage it feels so intimate and the stadium seats give everyone a great view of the action. The costuming was fantastic and so was the lighting set, and sound. All of them worked to together really capture the eerie mood of evil lurking beneath the smog of Victorian manners and London’s dirty streets. Sound was very carefully utilized. A strange clangy organ grinder tune played between acts and set the mood for a mystery very effectively.

All of the costumes seemed very appropriately understated. The utilization of color was ideal. The villain was dressed in blacks and red and contrast to good Detective Rough.

I was especially delighted with the costume transformation for Detective Rough. The costumers put the thin actor in a I a body suit to make him appear more round and jolly and dressed him in a light green, reminding me much like a munchkin in emerald city. Chapman is very talented however due to being a double major, he is less commonly seen on stage. However he is a treat to watch in this role and everyone should come out to have a chance to see him at work.

Everyone should keep their eyes out for Ava Grubbs. She is a tiny girl with a big presence. She exhibited amazing control, entering and exiting the stage as the audacious Servant Nancy, without ever loosing charater and immediately picking up with the action onstage. This can be very difficult and she never skipped a beat, beginning with her intrance at the opening of th eplay, when meets two police officers in the street, played by max Jones and Jake Boyd. At this point the house lights where still up, and yet her focus was unerring. She was entirely in character flirting and aiming her gaze with total comfort. This really helped the guys to get themselves into character.

My only disappointment was the performance of Allison Moy, playing Mrs. Mannigan, which sadly came off flat. Moy has typically been cast in character roles, and I think she might have benefited from better direction to help her develop a greater range of emotion for her character. Mrs. Manningham is something of an abused wife, and so naturally there were many scenes of conflict between she and her husband; however her reaction to his accusations seemed to be repetitive, almost to the point of being annoying. To create more of a building feeling to the play, and to make her a more dynamic protagonist, I would have liked to see a more loving side to Mrs. Manningham at the beginning of the play that was more submissive and accommodating so we might view a transformation, or maybe a nirvana or breaking-point during the course of the play. But it seems he character is defensive from the beginning. We know that all abused wives really are in love with their abusers. I would have liked so see more of a sweet, naive, vulnerable side.

Amanda Peterson

Yeah, it’s not too much of a surprise then. That’s how I felt watching the play Angel Street, like I was missing the surprise by the mystery.

I heard that the play was about a woman in Victorian London who believes she slowly going crazy. But I was warned that there would be a twist, that she wouldn’t really be going crazy.

So before the play had even begun, I had already figured out the twist – her husband was the one driving her crazy. And as the play progressed, I was a little disappointed that I kept figuring out each little mystery. I hoped that I would have been surprised by at least one plot twist.

But while the plot let me down, the actors did not disappoint me. Allison Moy, (who played the role of Mrs. Manningham, the woman who believes she’s going mad) changed her facial expression instantly from joy to pain as her husband mentally and sometimes physically abused her.

Moy’s expressions also were her weakness. In the beginning of the play, her face showed strong emotions matching what was going on. But in the second act, the emotional power was gone, leaving instead blank expressions that didn’t match her character or what was happening.

Michael Freeman (Mr. Manningham) maintained a fierce, tough persona for the conniving husband. I never wanted to trust his character because even when Freeman spoke to Moy in a sweet voice, there was a edge to his voice or something in his movements that made me wary and untrustworthy.

I also never liked or trusted Ava Kelley Grubbs’s character, the Manningham’s servant Nancy. Grubbs’s English accent was the best of any performer, and she showed the girl’s rude nature and condescending attitude towards Moy, the lady of the house.

In comparison to the harsh husband, I instantly wanted to trust the slightly laughable Detective Rough, played by Jon Chapman. His eccentric behavior and vague references confuse Moy to being unsure if she really is going mad or not despite Chapman’s assurances that she is not. And just as Freeman controlled the stage during his parts, Chapman’s friendly attitude also took over the stage.

And Dianna Duffy, who played the Manningham’s housekeeper Elizabeth, broke the tension on stage when she calmly entered to do whatever task requested with a deferential “yes sirrr” in a drawn-out English accent.

Becky Diehl

The opening scene before the play began was slightly confusing. It was hard to understand if the play was beginning or not because all the house lights were still on, the audience was still talking, and the actors did not speak up loud enough to be heard. After this confusion, the play picked up momentum and was actually very enthralling. Moy did a good job of conveying the emotions of her character. They were almost palpable and it was very easy to feel sorry for her character because of the injustices she suffered from here husband. Freeman was very convincing in the scenes where he directed anger towards the almost childlike Mrs. Manningham after being flippant and joking with her moments before. The lighting for the play was crucial and succeeded very well in furthering main plot points. The set as well as the costumes worked very well to showcase the Victorian time period.