On January 30th, 2024, the High School “Theatrical Ensemble” came to Gibbons Middle School and performed “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant and “The Lady, or the Tiger?” by Frank R. Stockton. Many students have different opinions on the show, so the question is: Was it good or not?
Background
“The Necklace” is a short story by Guy de Maupassant, a french writer, which was published on February 17, 1884. Simply put, it is about a lady who loses her friend’s necklace and works for 10 years to gain it back. Although there are some things that I didn’t enjoy, I believe the High School students did a good job on their play. Here are some elements I noticed during the performance.
Personality
One thing that I noticed is that the High School students gave the character’s personality. I believe this was a good idea since, in the original story, the characters seemed very flat and not much was known about them. In the performance, everyone including the background characters seemed more life-like. Madam Forester’s personality was especially outstanding! She was one of those casual, rich people, which kind of reminded me of those people in the cartoons who lived in palace-like estates. The actress for Madam Forester was cocky and made it obvious that she was better than Mathilde. It was awesome!
Characters
During the original story, the author hinted that Mathilde had personal issues which caused some people to feel badly for her. On the contrary, the high school play made it seem like she deserved it. Because of this change, I had some thoughts during the play. For example, I thought that she was no longer redeemable and that she seemed like a Walmart Disney villain. Even though I had these thoughts, I still believe they did an amazing job.
Foreshadowing
During the High School play, they added in their own foreshadowing. When Mathilde went to her friend’s house to borrow some jewelry, Ms. Forester said, “These are the finest jewels in my collection.” This is a type of foreshadowing because the whole story is about how the necklace is fake and Mrs. Forester knows the jewels are fake. So, the type of foreshadowing is when the opposite of what the character says or does happens, though in this situation it’s also known as verbal irony. Pretty neat! Overall, they did a fantastic job on “The Necklace.”
Background
In the story “The Lady or the Tiger?” by Frank R. Stockton, there’s a barbaric man who meets and falls in love with a princess. Later in the story the mother finds out and he is put on trial where he has to pick two doors: one being an immediate marriage and the other leading him to be fed to the white tiger; the princess also helps him during this. The High School swaps the barbaric man with a royal librarian.
Acting Skills
During the play most people noticed the friend’s and mother’s acting skills. In most people’s opinions, these people did an extravagant job! The two actresses played their roles the best they could and I believe they deserve to be noticed. One played a stuck-up queen who seems to always know best for her daughter and she did an amazing job doing it. The tone of her voice matched the personality given to her and she made the character more interesting. The actress who played the fake friend also did an awesome job with her character. She was snarky and untrustworthy which created tension during the first scene. Also, when we heard her talk about her upcoming, why she was here, it gave her more personality and a reason to hate the princess.
Ending
In the original short story “The Lady or the Tiger?” the man ends up picking a door and going through it. We are faced with the question: which door did he pick, the lady or the tiger? This ending is confusing to most 7th graders because they don’t study cliff-hangers until 8th grade. I also do think that the High School students could have made it easier to understand the point of it by making the ending more obvious rather than a plain “turn around and look.” Although my opinion on this ending is that it isn’t the best, it was pretty cool how they made the audience turn around and look at the auditorium exits to see what happens next, even if nothing happened. This one was OK in my opinion. I believe they could’ve done better, but it was still good.
Thank You
Thank you “Theatrical Ensemble” for coming to Gibbons Middle School on January 30th. You did an amazing job and I hope you keep up the good work!
People who acted in the performances…
Izzy Washington
Kayla Niece
Merry Swanson
Ariella Cutter
Genevieve Falconi
Alyssa Fitzgibbon
Dani Arcieri
Joel Lee
Lucas Silva
So… What’s next?
I want to hear your opinions too! What did YOU think of the performance?
