Andrew Hardy- Assignment 6

Any great work of art must be considered within its' context. The Cave Paintings of Lascoux and Jackson Pollock's No. 5 are regarded as great because of what they did within their society and contemporary time. Given the amount of the time we had to prepare, and the nature of the assignment, I believe our groups rendition of The Importance of  Being Earnest was a great work. With Noah's absence on the singular practice date, we had not ability to prepare for the presentation. Our lines were memorized within the context of each others, and so when our presentation did not go as planned- as first runs often do- it was understandable that we might stumble over our lines.
I do not think this detracted from the performance. What else is comedy supposed to do, but entertain? If I felt that our performances had been apathetic or lackluster, I might be harsher upon ourselves, but given the circumstances, every member of our group performed to their highest ability.  If we were to have another run through, several elements could have been improved. More elaborate costumes and props added to the humour of the other groups, and if we had more resources, that would have contributed to our group as well. Continued practice with the entire group would have insured that everyone knew their lines more accurately and we would not have relied on one another to prompt us. Being unable to practice meant that some moments dragged more than was necessary. The end of Algernon and Jack's conversation lost some of it's bite because of our amateur nature.


This assignment has not convinced me of the merits of theatre. All of the issues we had could have been addressed had we done the performance in a film format. If the only merit of theatre is in the difficulty of it, I am wholly unconvinced of it's modern relevance. Comedy and acting rely upon timing, and within the editing room, this becomes a mute point. I hope to see more plays in my future, and ones that might grant me new insight into the benefits, but this assignment left me assured that I had no interest in theatre or acting. b