The Magnificent Three Review

The Magnificent Three

Miracle Theatre Company

Maumbury Rings

Dorchester Arts Centre

Maumbury Rings, by far one of my favourite theatre venues in Dorset. Why spend your evening cooped up in doors watching the same predictable, repetitive TV programs on your (yes... probably extremely comfortable but socially restricting) sofa? When you could be enjoying a picnic and Pimms in the sunshine with family and friends, before watching some exciting live entertainment in this local idyllic setting. Last year Dorchester Arts Centre were one of many small, but wonderful, organisations to lose their funding. They are still standing a year later showing just how much they are valued in this community.

Miracle Theatre Company, are based in Cornwall and have been making innovative engaging theatre for 16 years touring almost 60 shows. With the help of Bill Scott's brilliant writing and directing; local companies and generous supporters, Miracle Theatre has become the renowned and fast expanding company that it is today. This production was certainly the "toe tappin', side splittin'" experience we had all been promised. Hannah Stephens and Ben Kernow gave particularly memorable and hilarious performances as Esmerelda Fabiola la Falsa, the mysterious Mexican medicine woman with the surprising back story and Jed Carter, the dim-witted Deputy Sheriff whose underestimated talents amused us all.  Ben Dyson gave his fair share of witty side comments too, making us roll about laughing in our already unsteady picnic chairs (depending on what you'd been drinking).The first 10/15 minutes were quite slow and possibly unnecessary. I think the audience would have understood the back story (a father passes away leaving his son and daughter the land, however the son abandons it) as the dialogue after the son returns was quite self explanatory. Their comic timing was almost perfect throughout with the exception of a couple of jokes falling flat because they missed the beat. I particularly enjoyed their slapstick, stylized, slow motion fight scenes. Miracle's comical and imaginative use of props made the production even more entertaining and captivating. Who would have known a step ladder could make such a believable stubborn horse. When you think of the Wild West, gun fights and cowboys spring to mind and like most theatre, western stories are mostly based on the men of the era. However it was wonderful to see that the main characters in this western comedy were strong heroines. Two of the Magnificent Three were in fact female. I had a really enjoyable evening watching this exciting comedy and it was great to see a piece of theatre being enjoyed by all age groups and showing just how much theatre can bring a community together.

My acting student notes:

This production has helped me see the importance of being able to improvise and use the audience and surroundings. Mid fight a wayward flaming bottle landed just off of the stage. The blunder could have easily set fire to the stage with the actors still on it. However a member of the audience got up and quickly tipped her drink over it extinguishing the flames. Mid fight actor Catherine Lake used this and congratulated the woman whilst still in slow motion making the audience roar with laughter. I have just completed my second year of training and our final production was an outdoor performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream. I learnt just how important it is to project when outdoors and battling with the elements. Most of the cast of The Magnificent Three were projecting well apart from the first five minutes when I struggled to hear a few of the lines.