After The Applause

An action packed, blockbuster spectacle that brings the books and films to life

The Hunger Games on stage has been in the making for a long time and when it finally debuted in the Troubador Theatre the reviews were very underwhelming and incredibly mixed. In my opinion whilst certainly not perfect in any way, this production will surely tick the box for any fan due to its superb action choreography and set design that allows the audience to feel a part of the games.

I will begin with the faults and mainly it lies with the scripting. I feel like the way in which Katniss is presented is very different to how she is in the books, whilst on the page she is strong and full of fury, on the stage she felt quite weak and unsure constantly breaking the fourth wall and talking to the audience. At times these monologues were very cringey, especially in the middle of action scenes and certainly at the end. Often the dialogue also seemed quite generic between characters with some prominent figures of the film such as Haymitch Abernathy and Cinna’s developments as characters disregarded in turn for more dialogue by Katniss. This felt like it didn’t match the tone of the books. I do think Connor McPherson’s adaptation has some good moments and it is fast paced to allow the action to take centre stage which is important.

Now I have to say that the fighting was absolutely exceptional, directed by Kev McCurdy. The ensemble fill the arena-like stage with cleverly choreographed grappling as they train for the games or they fight in the aisles during them, my neck was constantly moving trying to keep up with the different action going on. This is what I expected and I was certainly not disappointed. The costume design by Moi Tran was on point as well and very in line with the movie. The stunts in this show are brilliant, it is so technical and I feel the actors manage to carry them out with perfection.

The Troubador is a new venue that has been made for this show and I love how they have designed the stage and seats to feel like an arena, additionally labelling the different seating sections as the different Districts. The Hunger Games, for those of you who don’t know, are an annual event held out in the fictional city of Panem where a male and a female tribute from different areas fight for survival until one remains. There are 12 districts so when one of the competitors dies i found it clever how the seating area named after that district would light up in red, for example I was in District 11. I found that I was slightly rooting for the characters from 11, despite knowing the story, and this adds to the idea you are watching the sporting event unfold. It is clever and allows you to be fully immersed into the experience rather than just watching a boring stage show.

They also had 3 district seating blocks that moved to enclose actors or turn the stage into a walkway or an arena, whilst this felt very gimmicky at times and unnecessary I am sure it was a fun experience for the audience members sat in those blocks, or gave them motion sickness!

The actors have so much to do, attatch themselves to harnesses, dodge punches, be in the exact position to interact with scenes and a lot more, so I will excuse that a couple of performances felt a little wooden. I feel like the acting is overshadowed by the grandeur of the spectacle and you don’t pay much attention to line delivery. That aside there were some good performances especially from Mia Carragher as Katniss Everdeen as she had so much to do and so many lines and cues to remember and I don’t think she faulted once, which is impressive. Stavros Demetraki is our evil TV Host Ceasar Flickerman, arrogant and aggressive as he interviews the competitors with an evil smirk on his face, he also did well with interacting with the crowd and getting us going with some audience participation which I really enjoyed. Euan Garret was really strong as Peeta Mellark, the love interest and the other competitor from the same district as Katniss (12). He seemed very accurate to the movie and he carried out some amazing stunts as well.

MY VERDICT:

I really debated between 3 and 4 stars here but I think I will settle with 3. I feel like the action, stunts, the atmosphere and lighting were exceptional and really well designed, furthermore I felt the theatre elevated the experience even more and immersed you into the action. Unfortunately, the script just lets it down and we lose a lot of the original story despite it still retaining over a 2 hour runtime. The show also sometimes feels unfinished with some scenes absolutely bustling with scenery and design and others just having 2 actors stand in the middle with screens playing videos of a forest around them. I can understand why people viewed this production as a disappointment but if I didn’t have my critical hat on I would say it was enjoyable and exciting which I feel is the point of the hunger games. It is an exhilllarating dystopian tale of love and fight, this is conveyed by the show so it does it’s job, it just could have been ever so better!