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Column: “Mouse Trap” caught my attention
The McLeod Theater production of Agatha Christie’s who done it classic, titled “Mouse Trap” caught up the audience in a wonderful murder mystery. This play transported theater-goers back to 1950s London following the story of two newlyweds on their first night as innkeepers and their five guests trapped in a terrible snowstorm.
The accuracies in the set design, the costumes and most importantly the accents made it feel as if the audience was a fly on the wall trying to find out just who it could possibly be. One thing that really stuck out to me for this performance was the small intricacies in the accents.
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According to the lead actress Xiana Jones, the cast met with Susan Patrick Steinfeldt, an instructor here at SIU that specializes in dialects to perfect the ideal regional and era-accurate depiction of a British accent.
As with most of the arts, it is important to maintain a certain expectation and to stay true to the role but, there are times when if you take the initiative to add in some of your own creativity and originality it will pay off and I think this performance had the perfect amount of that from each of its characters.
“The most crucial part of perfecting my performance was really just repetition and learning how to add new things to the way I portrayed Mollie, but, really, with any performance I try to find new and better ways to portray the character so that I won’t bore myself with the same old tactics I used before,” said Jones.
Not only was the acting incredible, but the set design, lighting, and costume department also excelled in their work for this performance. I think when it comes to creating an immersive viewing experience, it is important to focus on the things that might easily take the viewer out, such as a bad setting or, in this case, era or weather-inaccurate clothing. However, everything flowed together incredibly well leaving the crowd with an amazing eye-catching experience while they, along with the characters, were trying to find out just who exactly done it.
