By Peter Maddern
Sniper stories have been getting a good run in recent years on the stage as well as the screen. Their unique personalities, lonely occupations and fame (when successful) make for good story telling and Lyudmila Pavlichenko, ‘Lady Death’, a Russian female conscript, confronting Hitler’s invading forces is as good a basis for a yarn as any.
Acting Coach Scotland’s approach has been to take Mark Westbrook’s script and develop and present it for nine players, eight women and one man. While the rotation of roles is not confusing (even if the accents of the players differ widely) the result is the character becomes somewhat of a cardboard cut out, lifted in and taken out every 20 seconds or so or so it seems.
The chronological story telling also leads to a dilution of the impact of this woman on those who came across her – maybe a focus on her contest of wills with the single German sniper of renown would have been a better place to to bring this story together.
Kryztoff Rating 3K
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