Review: Our Class

Performed in the round and with absolutely no props or scenery, Our Class did away with tradition. It gave way for the acting and character developments to shine through, and it was easy to see what props would have been there.

The costumes, designed by Hannah Donnelly, suited the characters throughout their entire lives, despite the constantly changing time period. The choreography by Bianca von Oppel, was easily up to a professional standard. It subtly assisted the audience’s understanding of the more explicit scenes without becoming too graphic. The singing arrangement (also done by Bianca) was wonderfully chilling.

There were some extremely distressing scenes which were handled with great maturity, such as Dora’s (Lizzy Morgan) rape scene, Menachem’s (Jake Williams) interrogation of the Catholics, the burning in the barn and more. Alex Light, who played Rysiek, was fantastically creepy, and even after his character had died, he still stared wide-eyed at the action with a look of disgust.

Standout performances came from:

• Holly Heasman-Durham as Rachelka/Marianna – her speech after her marriage was spectacular, and I honestly had a small tear in my eye.
• George Howard as Zygmunt – perfectly cast as a villain, he terrified the characters and audience alike with his twisted behaviour.
• Elen Gibbons as Alena – although not present with the other classmates, Alena was a character to whom the audience warmed.

I do think some of the casting wasn’t quite right. I know that there was some difficulty in finding actors, and a well done to the director for bringing the weaker links up to a slightly higher standard. I perceived that this improved in the second act; perhaps the actors warmed up a little?

The passing of time at the beginning was not quite clear. I understand the wish for no props, but SOMETHING should have changed to help the audience understand when the characters aged. Annoyingly, there were parts where my view was blocked by an actor, but perhaps this was a mistake by the actors, not the staging.

All involved did a great job considering the dark themes. However, maybe the play was too sophisticated for university students who’ve seen hardly anything of the world. Don’t get me wrong, here were a few who managed to capture their character’s essence right from the beginning. But in this play, I don’t think that just a few managing this is enough.