A monster hit

We've have more great feedback for The Monster in the Hall at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

The Independent
4 stars ★★★★

“David Greig’s fizzing urban fairy tale of a teenage girl, her sick Hell’s Angel father, his metaphorical motorbike in the hall…and big Agnetha from Trondheim is an imaginative synthesis of Beauty and the Beast, pop songs, heavy metal, and rapid-fire acting.”

“Guy Hollands’s brilliant and energetic production…is galvanised by Gemma McElhinney as 16 year-old Duck Macatarsney, a genuine princess with the appeal of a new Romola Garai, and who sings beautifully, too… Delightful.”

The Sunday Times
4 stars ★★★★

“The Monster in the Hall brings a jolt of upbeat feeling to a potentially grim subject…Sweet, without rotting your teeth or your brain.”



Daily Telegraph
4 stars ★★★★

“it pushes even harder at the boundaries of theatrical possibility. Yes, it’s a piece for young people but anyone could – and should – crash the party.”


London Evening Standard
4 stars ★★★★

“If, theatrically speaking, it's anyone's Festival, it's surely David Greig’s…two of his plays presented under the Traverse umbrella…are two of the most accomplished and enjoyable shows this Edinburgh August.”


“a charming musical comedy…Playful ensemble storytelling, stylishly directed by Guy Hollands”

"London needs both these shows"
[Ed. also referring to The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart]


Here's what our audience said:



Both edfringe.com and traverse.co.uk are showing as sold out for The Monster in the Hall, but you can queue at the venue (at the time of the show) to await returns. It's definitely worth trying if you're keen to see a show that guaranteed to be a good 'un!

Read more reviews on our blog

Monster Edinburgh Fringe reviews!

So here's what the first reviews of The Monster in the Hall have been saying. In each case, you can click on the title to read the full review. Ticket sales at the Traverse are very strong for the show, so we'd definitely recommend getting yours nice and early before more reviews come out!


theatreguidelondon.co.uk
5 stars ★★★★★


“A thoroughly delightful and constantly surprising quasi-musical”



“A multitalented cast of four play everyone, sometimes more than one character at a time, and draw us into a play infused with so much love for everyone in it that we can enjoy every minute while waiting confidently for the playwright to find his way to a happy ending.”



ft.com
4 stars ★★★★

“Greig and the four-strong cast punctuate the action with 1960s-style girl-group numbers”


festmag.co.uk
4 stars
 ★★★★

“a fizzing, genre-subverting comedy musical”

“At breakneck speed, four actors sing, soundtrack, narrate and soliloquise. They create human props, computer game avatars, motorbike races and conjure a variety of fully-fleshed characters including a light-footed, fashion conscious schoolboy and, most memorably, a brilliantly rendered heavy metal loving Norwegian anarchist on a mission of romance.”


“an effortlessly charming cast…gently lead us home with a tapping toe and a laugh on our lips…thrillingly beautiful”



theartsdesk.com
4 stars ★★★★

“Greig's script crackles with humour…The four actors are wonderful and this heart-warming, though never sentimental, stripped-back storytelling is a joy to watch.”



whatsonstage.com
4 stars ★★★★

“David Greig’s delightful fairy tale uses just four actors, four microphones and a host of sound effects, but takes us from the mean streets of Kirkcaldy to the mythical world of computer-animated cinema and motorbike racing.” 


“There’s a quality of Greig’s Midsummer in the charm and momentum of the narrative.”





thegoodreview.co.uk

“Guy Hollands’ fast paced direction means the play zips along at a real whip, from set piece to song, to choral explanation – the story buzzes through, and as a result the space which is afforded to the honest revelations gives them real weight and emotional worth.”

“Duck is played by the lovely Gemma McElhinney who captures her characters fire but wraps it in sweetness – her performance was engaging and heart warming…Keith Macpherson plays Hugh with great compassion and captures the frustrations and limitations of his condition wonderfully. Beth Marshall showcases supreme versatility flicking between caring social worker and half crazed Marxist War Craft addict and David Carlyle delivers a masterclass in comic timing.”

“It’s a lovely piece played with great theatricality and wonderful energy.”

Anatomy of a Design

I thought you might find it interesting to see the process we went through to create a design for one of our productions. For The Monster in the Hall we knew we wanted something cool that would appeal to teenagers, without being patronising.

The first part of our process was to talk to the writer David Greig, and Director Guy Hollands to extract the keys images, settings, themes and desired tone that would accurately reflect the play.

A rather extensive list of ideas emerged. When commissioning design work, we must minimise the number of iterations, as our budgets (and time scales) can't cope with extended re-working.

So as marketers, it's our job to hone these ideas into an achievable brief and find a suitable designer who could make it come to life.

Some of the ideas generated by Guy and David, although good, were just too complicated to portray in one design, so we had to be selective with the most important elements.

Subtlety of emotion is awkward to convey (without many iterations) so we had to stick to simplified ideas.

One of our early options involved "Duck" and potentially her Dad sitting on a sofa, with a suggestion of a motorbike made through posters. Although we were aware of two other show posters around that time which had predominantly featured a sofa and therefore decided to avoid this.

There was also a lot of discussion about the inclusion of motorbike posters. We were concerned this might look too 80s and therefore not appeal to modern teenagers.

For some time we've been fans of Duncan MacDonald's illustrative style. It has a youthful, edginess that we thought would suit this show. So we approached Duncan at Make Studio.

Duncan and I met with Guy, to discuss what options might work. Duncan then sent us some initial sketches so we could agree the composition before he worked it up further. His sketches include useful annotations relating the brief to the design elements.




Click images to view detail

Through looking at these sketches we decided to elimate the extraneous props (pizza boxes and bike tools), as we felt they were distracting.

We wanted people to think that the school girl in the picture "Duck", was comfortable with the bike; but didn't want them to think it was hers. It is a Ducati Monster (yes...The "Monster" in the Hall) and is owned by her Dad.

We felt that a seated pose made "Duck" disappear too much, so asked to see a version with her leaning on it.



This version of "Duck" and the bike, was really starting to take shape. In particular the inking of the bike was in exactly the style we wanted. We were however concerned that she looked slightly too old for "Duck"; and that her leg up pose, may be a bit too sexy. Although this sounds a bit over-cautious, we have to ensure our image works for both public and schools touring, so tiny details like this were considered.

We had an idea of the pose we wanted. So to save time describing this over the phone, or by email, we sent Duncan a snap of me in the position we envisaged.



This kind of source material can save the designer a lot of time and effort going down the wrong route (...and that's how my sneakers ended up in the poster!).



With the final composition agreed, Duncan added colour and made small adjustments to the eyes and feet.



The colour was tweaked...



...and tweaked again, before a background colour and shadow were added - to provide context.



The final design - which we love - was complete. It was used on our website and in the season brochure. It was also used in our leaflets and posters around the town, as well as in show programmes.







Thanks to Duncan for great work on this, and for his patience dealing with our feedback and tweaks.

The Monster in the Hall has completed its schools and community tour; and opens at the Citizens Theatre tonight, playing here until 13 November.

Hx

Vroom, sha-boom and chocolate moles

Click the here to read TAG's latest blog on David Greig's brand new play The Monster in the Hall, which opens in Fife this week, before touring (...and returning to Glasgow on 2 November!).

Photo by Richard Campbell

Hx