Articles de la 2nde 1

(actualisé le )

A review of Andrew Wilson’s Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime

We went to see the play on 30th March. It took place at the “Théâtre des trois Pierrots” in Saint Cloud. It started with a little presentation by Andrew Wilson. We liked the end of his speech when he said that, if we didn’t understand, “Tant pis !”.

The story was funny and it fitted well with our present level at English. It was clear so we almost understood everything. The various events were exciting and mostly unexpected.

We liked the way the actors interacted with the audience. Indeed, a few persons had to play Charles, one of Lord Arthur’s butlers, others had their hand read by Mr Podgers, the chiromantist. Maybe they did that to help us to understand difficult words of the script and also because they didn’t have enough money to pay an actor playing the butler. In fact, there were only three actors who played all the characters. We thought it was clever and amusing.
But we found that the actors didn’t play so well. The main character wasn’t fully convincing and the performance of the actresses weren’t either, when they played the typical aristocratic ladies.

We didn’t appreciate the music. It was a little strange and repetitive.

Lord Arthur’s costumes were funny and typical. For example, when he dressed as a spy with a trench coat and sunglasses to meet the German bomb maker, he was hilarious. But the girls’ costumes were simpler, though it was understandable because they had to play different characters all the time.

We think that Oscar Wilde, when he wrote this novel, meant to denounce the aristocrat society and to make the audience laugh at their manners ( that is their pride and selfishness) and their thoughts.

There were a lot of funny elements in the play : in a scene, Lady Bracknell asks Lord Arthur a few questions. Andrew Wilson staged it the way of a quiz show and it was great. And also, when Lord Arthur is supposed to follow the German spy, they ran all over the stage, the jumped, crawled, and it was easy to understand what they were doing : they were going to the secret place of the German spy. Another moment was good : when the dean received the explosive clock and he was dancing with Sybil.
So, globally, we loved the play, and it was cool to go out with our class and spend time together. We learnt English and had fun at the same time !

Imen & Lorène


Our favourite moment was when Lady Bracknell asked Lord Arthur questions.
The audience participated to the performance and applauded all Lord Arthur’s answers.
The participation of the audience made the show more lively. This made us laugh a lot. It was like a game show with music and the buzzer…
At that moment, we could feel a great atmosphere in the room.
In contrast, the scenery was not very nice and not very expensive.

Cindy & Bérénice


LORD ARTHURS SAVILE’S CRIME
By Mickaël & Mathieu of 2nd 1

Hi, we will speak about the play we saw in the “Theatre des 3 Pierrots” in Saint-Cloud.

The story was great and funny at moments, because the actors’ performance was original and the sound effects stressed the comic effects, for example when Lane opened a whisky bottle and drank the content of the bottle we heard the exaggerated noise of this action.

And a thing that was very impressive, was when the actors changed costumes and embodied a new character because they were only three and they played about ten characters.

About the props now, they were modern since they were elasticated ropes, they made doors, bridges and other things with them.

The interaction between the audience and the actors was also funny, one of us interacted with the actors especially Mr. Podgers who read our classmate’s hand.

As we expected, the study of the extracts of the play in class helped us to understand the play.

This play was a very funny and interesting moment. There were a good ambiance and we advise the people who didn’t see the play to see it.

By Mickaël & Mathieu.


Article about the play : Lord Arthur Savile’s crime , written by Oscar Wilde and directed by Andrew Wilson

The story was very easy to understand thanks to the actors’ performance, the sound effects and the scenery ( especially the elasticated ropes ). The actors were very expressive and managed to make the story lively. The way they played with the audience was very funny too. The light effects were pretty nice when Lady Bracknell was asking questions to Lord Arthur.

Julia and Raphaël


The story is great because we first thought that it was a serious love story but it was funny, so it was very interesting. We were surprised there were only three actors for many characters.
We liked the fact that Mr Podgers interacted with the audience. We didn’t imagine Lane like a drunkard, it was amazing.
The actors dressed up very quickly and their costumes and props were nice.

The staging was original, with an elastic rope to represent the door of Arthur’s home and the London bridge, it was a creative scenery.
The actors moved along with the music. The sound effects were realistic, for example when Lane drank his alcohol.

Farah and Camille


The Play

At the theatre, we enjoyed the relationship between the actors and the audience.
For example, when Mr. Podgers read Roman’s palm and didn’t find any line for the intellect and when he predicted that Roman would get a job where no intellect was required. The audience laughed .It was funny because Roman looked at his hand for five minutes after that. Well, the actors had a good relationship with the audience.
We also liked the funny elements in the staging like the sound of television games when Arthur answered Lady Bracknell’s questions.
It was exciting just before the play began because we had studied excerpts of the play in class, together, and all of us imagined how it would be played. Even if there weren’t all the students of 2nd 1, nothing was missing.
We liked the scenery, for example, the elastic ropes which were used to create the London Bridge, or the door of Lord Arthur’s house.
Thanks for all, Andrew, bye

Roman and Axel.


London Daily
Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime, a play seen by the 2°1.
Lord Arthur is a young English aristocrat. He wants to marry Sibyl, an authoritative woman. During a party, a chiromantist, someone who can predict the future just by looking at your hand, tells him an awful prediction…

In the story, there are a lot of characters, but only three actors are present, and play all of them. So, Andrew Wilson, the director, made the audience participate : some teenagers in the firsts ranks had to give some clothes or other things (books…) to the actors, or let the chiromantist “predict” their future.

There was nothing we didn’t like, we loved everything !
First, the sound effects were original : when a character did something like play the piano or open a door, we heard some funny things…
The staging was different from other plays we had seen : the director didn’t hesitate to introduce some modern things like a TV game in an old story.
So, it was very interesting and funny.

A play which should absolutely be seen !

Rayan & Théo


The Play

First, the director came to speak with us about the story. The performance started, and when the actors arrived on the stage, we were surprised… Indeed, they didn’t correspond to what we had imagined. But they corresponded to the characters.

Lord Arthur looked like the typical English aristocrat, and he had elegant clothes for the different occasions. He was shy, but he fought his fear.
Sybil was very egocentric and self-confident, and she really dominated Lord Arthur. She wore a beautiful red dress.
Lane dominated Lord Arthur too. He had problems with alcohol, that’s why he danced and sang all the time.
Mister Podgers, the chiromantist was small, with gold-rimmed spectacles. He manipulated his customers to get money.

In conclusion, the characters were all very different. They had elegant clothes.
It’s a GOOD story, we liked it and we recommend it to you.

Virginie and Céline


“Hello !!! It’s Maheva for The Rabelais Times and I am with Yann, a student, to speak about the theatre play created by Andrew Wilson… so Yann could you tell us your impressions about this play ?”
“Hello Maheva !!! I liked this play because I found the staging very interesting, funny and well done.”
“Could you explain why ?”
“The scene was inventive since he used simple props : the elastic which was the door and the London bridge, a piano, and chairs.”
“Okay !! And did you like the relationships with the audience ? Was it funny ?”
“ Of course !! When some people gave the jacket to Lord Arthur, when Mr Podgers read people’s palms : it was comic !”
“Ok !! So… Were there many characters ? And who was your favourite character ?”
“There were many characters but only three actors and…. I must say that… my favourite character was Lane.”
“And why Lane ?”
“I enjoyed Lane because he was a drunkard he had a comic approach” (Laugh)
“Which was your favourite moment ?!”
“What I liked best was when lady Bracknell asked questions to Lord Arthur, it looked like a TV game as “question for a champion” and we didn’t expect Lord Arthur’s answers since he said he knew nothing, he smoked… and lady Bracknell enjoyed his answers.”
“What did the characters look like ?!”
“Lady Bracknell and Lady Windermere were wearing pantyhose, L.A was dressed as a gentleman and Lane was dressed as a waiter.”

Maheva and Yann


THE PLAY

The story was original and particularly funny. The relationships between the audience and the characters were very nice : they made us participate in the play (lady’s Windermere quiz, Podgers’s predictions, carrying the actors’ props and costumes) . It made the play more real : we were in the story.
We really loved it, it was very, very, very funny and cool, Lane’s part was surprising, we didn’t imagine he was so crazy, and the other characters were very cool too. Besides, the sound effects and the dances during the performance were really good too : for instance when Sybil was dancing the moonwalk as she received the package with the bomb in it. The change of lights helped us distinguish the different acts, and they weren’t too bright.

The props were very simple, not too exaggerated (the common elasticated ropes which represented the door and London Bridge, it was original….).
About the costumes, they weren’t really popular, original but we must remember the actors did not have much time to change costumes. In fact there were just three actors for seven parts (sensational !)

Oscar Wilde wanted to make fun of the aristocrats’ social class and Andrew Wilson made it funny and excessive… and we loved it !

It was a really good moment, the organisation, the play, the actors and the scenery were great.

Jessica & Marie-Charlotte


The Play

We enjoyed the play, the actors gave a good performance, and there were excellent ideas in the scenery. But we think the play was not perfect.
We were impressed about the performance of the actors, because there were only three actors to act all the characters. But some of the characters were not playing as well as other characters, for example, in the scene with lady Windermere and lady Bracknell, it was too exaggerated.
The staging was nice. The characters played with the audience and at moments they explained some difficult words to the public. It was adapted to our English level, and we almost understood everything.
The setting was really simple and original. Their chose to use just simple elastics to create doors, or walls...
Clara : “I liked when they transformed the setting into London bridge.”

Our favourite moments :
Clara : “I liked the scene when L.Arthur proposed to Sybil, it was so funny. Sybil dominated Arthur who was completely “gaga”. ”
“I enjoy too, when Lady Bracknell questioned L.Arthur, and it became a quiz. It was a great idea.”
Nicolas : “ I loved when L.Arthur and Sybil were dancing together, it was very comic.”

About the story :
Clara : “The story was original but I was disappointed by the end. It was too much of a “happy end” to me. I would have preferred L.Arthur to kill his girlfriend, Sybil, because we didn’t expect that and it could have created a surprising effect.”
Nicolas : “I don’t agree with Clara, I enjoyed the end but I think it’s coming too soon. I liked the relationship between L.Arthur and Sybil because it was silly.”

Globally we liked the play, it was really entertaining and funny. The actors were great, their were speaking loud, and their used an easy vocabulary ; so it was simple to understand. The staging was nice and the scenery too. We spent a good time, and we recommend you this play.

Nicolas & Clara :)