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GUY MASTERSON'S NEW COMEDY FOR 2012!History The Show An actor on the verge of a nervous breakdown prepares to play Hamlet... solo... uncut... it is 35 minutes before curtain up. He's sold his car... he's sold his father's gold watch... and his wife has left him... Will he even make his first entrance? |
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Stage Award Winner 2001 for Best Actor, Guy Masterson's brilliant new work and the first performance outside Northern Ireland is written by Stage Award Best Actor Winner 2003 (for Hurricane) Richard Dormer and directed by Stage Award Best Actor Winner 2002 (for Horse County) David Calvitto!
35 minutes before curtain up... To act or not to act... that is the question. Readying himself for the ultimate challenge - Hamlet... solo... uncut, the actor prepares... either for his resurrection or his swan song, and the only thing to fear is fear itself.
50 years old, possibly talented, probably deluded, having sold his car, his father's gold watch and his wife has left him... in the hour before his first performance, the actor runs the gamut of his own demons. Having set himself the challenge, he must now deliver triumphantly or demure pathetically.
The Half takes us into the confused mind of the actor flirting with self-destruction, on the edge of the very madness it takes to put oneself in front of the audience. What will be the outcome? Will he succeed? Will the audience get what they pay for? Will there even be an audience? Hysterical stuff..!
Premiereing triumphantly at Adelaide 2012 (see reviews below), The Half will be available for UK and International Touring from April 2012 and will play Edinburgh in August.
ADELAIDE ADVERTISER - 20/03/12
It's an hour before the curtain goes up and the actor contemplates his folly - two years of his life spent producing an epic one-man production of Hamlet. Will he succeed, or will he fail, bringing about his own disastrous public humiliation. Most likely the latter, he is certain. But no!
This is his time to shine, to prove the doubters wrong, to scale the heights he knows he is capable of. Or is he?
Guy Masterson's first perforamnce was likely tinged with a few opening night jitters itself, but it did not show. The Half is a very funny play and was especially enjoyed by what seemed to be some thespians in the audience, if the knowing laughs were anything to go by. Masterson is excellent as is this new material. (Cameron England - Adelaide Advertiser)
RIP IT UP ADELAIDE - 07/03/12
Richard Dormer's The Half takes the audience into the actor's dressing room, some 35 minutes before the curtain rises on another opening night. It also takes us into the actor's mind. Guy Masterson is totally convincing as the manic player, a man wracked with nerves and devoid of any confidence. Despite my knowledge that Masterson was in control, there were times when I was so completely immersed in the performance that I was genuinely concerned that the character may come unstuck.
Although touted as a comedy, there's more than a whiff of tragedy about the actor and the circumstances that have delivered him to this shambolic state. This solo performance must be quite a challenge; the monologue is pacey and the action is physical. All in a day's work for Guy Masterson. Witnessing the spectacle of a man having a sword fight with himself is worth the admission price alone. There's plenty more besides. Final Word: Whole ( David Robinson - Rip It Up Adelaide)
FRINGEREVIEW ADELAIDE - 06/03/12
Low Down: Guy Masterson's presence once again fills the theatre and he demonstrates his power and command over this play with ease and expertise. This one-man show runs parallel to Hamlet, drawing on similar themes and scenes stirring emotions from a wide spectrum. The story deviates and digresses, but Masterson is entertaining and compelling as he draws the audience into the scene and giving them a taste of backstage theatrics and drama.
Review: The story starts with an actor experiencing pre-performance jitters 35 minutes before the curtains are raised. He tries to calm down with self-analytical ramblings, exaggerated warm up techniques, and bleak humour. The play progresses in a similar fashion, but the actor delves into deeper, darker parts of his psyche. The audience is drawn into the compelling story with enigmatic clues and keepsakes that are eventually explained. The actor's initial charm and humour create an instant connection with the audience and subsequently they are prone to championing him and hoping that he rises out of the swirling madness triumphant.
Masterson gives an inimitable performance and plays the role to perfection-he is witty, charming, despondent, and vulnerable all at once. He is not afraid to leap and dance all over the stage and effect his emotions entirely. it is probably just as well that this is a one-man show as Masterson sets a very high standard and displays his passion for the theatre and embraces his character in a very unique way. The audience has a chance to appreciate Masterson's stirring performance.
The evening was a resounding success with Masterson taking centre stage and delighting once again. He is one of the few actors who are not afraid to consolidate their presence and control with enormous gestures and physical action. This Hamletesque play will stir a range of emotions from melancholy to elation and everything in between. If Masterson's backstage theatrics were anything to go by, it would certainly be a treat to watch him in a one-man production of Hamlet! (Prema Ashok - FringeReview)
KRYSTOFF ADELAIDE - 06/03/12
Anyone who's been involved in theatre can tell you stories about the crazy process that many actors go through in the hours and minutes before curtain up. There are pre-show routines developed that have to be stuck to, "lucky" items of clothing that have to be warn, warm-ups that need to be carried out, lines that have to be run and incessant self-doubt that has to be overcome.
Guy Masterson is The Actor, a man who, despite his classical training and promising appearances in several plays many years ago, has been absent from the stage for well over a decade. He has chosen to make his return in a rather ambitious project - an unabridged, self-conceived and directed, one man production of the bard's classic four-and-a-half hour masterpiece, Hamlet.
Writer Richard Dormer has filled the script with amusing snippets, highlighting the ridiculous traditions and superstitions that actors buy into, while also injecting a certain amount of pathos.
The sections of Hamlet that are included are used well in both comic and dramatic ways, varying the pace and tone of the play nicely. The set is designed to represent a dressing room, with The Actor speaking to himself in the ever-present over-bench mirrors. Under the direction of David Calvitto, Masterson makes good use of it, moving about with great energy, while also conveying the claustrophobic feeling of the backstage space.
This is the type of role that Masterson excels at playing. The Actor is a sympathetic anti-hero, a man who is at once both exasperating and endearing. It is a fine balance to create a character that is necessarily a little over the top, but realistic enough to be hilarious, however Masterson manages to do so.
Thespians and theatre novices alike will find a lot to enjoy in The Half, yet another quality offering from Guy Masterson and the Centre for International Theatre. (Miriam K - Krystoff)
MUST SEE!!!! - ADELAIDE INDEPENDENT DAILY 07/03/12
Guy Masterson is simply brilliant in his new one-hander in which he plays a 50 year old, washed up reformed alcoholic who hasn't acted in 15 years and is preparing to go on in a one-man show of Hamlet. Yes, he is is to play all the parts of the Shakespeare classic in the full four hour show...
The gamut of emotions he achieves in the 70 minutes of this performance is not only everything an actor could go through in such a situation, it could also be seen as the full range of emotional highs and troughs of any human life, crystallised and concentrated into "the half" - the 35-minute preparation time before the actor hits the boards.
We sympathise immediately with The Actor; his insecurity is profound, his fear is paplable, He has staked everything he owns on this and some things that others owned as well. It is the last magnificent roll of the dice.
He tries to put on his face - no good.; he can't shave because he did so that morning - bad luck; he inadvertently says the word "Macbeth" - more bad luck! He returns to the whisky after the dramatic discovery of of a bottle in his bar fridge. He has an hilarious sword fight with himself and ends up defying fate by dancing around the stage singing "Macbeth, Macbeth" to the tune of "Singing in the Rain".
He tries every way to kill himself; his plastic knife breaks when he goes for the arteries. He crawls, cries and dances in amazing bursts of physical theatre; drinks a half a bottle of Johnnie Walker in an orgy of self-loathing, painful memory and self-revelation. He quotes the "Oh what a piece of work is man" speech as the story of his own life and intersperses many other well-known quotes into his compelling yarn.
This play was presented to Guy Masterson by writer Richard Dormer three or more years ago, but laid on his shelf until September last year, when Masterson was looking for something to bring to Adelaide, just a month after his own 50th birthday. We should be glad he did because this is a performance all theatre lovers should go and see. (Robert Horne - Adelaide Independent Daily)
ADELAIDE THEATREGUIDE - 04/03/12
Backstage in a dressing room, prior to the performance, The Actor (Guy Masterson) readies himself.
While the minutes tick away, curtain-up creeps closer. But as he checks his costume and props, performs his ablutions, warm-ups and rituals, doubt starts to set in. Has he made the right choices, in either/both his artistic and personal lives?
Award-winning actor and director Guy Masterson is now a Fringe fixture, and has performed several one-man shows over the past few years, including American Poodle, Under Milk Wood, Animal Farm and Shylock, as well as two-handers such as The Sociable Plover and Oleanna; this show is another demonstrates his impressive capacity for energetic, engaging performances.
Richard Dormer's script is well-structured and full of clever wordplay, theatrical in-jokes and a very honest analysis of the pressures of performance; it also includes numerous sections from Hamlet, which Masterson gives an expert treatment to. It's laugh-out-loud funny in parts and moving in others, as The Actor reveals the price he has paid for the life he leads.
Under David Calvitto's direction, Masterson builds the tension well and the humorous aspects slot in nicely - though on more than one occasion it seems like the building of emotional peaks (which ebb and flow throughout) happens too early on, with nowhere to go when the script calls for a step up to the next level.
The simple set is a dressing room set up with the audience placed behind the (non-existent) mirror, to which The Actor speaks, with a doorway (complete with loudspeaker, through which announcements and the sound of the audience entering the theatre can be heard) at the rear.
There's some clever lighting for one particular scene, though little else throughout when it could be used more.
Overall, there's just a slight work-in-progress feel to this production - to be expected with a premiere. The script is excellent and there's exceptional talent both on the stage and in the director's chair; it just needs a little bit of tweaking to achieve true greatness. That said, in its current state it's still a laugh-out-loud funny, entertaining and touching play, particularly for anyone who's spent time in a dressing room waiting for the call of 'beginners'. (Jaimie Wright - Adelaide Theatre Guide)
BRILLIANTLY EXECUTED - SIDE ACHINGLY FUNNY! - GLAMADELAIDE - 04/03/12
Guy Masterson took to the stage with his newest work, The Half, written by Richard Dormer and directed by David Calvitto. All three have won the Best Actor Award at the Edinburgh Fringe, in three consecutive years, which makes a formidable team, and it shows. Calvitto and Masterson have created a superb piece that will have you rolling in the aisles one moment, feeling for The Actor another, and frustrated with him a moment later.
This hilarious backstage theatrical comedy finds us on the opposite side of a wall of make-up mirrors, looking through them into a dressing room, where somebody is found taking a nap. When he awakens, we find that he is The Actor, about to open in a one man play. He receives his thirty-five minute call, known to those of us in theatre as 'the half', over the speaker. That short time to the curtain call, especially on a first performance, is filled with emotions, from excitement to nerves, even to panic, and many side roads along the way.
For this man, it is heightened by the fact that he is fifty, has not worked in fifteen years, and has financed this production himself, facing the loss of everything. He is also worrying that the enormity of his choice of play might just be a bit beyond him, a one man production of Shakespeare's Hamlet (unabridged), hour after hour of it.
He begins to go through his routine of preparation, but gets distracted, caught up in theatrical superstitions, suffers bouts of self-doubt, recriminations, anger at his estranged wife, and is forced to face his demons. "An Actor Prepares", but not in any way that Constantin Stanislavsky could ever have envisaged the process, although A Challenge for The Actor might strike a chord with Uta Hagen.
Masterson adds a a vast amount of brilliantly executed physical comedy to the already extremely side-achingly funny script. He slips easily between the belly laughs and the moments of sadness, anger and doubt. This is another magnificent tour de force for Masterson, and his legion of Adelaide fans and supporters will not be disappointed.
Everybody who has ever been an actor will recognise people that they know in watching this piece, perhaps even themselves. It is not at all necessary, though, to have a theatrical background to appreciate the humour, or the darker moments of despair and self doubt. This is a piece for everybody.
Those who have seen Masterson perform in the past will need to urging to go to see this production but, if you are one of those that have not had that good fortune, make the most of this opportunity.
Make sure to catch all of the other productions that he has brought to Adelaide for the Fringe, before it is too late. (Barry Lenny - GlamAdelaide)
Attending The Half was the perfect compliment to a relaxed Saturday afternoon, when one is haunted with the week that was, the weekend we hope for and the reality of time lost that none of us wish to face.
Performed by Guy Masterson, the man behind the Centre of International Theatre, and the face of the critically acclaimed performances of Shylock, Under Milk Wood, and Animal Farm, The Half is a fabulously funny, perfectly gloomy, and all too close to ones struggling identity and measure of successful you are looking for quality, precision and an evening to laugh at the misfortune of anyone but yourself, then you simply must attend The Half. One every Tuesday to Sunday evening at the Higher Ground.
Check out the other shows the CIT has to offer. from the 2011 Fringe cult hit "the Six Sided Man", the 2010 sell out Scaramouche Jones, the beautifully delivered Driving Miss Daisy, the surprising and heartwarmingly entertaining Outland and the unbelievably witty Imperial Fizz, starring the 2010 Fringe award winner David Calvitto. More reviews to come!! Fringe full of love to my fellow fringe dwellers... (annafabulous - 05/03/12)
An actor is in his dressing room. There is 35 minutes until he gives his performance. Hamlet, solo and uncut. 4 hours on stage, with nothing but the words of William Shakespeare. Guy Masterson plays the actor, whose last chance to re-establish his career comes in the form of a one man show.
With a simple, minimalist set, Masterson takes us on a journey of fear, desperation, and the difficult task of finding your pants – all while making you laugh out loud. By the end, you'll wish you could somehow be in the actors audience, and feed him his lines.
Another of the the world class shows produced by the Centre for International Theatre. (pussinboots - 05/03/12)
Acting Masterclass! (twowordreview - 12/03/12)
It's no surprise to those having visited CIT @Higher Ground to discover that yet again, a show here is deserving of a five-star review. There really isn't a duff offering in sight here; the only real question is which one will take your fancy. This new one-man offering by Guy Masterson, ably directed by past 'Best Actor' winner, David Calvitto, is filled with laughter, bitter-sweet personal ramblings and realisations, passages from various Shakespeare plays transposed into new settings, and pithy one-liners.
Masterson's character, "the actor" is confined by his own rules to a dressing room, as the clock ticks away to the opening of his new play in which he is producer, performer, protagonist and his own Pinocchio, pulling his strings in a dark dance of indecision and insecurities.
To say much more would give away too much, but this solo show is funny, yes – full of in-jokes for those in "the biz" - but also hilarious and moving in its own right. Masterson manipulates while his character never quite capitulates. Go. Right? (gary jarvis - 09/03/12)
Guy Masterson's latest offering - The Half - confirms his status as one of the finest performers at the Adelaide Fringe. Masterson portrays a 50 year old actor, down on his luck, who attempts to gain stardom with a one-man Hamlet. He is the actor, producer and director so he doesn't have to pay anyone. Nothing can go wrong, surely? Right from the off this marvellously witty, pacey piece debunks actor's superstitions and foibles and the ridiculous nature of their profession. It's incisive and a lovely self-parody - I didn't get every joke but it isn't a show just for the theatricals. The gags just keep coming - the duel (think about it) being a high-point - I laughed so hard I nearly fell off my chair. Intermingled are the regrets - his difficult home life and long-suffering partner. How many years does an actor invest in the business before he realises he'll never be a star? That, in Shakespeare's own parlance, is the question. At times hilarious, at others poignant, this is a high-octane romp from a performer in his prime. Masterful, Mr. Masterson (Andrew Sherwin - 09/03/12)
Guy Masterson explorer, has guided a path to pressure beyond pressure. The Half, places you in the midst of torment, garnished with hilarity, with a side of the insecurities present in all of us. Almost to real for comfort, relief comes from facing ones fear of ones self, never losing the fear, but arming yourself with it and continuing on. To act or not to act is forever the question. Guy Masterson uncut! (Lfaye - 10/03/12)
Bloody brilliant serve of in-jokes and physical comedy from Guy Masterson. A character he was born and by the grace of God kept alive long enough to play. He managed to capture a depth, and yet a superficiality that is so true to human complexity, yet is so rarely entered into by theatricians. The writing is fantastic and you can't help but see a little of your own madness in it. Must-see! (papabayj - 11/03/12)
Buy a ticket with confidence. Guy Masterson works so hard on stage that he earns every penny. So much dark and light is brought out in this piece, you will laugh with him and feel his pain. Guy goes through a range of emotions but always with an underlying air of vulnerability which pulls you into his world. The audience were hooting and gripped. An enjoyable hour in the company of a very talented man. Jonathan Pryce may be packing them in on the other side of town but just because he has a higher profile doesn't necessarily make him a better actor. Come and watch an equally talented British actor up close and personal. Bare bones, energy, perfect timing and pathos. Brilliant. (Manman 16/03/12)
An excellent performance by Masterson and it is really good to see him back with his gang of performers. The Fringe would not be the same without his company. This particular show was very good but perhaps not great. It was well written and Masterson gave it his all. (Daryd - 18/03/12)
THEATRE TOURS INTERNATIONAL presents:by Richard Dormer
performed by Guy Masterson
directed by David Calvitto
A 50 year old actor, down on his luck, attempts to reverse his fortunes by doing a one man show. Nothing new there... except that he's chosen Shakespeare's Hamlet - uncut - four-and-a-half hours! He's sold his car and his father's gold watch to pay for it all and his wife has left him. Everything rides on it. It's his opening night - 35 minutes before curtain up (The Half) and he is starting to unravel... Will he make it to the stage or will he self-destruct?
This is hysterical stuff by an extraordinary team: performed, directed and written by consecutive winners of the prestigious Stage Award for Best Actor at Edinburgh, Guy Masterson (2001), David Calvitto (2002) and Richard Dormer (2003)
"Excellent!" (Adelaide Advertiser)
"Witnessing the spectacle of a man having a sword fight with himself is worth the admission price alone..! (Rip It Up Magazine - Adelaide)
"Brilliantly Executed, side-achingly funny!" (GlamAdelaide) "A resounding success with Masterson taking centre stage and delighting once again. He is one of the few actors who are not afraid to consolidate their presence and control with enormous gestures and physical action. This Hamletesque play will stir a range of emotions from melancholy to elation and everything in between. If Masterson's backstage theatrics were anything to go by, it would certainly be a treat to watch him in a one-man production of Hamlet! (FringeReview Adelaide)
Richard Dormer - Writer - To Follow
Guy Masterson - Performer - click on link
David Calvitto - Director
Edinburgh: The Event, Imperial Fizz, American Poodle, Midnight Cowboy (w/Con O'Neill), Levelland (w/Rich Hall), Screwmachine/eyecandy (w/Mike McShane), The Exonerated (w/Aidan Quinn) 12 Angry Men (w/Bill Bailey). New York and Edinburgh: Fatboy, Horse Country (Winner: Stage Best Actor award 2002), Goner, Americana Absurdum. London: Americana Absurdum (Menier Chocolate Factory), Horse Country (Riverside Studios).
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THE HALF image 1
(Credit: Brigitta Scholz-Mastroianni) |
THE HALF image 2
(Credit: Brigitta Scholz-Mastroianni) |
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THE HALF image 3
(Credit: Brigitta Scholz-Mastroianni) |
THE HALF image 4
(Credit: Brigitta Scholz-Mastroianni) |
To View or Downloa
d Specifications click here or on image for Technical Specs
Lighting consists of a warm general wash and four specials. (details to follow)
SFX are provided on Laptop running Qlab. Good stereo equipment is required with Sound running Front to Back of the theatre (NOT Left and Right)
LX and SFX can be run by one person (if LX are preprogrammed) following an explicitly marked up script.
Running time 70 mins (approx.)
