The acting was on the whole really good, with Elliott Dale-Hughes as Captain Vimes and Flic Powell as Footnote #1 as two really entertaining standouts. Dale-Hughes portrayed the gruff Captain perfectly, as well as his more anxious and emotional moments towards the end of the play. Powell was really funny and spirited in her role, as well as having a great costume!
Christopher Paul as Corporal Carrot was also very endearing and gave a powerful performance, especially in the climax of the show, though there were points at which he spoke very fast, meaning that the audience lost some of the dialogue. The rest of the Night Watch crew were really fun and great to watch, all excelling in their roles. The blossoming friendship between Lance Constables Detritus and Cuddy, surpassing the prejudices of trolls and dwarves, was well acted and managed to be both humorous and moving at the hands of Heather Sawrey and San Graham-Levers.
The costumes in this show were a highlight. Ruth Jepson, the costume designer, used colour really well to illustrate the characters, putting the Assassins Guild in black to contrast with the colourful nobles and the Fool’s Guild. The costumes for the Night Watch as well worked great (apart from Angua’s sandals, which looked rather unsuitable for her title of Lance-Constable): coppery breastplates and helmets both illustrated their role as city guards, and also contrasted the silver armour of the more prestigious Day Watch.
A nice touch was Vimes’ boots. His Boots Theory, a detail from the book that has rather surpassed the rest of the plot in terms of cultural impact, points out how on his salary, he can only afford cheap boots that he has to replace every season, and therefore he spends far more money over time than someone who earns enough to buy one very good pair of boots. In contrast to the other members of the Watch, his boots had very thin soles, making it evident that they were cheap and would fall apart easily. Death’s mask also deserves a mention, with light up eyes and all!
The set was sparse but successfully illustrated the locations of the play, and the wall containing Cornice-Overlooking-Broadway was a nice surprise! However, some of the scene changes were done in blackout and some with the lights on, which was quite confusing, especially considering they were done by cast members. This reduced their power as immersive characters a little, as they weren’t always in character when changing the set. It would be an easy fix to do these scene changes in blackout, keeping the immersion. The lights and sound were very good though, especially with cues – there weren’t any awkward pauses for sound effects or lighting changes, which was especially impressive with the entrance and exit of Footnote #1.
Tony Kennick and Elliott Dale-Huges as Director and Assistant Director did a generally good job, especially with such strong comedic characters. There were some real moments of emotion at the end that were really strong, especially the scene with Vimes, Carrot and Dr Cruces in the Pork Futures storehouse. Long and detailed plots can be hard to work with, but they evidently put a lot of effort in and the show ran great.
At some points, the staging could have perhaps been more interesting – some of the scenes were a little boring, or the blocking meant awkward silences before characters had got into position. However, other scenes worked really well and on the whole it was great. Overall, Midland Players were really entertaining and I loved both the acting and costume. While other elements were perhaps lacking slightly, it didn’t stop the show from being a great return to Discworld!
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Men at Arms is playing at the University of Sheffield Drama Studio until February 22nd
