Swan Song

by Jasmine Williams - Wellington East Girl's College (age 17)

This was the second show of the night. I was overwhelmed immediately by the numbers of people in this play. When I got comfortable in my seat, my friend and I discussed the effectiveness of different postures and levels which were used to portray each individual. The red light shone over the stage as a girl in the front right was pretending she was standing in front of a mirror, stroking her long hair. When the light came up, I noticed everyone, but one person, was wearing red in some way. The person who wasn’t wearing red, was in black and his face was covered in a white mask. They started with the ending, in which, the girl gets stabbed, by yes, the character wearing black. I was sitting in my seat, slightly confused after this point, but then after a while it started to make sense. I liked the way that the characters used the drawers as different props. For example, when they were protesting, they propped up the drawer vertically to portray a poster, or piled a drawer on top of another to portray a wall, or a suitcase and so forth.

The story slowly revealed itself as Ashley was lead through by her ‘present’ conscience to reveal what had happened a couple of hours before she died or, from what I believe, her conscience wanted to happen before Ashley died. There was a reference to Alice in Wonderland in the play and then I realised who Theresa was in relation to Ashley. Theresa was her ‘Past’ conscience. This is show with a youthful, vibrant dress with two pig tails and occasionally Ashley and Theresa would have conversations about leaving Ashley’s imagination behind.

All characters had an importance in Ashley’s life and had made her the person who she is at 17. You had your typical high school jock who all the ladies loved, the sexy French exchange student, the outcasts, the weird and the normal. The plot was a bit mambo jumbo and some parts didn’t make sense, but it all started to mould at the end. Max was the guy that tried to win Ashley’s heart and at the end of the play, Ashley realises that her true love was with her all along… After that, she is ready to move into the light now that she has resolved things in her life on Earth. The idea of the ‘Swan song’ is that it stays mute for its lifetime, until it reaches the end of its lifetime and just before it dies, it sings a harmonious tune. In this case, we see Ashley when she is dead, confronting all of her life and the decisions she makes to leave Earth satisfied with the life that she lived. A very light-hearted show. Keeps you intent.