We hope you enjoyed your Quantum experience, and we’d love to hear your thoughts on Ciara. Leave a comment below and tell us what you liked, disliked, or anything in particular that may have resonated with you. Thank you for your feedback!
What did you think of Ciara?
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We thought it was a mesmerizing show! Actress was engaging with dialogue and movement. Painted set with lighting was amazing. Only negative was that it was a lot to sit through in 90 minutes without an intermission; audience seemed to start fidgeting after 40 minutes or so.
I felt the painted set and lighting was wonderful. It is amazing how the actress was able to memorize and carry through the whole play with one sip of water. She was impressive but I feel the play itself and subject matter was boring and did not understand why this particular “subject matter” was chosen to make a whole play out of it.. After the first half hour I lost interest, got bored and restless.. The whiskey cake at the reception was the best cake I ever ate….the reception after was great.
The play was fantastic. Mary Rawson was incredible – 90 minutes of dialogue and all the change in emotions as she told her story. Loved the set and the lighting -very Quantum-unique. Wonderful evening.
We very much enjoyed the production. We thought the actress was fabulous. The intimacy of the setting really drew us into the play. The use of the screen to help tell the story was clever and added a great visual. We also stayed for “Quantum on the Couch” and the discussion provided some very interesting and helpful insights to the character.
Great play! Was never sure where the play was going (always a plus). So many nuances we may have to see it again. Loved the character, Mary Rawson and Bob Qualters work. A little hard to hear, given the accent. Having Mary raise her voice would take away from the passive/aggressive nature of Ciara so maybe some stage mikes.
WOW another great play. Mary Rawson was superb as always and the art of bob qualters and the animation from Joe Seamans MADE THE EXPERIENCE EVEN BETTER.
Great play and well executed by Mary Rawson. Loved the stage set by Bob Qualters. It was at times a little bit hard to follow because the actress switched her train of thought quickly and the accent made it a bit difficult to follow.
Beautifully written. Beautifully executed.
I suppose I started with a bias against one person shows. I appreciate the effort of Ms. Rawson to carry off a 90-minute monologue, but I found the play hard to follow, and simply not that interesting. I have to say that between Ms. Rawson’s Scottish accent and her low volume, I had trouble understanding the story she was telling. I found myself checking my watch several times which is never a good sign, and then nodding off most of the last half hour which is a pretty good indication that between the soft spoken monologue and the lack of action onstage, this play was not catching my interest. The painted set combined with the lighting effects was the most interesting part of the play for me. I wish I could be more positive.
Check out my review of “Ciara” on my blog — A Quantum leap into a puddle.
Loved the play itself.
The performance was fantastic.
Fun to meet other women.
Food great and nice to even have a snack after.
Can’t wait for the next one!
Mary Rawson is amazing, having memorized the entire ninety minutes and delivered it beautifully, with accent.
We had a little difficulty following, as we were sitting on the extreme right side and couldn’t always follow what was happening when she walked to the other side. I feel I need to read the play now to fully understand it.
Ciara is an excellent production, even by Quantum’s high standards. I was impressed with David Harrower’s play, which slowly reveals the character of an interesting woman without the aid of showing her interacting with any other person. I think having a single character on stage makes you work harder to get the picture, and in this instance, the work pays off.
Mary Rawson’s performance as Ciara will live with me for a long time. As good as Harrower’s script is, it is still up to the only actor on stage to keep our attention for the entire performance. Rawson did that well. She not only become Ciara, but remained Ciara the entire time with no false notes.
The play is very much about Glasgow, and not being from Scotland, I doubt I would have understood the play very well if it were presented on a bare stage. Fortunately, the stage’s backdrop is a painting created by Bob Qualters for this production, which is illuminated and animated by Joe Seamans. The backdrop was beautiful in itself, but was also helpful to me in visualizing the events described by Ciara.
The ending of the play not only answers the question of why Ciara is telling her story, but also imposes an important question, which could be framed as “what does it mean to be true to yourself”?
Mary Rawson did a fantastic job of using her face, body, speech and movement on the stage to tell a very poignant story. My problem is hearing loss and so I missed many of the lines. My daughter who was there also can explain it to me later.
Mary Mary quite contrary, where does your garden grow? Inside a fecund imagination of a controlled emotion and febrile angst. Une belle prestation.
Astonishing performance and a story that kept us guessing. And Bob Qualter’s paintings was a touch of genius. With Joe Seaman adding a great touch. Thanks for putting it together. With a Scottish accent to boot.
Mary Rawson’s performance was engaging and compelling, and the static set was fanciful, evocative and helped to place us. But I wish well enough had been left alone: I found the projections and sound bites to be heavy handed and distracting.
Staging and photos on back drop were excellent , actress was very talented, 90 minutes to long to sit, needed a break, we sat up front and it was easy to hear
Mary Rawson was captivating and really kept my attention. For me, the time flew by. It seemed as if it was way less than 90 minutes. I thought the play was interesting, and the ending was a real surprise. The scenery by Robert Qualters was fantastic, and effects with lights and projections were magical. I am so glad I started going to Quantum Theatre shows this season and have been kicking myself for not going in years past.
The set was the highlight for me. Unfortunately, though my hearing is fine, I could not follow what she was saying and spent the evening between restlessness and dozing off.
Saturday nite, my wife and I were less than thrilled with the presentation. The acting was good, the story was good, but we had to translate everything from Scottish to American English. By contrast, we saw Guys and dolls on Sunday Matinee, and loved it. They are two entirely different stage productions, but they are both in the vernacular. I did not have to translate Guys and Dolls.
A salesman lives or dies on his ability to communicate. Theater is communication of a story. In sales the rule is KISS – Keep it Simple Stupid. If you had replaced the Scottish vernacular with the American version, no one would have had to translate.
I thought her acting was superb, but you may have noticed that the audience only clapped – no one stood!
Thank You,
Lee Feldman
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We loved the set, the lightning and the performance by the actress. However, it was hard to follow for the whole 90 minutes and the play could not keep our attention.
Brought my brother to this show who had just flown in to town from Brussels to surprise me for my birthday. Our experiences were quite different. He claims to have lost interest after 30 minutes. I say he fell asleep after 30 seconds from jet lag. Nevertheless, I understand the argument that this could b a “difficult” play for an audience, but far more narrative and easier to grasp than some, say, Billy the Kid, where the action and involvement kept one on their toes. In fact, my wife and I saw a one act Last year about this time where a comedy club was used as the setting and the actor had to be far more assertive and engaging. If anything, it was the traditional small stage set up that might have alienated some theater goers, as beautiful as the set design and animation might have been.
I tend to wait on a story which was perfect in this case, because the actor was a great story teller and I felt she owned the script, the space, and my attention, by the end of the play. That art serves different purposes, comes from the same light source, and is an ongoing discussion, while lives are less perfect, though they too are discussed, given weight, and are the driving impetus for so much need for expression…all of these universals and applicable human conditions of addiction, exploitation, and escapism…take what at first seemed an overly romanticized notion of a postcard perfect place and give it bones and veins on which to rest and live. Those who slept and minded their clocks missed out. Those who listened to this dreadfully awful and gorgeous tale attentively should have found a story worth more than 90 minutes.
Mary Rawson will never get Altzheimers…90 minutes is/was amazing! I have read the other reviews and yes, there was fidgeting after an hour, but to interrupt this play would have made it even more difficult to follow. For me, it was spoken prose poetry and I loved it, although it did take some paying attention to keep the story line straight, following its staggering paths. The artwork was impressive, naturally, and Joe Seamans did an excellent job of overlaying helpful images. I loved the sound — it alerted you to the changes.
Frankly, I wondered about the safety of the wooden stadium seating but we were in the third row. We could hear very well. Mary is not a screamer and I appreciated that.
We attended the final performance and some at the top did give a standing ovation at the end. I could not have stood because of a handicap but I very much wanted to do so.
This is my second play with Quantum. I like the change of locations and the hospitality before the productions. As for Ciara, the acting was excellent, but we did not enjoy the play. My friend commented that it was the worst play he ever saw . I felt like it ruined my Valentine’s evening. A real let down …