Terry Sanders overacts way to much for me in the Ollie Stewart role.
I haven't seen him in the role, but I can sure believe that.
It just seemed like they all rushed through the lines.
That was very true the last time I saw the play, 15 years ago.
In the '70s, you could clearly hear every word spoken. The sound system was renowned for its quality, and the actors (many locals) knew how to speak. From quiet conversations on the side, to fists thumping ribs in the Young Matt versus Wash Gibbs fight, the audience heard it all.
In 2000, the actors (by then mostly non-local professionals) rushed through like a junior high play. You know what I mean -- kids so eager to recite the lines without forgetting them, that they forget to actually interact with other actors.
I don't know if the sound system changed from '84 to 2000, but the audio quality definitely fell off. Over-acting, horribly over-played accents, and no modulation. I don't think the best sound engineer in the world could have fixed it, because the raw source was crap (pardon my language; I wanted to use a much stronger word).
Even in the early '70s, Ollie Stewart was a buffoonish dandy and a bit of comic relief in a serious drama. But he was only a
bit of comic relief, not too far removed from the book. As much as I love Terry Wayne, I can see him stealing the whole show, with "a bit of comic relief" turning into a clown act. And if the audience can't understand the lines of the drama, why not? (Dr. Coughlan was much more of a comedic relief back in the day, with the audience reciting along, "Well, what would Sarah and the girls say?")
For the sake of my nostalgia, I've honestly been afraid to return to SOTH since then.
I'm also pretty jaded on flag-waving nationalism; I understand that such is endemic now in Branson, but I don't understand the relevance to the story of SOTH.
