Sixth Grade Reviewers Share Four Takes on "The Composer is Dead"

[Editor's Note: sixth grade teacher Fran Sheppard highlighted work from several of her students, who learned how to write play reviews in January.]

The Composer is Dead, by Lemony Snicket, was a play full of music, comedy and especially puppets. Our class saw it on a field trip on Jan. 13, at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre, and when I heard we were going to see it, I was excited. I had heard great things about the play, but now I was going to experience it myself.

The play was unique because it was an enlargement of a Victorian Puppetry set, that would normally be seen on the streets. Along with that, there were three different kinds of marionettes (with many varieties in each kind).

There were instruments, a skeleton, and of course the sock puppet Mr. Fuzzles. The only part of the play that was not a puppet was Geoff Hoyle, who played the comical host, and creative inspector.

The host starts by giving a short introduction with the sock puppet, Mr. Fuzzles, who turns out to have serious speech impediment. Then, when a "short" movie clip starts, the slide show is not working. So, the host goes on a search for all the members of the crew looking to see if anybody can fix it, because the "Show must go on!!"

But his searching goes to no prevail. The stage manager is scatterbrained, the director is crying, the actor is mute, the understudy is stubborn, the lighting technician is sleeping, the dancer is lazy, what more can go wrong?

The host decides that the show cannot go on, so he quits. But at least the composer can help!!! As they check on the composer, they find him dead. An inspector is hired to find the killer, by questioning the instruments of the orchestra: from violins to violas, cellos to basses, trumpets to French horns, tubas, clarinets and flutes. After all the interrogating, he finds that the killer wasn’t IN the orchestra at all, but very close……

The Composer is Dead was a mix of comedy, and music, which made the play very fun to watch.  The inspector, Geoff Hoyle, made the play very ingenious, and boisterous by himself even though he was the only animate part of the whole play.

The interactions between Hoyle and the movie projection were amazing. There would be a skeletal hand coming out from the screen, to grasp Hoyle by the neck. He would also keep pace as the movie clip "walked" by the different dressing rooms for the crew, which made the play have an interesting twist to it. Along with the clips, the marionettes’ mouths would have to be moved at the right time to keep the pace with the previously recorded sounds.

The arduous attempt at making a unique play mostly paid off, but there were parts better than the others. In some scenes, the marionettes had no action, and made me a little bored. The ending was also cut short, leaving me confused, and making me think that there should be more. It seemed as if the ending was rushed, like somebody was in a hurry to leave, and even a little extension, (another minute or so) could’ve made the play easier to understand.

Overall, The Composer is Dead was very thrilling with comedy, music and exceptional marionette workers, which came all together to make an entertaining play to watch.

Cody Sim is 12 years old and plays on the Albany Middle School basketball team.

****

Last week on Jan. 13, I had the pleasure of seeing Lemony Snicket’s The Composer is Dead at the Berkeley Rep Theater. This performance includes film, puppetry and one live actor. The performance is about "The Magic of Living Breathing Theater" gone wrong.

In the beginning, the one live actor, our Charming Host (Geoff Hoyle) explains about the people and things that it takes to put on a performance. He interacts with characters on a movie screen, and one thing after another keeps going wrong: "the puppet has a speech impediment," then the slide show gets stuck, then the "audience is distracted."

A very panicked skeleton walks Hoyle through the backstage area, where they try to find assistance to keep the show going. They meet a "scatterbrained stage manager" and the Director turns out to be a crying baby puppet. The actor is "mute" and the understudy is "stubborn" and so on.  

They try to get assistance from many of the backstage crew and finally end up at the door of the "greatest living composer," and when they open the door, there is a scream and they find the composer dead with his head laying flat on a table, motionless.   

This is when the film ends and the curtains open up to a very large old-fashioned puppet stage, which includes an orchestra pit full of large marionettes that play each instrument. The orchestra puppets are visually amazing.

Now our Charming Host becomes the Inspector who is trying to solve the mystery of who killed the composer. He does this by interrogating each of the orchestra sections.  The inspector questions each section about where they were the night of the crime.

They all have different reasons why they would not kill the composer; for example, the string section was up all night playing waltzes ( they love to show off) and,  in the woodwinds section, the flutes were practicing their bird calls. The trumpets were trumpeting for a king. It was funny how the instruments tried to blame the others, like saying it was probably the work of some foreigners like the French horns. The inspector questions all of the instruments and each of them has a valid excuse why they did not kill the composer.   

During the explanations, the stage had paper dancers spinning during the waltz, and paper birds flying during the flutes, and a shadow performance at the dance club where the brass was hanging out the night before.

Finally each section of the band has been questioned, but they remind the Inspector that he forgot to question one key person in the orchestra, the Conductor. The inspector realizes that, for many years, conductors have been killing composers. This ends the play with a dramatic halt. 

This performance was phenomenal. It was hilarious and the puppetry work was amazing and stunning. This performance also taught me more about the sections of an orchestra and how great living, breathing theater is. If you love comedy, drama and puppetry then come see The Composer is Dead by the brilliant Lemony Snicket.

Dylan Ransley's hobbies include playing lacrosse, guitar, and skateboarding. He loves playing guitar so much that he even has his own band, .

***

Magic, humor, enticement and innovation: All of these characteristics are woven together in Lemony Snicket’s ingenious masterpiece, The Composer is Dead.  Shown at the Berkeley Repertory Theater in Berkeley, CA, this visual success combines the classic form of live stage performance, film, and the childhood attraction of human-sized marionettes. During the play, when the composer is found dead, the Inspector, played comically by Geoff Hoyle, must jump to the scene of the crime, to find the heinous culprit. 

What makes this masterpiece truly amazing is the flawless interaction between the single live actor, the characters on screen, and puppets that debuted later in the performance. For example, during the projected film, Hoyle has many conversations with the characters on screen, whose voiced-over dialogue was played at perfect timing. Occasionally, as well, a skeletal hand would seem to reach out from the screen and grasp Hoyle by the neck.   

The live actor, played always by Hoyle, had many such interactions with all supporting roles, on screen, as well as when the screen had risen to portray a scene that resembled an old children’s puppet theater. Hoyle’s conversations with the nonliving actors (marionettes), the music and Hoyle’s wonderfully caricature-like dancing while the orchestra marionettes played, left astoundingly little more to be desired. 

Not only is the masterwork of The Composer is Dead a humorous and fun-loving tale, but also an education for young audiences. For instance, a small, but subtly covered educational introduction begins the performance. The characters, in other words the marionettes and Hoyle, call this video the "The Magic of Living, Breathing Theater." The film exemplifies how one should act when visiting the theater and the respect people must show in consideration to other audience members, as well as what the audience should expect from the theater itself. 

Another educational tidbit is encountered later in the production, where the Inspector visits each of the instruments in the orchestra, gives a brief summary of the instrument, and explains why it is important in the grand scheme of the musical production.

Although there are multiple amazing things about Lemony Snicket’s masterpiece, including his trademark educational tidbits, there are, of course, some things that could be altered to make the performance an even more enjoyable piece. For example, at the start of the production, there is what they call a "short educational video." Instead, however the film turned into a good third of the 90-minute long production, describing the extreme events that were going wrong in the home of "living, breathing theater." In spite of the fact that the entire film led up to the actual live performance, it could have used a bit of shortening to keep it from becoming too repetitive for the audience. 

The performance of Lemony Snicket’s The Composer is Dead is brimming with magic, mystery and humor, which leave members of the audience buoyant, enticed and filled with wonderful stories to tell. This enthralling tale of a hunt through an orchestra, as well as the enlightenment on "living, breathing theater," combines reality and fairytale, making it the ultimate performance for children and adults alike.  

Eva Juengling Bean is 11 years old and enjoys music and dance.

***

Everyone loves to see "Living Breathing Theater," especially the children, because they’re young. As the play is about to begin, the charming host realizes something. The lighting technician is lazy, the understudy is stubborn, the actor is mute, the director is a baby, the stage manager is scatterbrained, the slide show is interrupted, and the puppet has a severe speech impediment! 

A skeleton in the skeleton crew decides to call a young and handsome inspector to investigate the cast and crew. Suddenly, a scream rings out from the stage door. The inspector rushes toward the cry. He finds the composer, dead. Who killed the composer?

When my family and I went to see The Composer is Dead in December 2010, I was expecting the play to be just like the book it was named after. (Lemony Snicket wrote and based his play on this children’s book.) Instead, the play began with a charming host introducing a movie. Geoff Hoyle, the famous clown, plays the charming host and the inspector. 

The unexpected film was absolutely humorous and clever. Tiny marionettes played the roles of the crazy theater cast and crew that interacted with Geoff Hoyle himself. Imagine talking to a T.V. and the characters come to life on the screen and talk back to you. 

The next part of the show was the actual play, based on the book.  I enjoyed the play as much as the film. The backdrop was a breathtaking Victorian theater with a large orchestra pit filled with enormous marionettes. The marionettes themselves were made to look like musical instruments. Geoff Hoyle, now dressed as the inspector, interrogated all the musical instruments to see who murdered the composer. But I won’t spoil the mystery for you.    

This play is one of the most astounding achievements of Lemony Snicket. Although both the movie and the play were a bit repetitive, and some of the small marionettes were a little scary, I was delighted by this dramatic feature. The Composer is Dead is a play, a puppet show, a crime, a concert, and even a movie at the exact same time! Performed by the Berkeley Repertory Theater, this outstanding play is sure to thrill the heart of everyone who sees it.     

Lyle Paris Pilch Simmons is 11 years old and goes to sixth grade at Albany Middle School.