In the summer term, I attended a third-year BA (Hons) Acting student production of Grimm Tales at AUB’s Palace Court Theatre. It was a great performance in a lovely, intimate venue.
I had never been to the theatre before and I didn’t know much about it either, but I was pleasantly surprised by the atmosphere there and the professional feel it had. It’s a great space to show off AUB talent and put student work in an industry space.
The nearly 100-year-old building has a great story of its own, starting in the 1930s as a theatre amongst other businesses and hotels in the seafront town. It was taken over five years ago by AUB to become a theatre again, used for educational purposes and upcoming performers and performances.
The third-year production took the audience on a journey through eight of the many Grimm Tales original stories. It was a wonderful evening out with housemates, enjoying what our university has to offer and seeing a new space. Besides, a theatre trip is never a bad idea!
The costumes were particularly striking and powerful, very well considered to the multi-rolling nature of the performance, easily adaptable and clearly recognisable. The willow weaving for large, impressive animal features to go over the actors' heads were remarkable and very clever. You could really see the care, love and enthusiasm in the costumes as well as the acting overall. Alongside this, the performance’s use of physical theatre to create dynamic staging, movement and interest was innovative and cool. It was unlike any other play I have seen before, but I still really enjoyed it.
Another advantage of AUB's theatre productions is the student-priced tickets for performances. This made it a very budget-friendly trip, which is always a big win. We even had a quick trip to the beach afterwards as we were so close and couldn’t resist!
I definitely hope to watch more productions when I am back at university after summer now that I have discovered what a cool venue this is. I would highly recommend it to any other students too.
