Jasper Jones is a contemporary Australian story that explores the life of a teenager who tries to grow up and learn that racism and death overshadow life. community of his home. city. Despite the play's dark themes, the production goes against the book and keeps the performance light and offbeat, completely avoiding direct confrontation with larger issues. The play's producer, Kate Mulvany, modified Jasper Jones from Craig Silvey's novel. Mulvany points out the challenge of including favorite parts of the novel as well as integrating the exploration of the townspeople into a stage adaptation of a novel. However, Mulvany overcame these challenges and managed to produce his own adaptation of the Australian classic. The play is a murder mystery in which Charlie Bucktin (played by James Smith), a bookworm with few friends, helps Jasper Jones, a social outcast and rebel, hide evidence of a murdered young girl. Jasper goes looking for the murderer so that the townspeople won't blame him and punish him for the crime he didn't commit. While keeping Jasper's secret, Charlie continues his daily life as normal, where he discovers the family problems of his Vietnamese friend Jeffery and the marital problems of his own parents, while trying to understand his own love life. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay This leaves room for four different plots to develop throughout the play and unfortunately the director does not find the balance of the plots. The whole murder mystery aspect is often pushed aside because Charlie is so absorbed in other events that he doesn't seem to care about the murdered girl haunting his dreams. The result is that Charlie doesn't have time to connect with the larger issues surrounding the town's negative view of Jasper when it comes to racism. And that's why the city's darkest secrets and thoughts are never fully revealed. However, that doesn't stop the show from being enjoyed. The plots include a youthful and imaginative tone that makes the audience laugh. The story of Charlie's best friend, Jeffery Lu (played by Roy Phung), is both beautiful and heartbreaking, as Phung makes all of his scenes captivating with his ability to balance both humor and heartbreak, he swallows his pain and buries it in his humor. and sarcastic mannerisms as he tells Charlie about his family's deaths in Vietnam. The set consisted of a mound of frames at the back of the stage with old pillars like gum trees with the bark peeling off like paper death scattered across the top of the uneven forest like floor. There were unique set elements, such as a door or window and the bed from Charlie's room, that were brought onto the stage, which made for a simple but effective use of the change of location. The setting also helped the actors on stage exit cleanly and easily from the hole beneath the forest floor of the embankment, which added to the unsettling experience of the moment Charlie and Jasper throw Laura's body into the lake. The goal was to help make the whole thing creative and practical. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a personalized paper now from our expert writers. Get a Custom Essay The play's director, Nescha Jelk, uses the scene changes to her advantage by turning them into a dream sequence; in which Jasper's deceased girlfriend Laura haunts Charlie as the scene is reset to create the next part of the play. Not wasting a single moment, Jelk uses every moment.