Shrek Review: Opinion Essay

I watched a musical by the name of Shrek, that was written by David Lindsay-Abaire and performed by CIS students.

Shrek is about an ogre, Shrek, who was outcast his whole life, which leads him to a swap, where he can finally be happy by himself. The story lone continues when a group of outcasted fairy-tale characters, evicted by Lord Farquaad, disrupt Shrek’s way of life. In efforts to get his home back, he is sent on a mission to save a princess trapped in a tower, little does he know, this princess would change who he was. Towards the end of the play, there was a scene in which Shrek entered a duration of static emotion due to the mass trauma that he once experienced in which he was given a chance of change. This pivotal scene, expresses the personal journey that Shrek went through and how new relationships in his life helped conquer his fear of further rejection and disownment in which he prevent through the avoidance of any personal contact with others. In this scene, Shrek, is put in a complicated situated, outside of Lord Farquaad’s castle, in which he is torn by what he feels in his heart towards Fiona(the princess) and his protective defence mechanism, in which surrounding characters(Donkey and the Three Blind Mice in suits), further encourage Shrek to follow his heart. Feelings that Shrek himself outcasted, further overwhelmed him and continued to create a static environment. This static environment that could be profoundly expressed to the audience, makes them feel anxious and desire an outcome from the performers, thus creating an attention-grabbing scene. The desire of an outcome continued to grow through the performance elements that were used by the director. The back and forth conflictions that Shrek was dealing with contributed to the feeling of anxiousness and the feeling of the unknown due to the contradicting feelings that were being expressed between Shrek and Fiona, Shrek and Donkey, and Sherk and the Three Blind Mice. The emotions that Donkey, Fiona, and the Three Blind Mice expressed to Shrek, by there varying body gestures and movements, along with their expressive voices, vitaly helped the audience visually and mentally understand the conflicts that Shrek was dealing with. Furthermore, the lighting and music used throughout the scene created extensive atmospheric tension, effectively expressing the desire and mystery being portrayed in the scene. The effectiveness of the music was expressed through the audience’s reaction in which it further grabbed their attention, through the low intensity, lurking sounds preparing the audience for what is thought to be a climactic ending and drawing in the mystery that is desired to be solved. Another essential element is the lighting, as the colour used helped the audience associate a certain emotion that they were feeling with the scene. The use of turquoise lighting helped the audience intuitively pinpoint their emotions being evoked by the already conflicting scene.