Month: May 2016

A Girl Like Her

/ thevicritic / Leave a comment

Warning: This post will contain discussions about suicide, depression and bullying. If you or someone you know is going through something similar to what I’m about to write about then please talk to someone about it. Your never alone! I will leave websites and telephone numbers at the end of this post if you need to get in contact with someone. I completely understand if some of you choose to not read this post.

Hi,

As I write this, I have just finished watching a film called ‘A Girl Like Her’. The story is about a sixteen year old high school student called Jessica Burns. For six months, Jessica is bullied by the popular girl at school. It starts off as very small things like bumping into her in the hallway, calling her names etc. It then progresses into mean texts, postings on social media, and harassing her during the school day.

As mentioned before, the girl in question bullies Jessica for six months and drives Jessica to the point where she feels she has no way out. Jessica therefore decides to do the only thing she feels she has left and attempts to commit suicide and take here own life by the form of an overdose. She is rushed into hospital and gets treated.

This film was shot in a documentary-like way which makes the film really enjoyable despite the deep subject matter. I felt like the film was an excellent accurate portrayal of what the victims, friends and families go through. Although, there are times where you could see that this was a drama not an actual documentary. But for the first half an hour I actually thought it was a real documentary and I actually Googled it!

For me the subject of depression and suicide is something I struggle to talk about. I have seen the effect depression in particular has on people and to see this still carrying on in schools if I’m honest angers me. Now this film is fictional, but it honestly shows the impact that bulling taken this far can have massive consequences. People seem to think that posting on someones wall to go kill themselves is a good and fun thing to do. But it isn’t. They have no idea the impact that can have on the person in question and what it can leed them to do.

According to The Independent forty five per cent of young people aged thirteen to eighteen year olds have experienced bullying in their lives, and as a result ten percent of teenagers have attempted to commit suicide because they have been bullied. It is my personal opinion, that more needs to be done in schools to both one, stop the bullying before it gets to the point where the victim feels they have no other option and two the signs of someone who needs help and support. Nine times out of ten, if you ask the young person if they are okay. Then your probably going to get the response of “I’m fine” or “I just have things on my mind.” If your gut tells you something deeper is going on then follow it up and take it to someone higher.

I know this post has been more about a statement and less of a review, but I felt after watching this film that I needed to write something about it and try and get people in authority to do something more about it. Please ‘share’ this post around and comment on what you think should be done to help. Then maybe just maybe we might get the word out.

On the subject of social media, I have my own Facebook and Twitter page so please go ahead and like and follow them both. As new posts will be posted there first before anywhere else. Links will be posted below.

Information on people you can talk to:

For Over 18′s: The Samaritans: Website: http://www.samaritans.org/  Telephone: 116 123

For Under 18′s: Childline: Website: https://www.childline.org.uk/Pages/Home.aspx                                     Telephone: 08000 1111

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The VI Critic

Wicked The Musical – The Untold Story of The Witches Of Oz!

/ thevicritic / Leave a comment

Hi,

Warning before I start, this will be quite a long post, so grab a drink or something first! 🙂

This post is the one I’ve wanted to write about since I started this blog. But never thought I would be writing it so soon! Like I have said before I am a massive fan of musical theatre, and Wicked The Musical is my most favourite musical of all time! After seeing the performance today, I have seen the show I total of six times. The seventh coming in a couple of weeks!

After a what seemed to be a forever bus ride. I arrived to my local train station on time and got the train to London. Once arrived in London I took the Underground to London Victoria. Normally I would get assistance to use the Underground, but I knew the route so I done it on my own. Wicked is performed at the London Apollo Victoria, just a few yards (across the road) from Victoria station, so it’s really easy to get to. The tickets I had I bought were Row B (second row) in the Stalls. For anyone who doesn’t know, the Stalls are the first block of seats nearest to the stage. But the original seats were slightly off to the right and therefore were block by part of the stage set.

I knew this would be somewhat of a problem for me, so I tried to phone the theatre directly first thing this morning with no success. I message them on social media, but again with no success so my hopes were not too high. So when I arrived at the theatre, I went straight to the box office and explained my situation. I said that I did not booked the tickets myself and that I was visually impaired so I would struggle to see the show and that I need to be more central to stage to have the best view. The lady who was service me took the tickets I had bought with me and went to the back. A few seconds later, she came back and said that wouldn’t be a problem and let me choose where I wanted to sit.

Photo: View of the stage before the show from my seat.

I must point out, that on the day I got lucky and there were seats availble that best fit me. But any reading please bare in mind, that when you go and ask for your seat to be changed if needed. The theatre might not be able to do so. It honest just depends on the day and time of the performance. Anyway, the gave me seat C25 which was three rows back from the stage and dead centre. I honestly couldn’t ask for any better!

A bit of backstory about the show, everyone knows the story of The Wizard of Oz? Well, the show is all about The Wicked Witch of the West and what happened before the Wizard of Oz story. The show opened London’s West End in 2006, and has been going every since. It will celebrate its ten years anniversary this year. The show has had a new cast every year, but the cast you were on stage this afternoon and the current cast are as follows: Emma Hatton as Elphaba, Savannah Stevenson as Glinda and Oliver Savile as Fiyero.

I would go so far to say, that this is honestly the best cast I have ever seen by far! The vocal performances off all three actors/actresses, were outstanding! I also got luckily enough to meet Emma at the stage door after the show (photo below) I actually didn’t recognise her at first without all the green! But honestly I really talented and lovely lady!

I would highly recommend Wicked to anyone!! If you ever get a chance to go seriously go! The website and trailer of the show will be below. I can honestly say now, this will NOT be the last time I see this show! I will go and see this show a thousand times more I am sure!

If have got this far, when well done! I am sorry this was such a long post, but I don’t think I would be going this show justice if I didn’t Thank for reading this, and I hope you come back for more next time!

Website of the show: http://www.wickedthemusical.co.uk/wicked-london.php

Full trailer below:

The VI Critic