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Reviews from the Edinburgh International Festival 2005 (2)
Nuts CocoNuts
By Jordi Milán (La Cubana)
The Out of the Blue Drill Hall
*****
Among Fringe-goers the International Festival has the reputation of
being solemn, serious and pretentious. Those who have that idea should
get themselves along Leith walk to the Drill Hall in Dalmeny Street
to see Nuts CocoNuts. Their eyes will be opened.
Nuts CocoNuts is as funny as the best the Fringe can produce
with the added advantage of very high production values: set, costumes
and superlative acting.
It is difficult - nay, impossible - to say much this production without
giving away something that would spoil it for someone who is going to
see it, so all I can in all conscience do is select bits and pieces,
so if this review feels disjointed, please forgive me.
We are watching a production by the Gibraltar Follies Variety Theatre
Company, old fashioned variety of the kind that we oldies used to enjoy
on Saturday Night at the London Palladium, except that here we
have chorus boys as well as chorus girls. And most of them are, it has
to be said, a little past their best. Indeed, there are very few on
the stage who will see forty again and most of the bodies, both male
and female, carry rather more flesh than the Television Toppers - or
their inspiration, the Las Vegas/Moulin Rouge dancers - would ever countenance.
With pasted-on smiles which rarely reach the eyes (or, in the case of
chorus boy René (played by Carlos Blanco), any part of his face
other than his mouth and over-heavy make-up (particularly on the boys),
they evoke the wannabe (or perhaps has-been) "stars" of that
era.
But all is not what it seems, and there I will draw a
veil over the show, except to advise that you arrive early rather than
on time.
The above not withstanding, the performances, by an international
cast of eleven, are superb, as they play a variety of very different
characters. See it!
Peter Lathan
The Seagull
By Anton Chekhov
Krétakör Színház, Budapest
The Hub
****
Three and a half hours of Chekhov in Hungarian with cramped seating
in a hot hall may not be everybody's cup of tea. When it is an import
that represents the country's finest, the discomfort is worth it.
The language problem is overcome by providing a simultaneous translation
by the excellent Anna Lengyel. This is delivered in a flat monotone
and takes a little getting used to. Unlike surtitles, it allows audience
members who have no Hungarian to watch the actors throughout. The disadvantage
is that by the end, you may well have sore ears.
Árpád Schilling's staging is also unusual and could not
be further from Peter Stein's Fstival offering two years ago. The space
is part of a converted church, brightly painted but very ornate.
The premise appears to be that we are witnessing actors having a full
run through of The Seagull in a rehearsal room. The costumes
are non-existent and actors appear from the audience and act everywhere
including the space behind the seating, organised around a thrust space.
All of this means that it does take time to "tune in" to
the acting and the play. Once you do so, you realise that you are witnessing
something quite special. Both the translation and body language make
concessions to modernity and this gives the play a contemporary feel.
Nothing can get in the way of the actors and they are forced to convey
the story without any outside assistance from set, costume or props.
Indeed, the setting is if anything a hindrance.
At its best, this production gets to the essence of Chekhov's group
of unhappy people. This is not so much a tale of love triangles as pentangles
or whatever comes next.
Handsome young Kostya (Zsolt Nagy) wants two things in life, to become
a writer and to marry Nina (Annamária Láng). She in turn
wants to be an actress and to live with Trigorin (Tilo Werner). He is
a famous writer and attached to the much older Arkadina (Eszter Csákányi),
Kostya's mother and a famous actress. This miser can neither accept
her age nor offer support to her son or brother.
As if this wasn't enough, Masha (Lilla Sárosdi), the estate
manager's daughter, worships Kostya but, accepting her unhappy lot,
marries teacher Semyon (Lásló Katona). That pretty much
just leaves Petrusha (József Gyabronka), a Chekhovian archetype
rather like Uncle Vanya; and a doctor-observer Sándor Terhes,
who may owe something to the playwright, a man who also practised medicine.
The interval comes late in proceedings and afterwards, we see how matters
and lives have developed over the following couple of years. It is very
much life as usual for all except Nina, the tragic Seagull whose hopes
have come to nought and is close to a desperate madness.
This Seagull is superbly acted and feels nothing like its three
and a half hours. This is a great compliment to Árpád
Schilling and his well-drilled cast.
Philip Fisher
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