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The
Edinburgh Fringe
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Fringe 2000 Reviews (8)Lulu Based on the plays of Wederkind, the film and the legend of Pandora, Lulu is a sung-through musical set in a smoky, plush and ever so slightly sleazy nightclub reminiscent of the Berlin of the thirties. The whole thing is superbly put together: actor/singers, band, setting and lighting all combine to tell the story of Lulu from her discovery as a nightclub singer to her death in London at the hands of Jack the Ripper. At times, it has to be said, the sound balance was a little iffy in ensemble numbers, but generally the whole thing worked really well. The songs, ranging from the Berlin cabaret style to country and western (!) are tuneful with the arrangements being very appropriate to the situation and the plot, and the lyrics are tightly written, so that they carry the plot forward and create the right atmosphere. It is difficult to fault the performances and the musicians are very accomplished, and the device of having a smooth-voiced blind pianist (shades of Ray Charles!) as the narrator gives an extra dimension to the piece. If I have a criticism - and I have! - it's of the advertising, not of the show itself. It is the attempt to tie the piece to the Pandora myth that I object to, for it simply doesn't work. Lulu is, perhaps, an icon of sexuality (athough this Lulu is not the young innocent of Spring Awakening), but the Pandora story is about more than sex. It is the Greek version of the Fall: the opening of her box releases all kinds of evil into the world. To try to link the two is to make a spurious attempt to give the piece a depth it neither warrants nor needs. In its own terms it's a good show. Let's leave it at that. Picasso's Women: Francoise Francoise Gilot, herself a talented artist, met Picasso in 1943, bore him two children (Claude and Paloma) and left him in 1953, the only woman ever to leave him. Francoise saw Picasso as "the man who would give me the key to the doors of perception." She says that for a long time she saw "the artist, not the man", and it was his art rather than his fame or wealth that attracted her. In some ways - if it isn't irreverant, and, even if it is, one feels she would approve - their "courtship" was a perfect illustration of the old song, "A man chases a woman till she catches him"! It was, she says, a game, a game she was determined to win. Amanda Harris plays Francoise with a lightness which is echoed in her movements. After the differing but nonetheless intimidating intensity of Jacqueline and Olga, we cannot help but feel that in this woman Picasso had met his match. Evidently he did too, for after she left him and married another artist, he had both of them - or, at least, their work - blacklisted throughout the galleries of Europe. "When Pablo paints," she said, "he paints with other people's blood." In spite, however, of this petty revenge, one feels that Francois was the real winner, even though she was excoriated by critics when she published her book in which she tried, as she says, to understand Picasso, to separate him from the adulatory flattery of others. "Wasn't I just a woman?" she asks. "A tart? Whose talents were of no value?" Another play well worth going out of your way to see! All Words for Sex As I have remarked elswhere, there are countless one-woman shows at this year's Fringe, but none of them, not even the superb Picasso's Women series or Madeleine Sami's tour de force in No. 2, comes up to the standard of this. The scene is a therapist's office and we watc ash four women, one after the other, open their souls to Nigel, the therapist. There's high-powered businesswoman Imogen who is proud that she has, for once, resisted the temptation to "shag one of my boys", one of the men who work for her. There's frigid, terrified Marion. There's cheerful Scouser Paula who was abused by her father as a child. And finally there's Beth, who was raped. Each is an individual, not only in conception but also in the performance, so much so that it would be very easy to assume that they are played by different actresses. But they have one problem in common, even though they may not recognise it as a problem. And the problem is sex: where are the boundaries - are there any boundaries? - in a society in which women are not so much sexually emancipated as sexually empowered? When Imogen feels the need to "shag all her boys", is she not just adopting what was formerly thought a man's role? If Marion submits to her husband's need for sexual intercourse even though reluctant, is she being raped? And when the young Paula consented to her father's abuse because she felt sorry for him, was it abuse? These short monologues give us much food for thought, as well as providing entertainment through the astute characterisation and first-class acting, but, just in case we forget what can happen, after the final scene, in which Beth describes how she was raped and the effect it has had upon her, we are left shocked and sickened, moved to such an extent that as an audience we were unable to do anything but gasp for a moment or two after the scene ended. Next page - - - Index |
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