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The
Edinburgh Fringe
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Fringe 2000 Reviews (9)Techno-Frantic-Love The idea that human beings in a technological society will find it increasingly difficult to make contact with each other except through that technology is by now a cliche. I saw a couple walking along Princes Street here in Edinburgh hand in hand, each speaking into a mobile phone: call me cynical, but it was the most natural thing in the world for me to imagine that they were talking to each other. It's not even a new idea: in The Ghost in the Machine, written (I believe, but don't quote me on this) in the twenties, E. M. Forster posited a technologically advanced society in which no one ever left their rooms. So, add in modern and just-around-the-corner virtual reality, and you have what I imagine will be the subject matter of many plays and films in years to come. They are already here, of course, and one such is Techno-Frantic-Love. Eliza Wyatt gives the story a slight twist: the couple in the play are at home together one Saturday night for the first time for a long time. What shall they do? They are uneasily aware that their relationship is rocky, so what can they do to strengthen it? All they know is playing VR games and so they choose games through which they can make this contact. But, of course, the games haven't the flexibility to adapt to real human situations and so we are left with the feeling that, their fleeting moments of contact notwithstanding, the outlook is not promising. Lisa Barry and Richard Beaufort are convincing as the couple, and the production carries the piece along with a good sense of pace but ultimately we are left with the feeling that we'ver seen it all before. Americana Absurdum: Vomit and Roses How does this Masterson guy (unintentional pun!) do it? This is the third of his shows I've seen this Fringe, and the third to which I have no choice but to award five stars! Incredible. Vomit and Roses is a satirical look at life in America through some very extreme stereotypes. Perth's family has a successful funeral business which is threatened by a hostile take-over by a very big and nasty company. Their only hope is their lawyer Ermine Miami, but can they really trust him? Meanwhile the high school prom approaches and Perth's sister Kea can't get a date, because no one wants to date someone who lives in a funeral home. And things aren't made any better by the fact that mom so obviously enjoys messing around with their clients' internal organs. Along comes the soldier, a clean cut , all-American killing machine. Can he save the family business? Will he be Kea's prom date? This is an hilarious play, a send-up of everything American from family values to business to the military. But it's not a vicious satire: quite the contrary. It's like... like a caring father chastising his child to bring him back on the right road after he has wandered away from the proper path. See what I mean? Wow! I'm a satirist! The staging is simple but ingenious. The big nasty corporation, for instance, is represented by one man and two suits on hangers. The lighting comes from the kind of overhead spotlights you used to see in coffee bars on the end of long cables, and they are moved around the stage by actors not in the particular scene that is being played. Occasionally a torch (flashlight) is used. Great fun! Now I am disappointed I'll not be seeing the second of the Americana Absurdum plays, Wolverine Dream, but time, alas, does not allow. A Millennium Measure of Measure for Measure Fringe shows are rarely more than an hour and a half in length, so Shakespeare does need to be adapted to fit, and so the adapted title is, in fact, more honest than letting the original stand. This version of Measure for measure is set in the world of big business: the Duke becomes the MD, Angelo is his assistant, and the setting itself is hi-tech. Throughout the play the cast use mobile phones, hand-held and lap-top computers. When the Duke, as the Friar (here a management consultant!), presents Isabella with the alternatives to his plan to replace her with Marianna in Angelo's seduction, he uses a Powerpoint presentation projected onto the back wall of the set. The programme notes tell us that Every week, there are reports of failing businesses, sexual harassment in the workplace, ageism, dictatorial leadership and abuse of power.These are the themes of Measure for Measure, and so, we are told, the play lends itself to this kind of updating. But, of course, the acid test is whether or not the updating works. The answer here is "very nearly". Even though we may follow the programme notes' suggestion that we regard such things as the death penalty passed on Claudio as a metaphor, there are still moments where it didn't quite ring true to me. Perhaps I am wrong, perhaps in modern businesses consultants are regarded in much the same way as Elizabethans regarded priests, friars and monks, but I have to say that it was this disguise of the Duke which grated on me a little. However, to judge from the reactions of others in the audience, perhaps I am wrong. It helped, of course, that the designer and lighting designer had made excellent use of the comparatively limited facilities of the Hill Street Theatre very effectively to create exactly the right ambience, the right "feel" for a modern office. Generally, too, the performances were good and if, occasionally, the verse was sacrificed for characterisation, this is not necessarily a bad thing, but I still cannot accept Lucio's explanation to Isabella about her brother's impending death as a rap. It got a laugh, yes, but then so would hitting someone in the face with a wet fish. A definite lapse here, I feel, in an otherwise convincing production. Next page - - - Index |
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