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The
Edinburgh Fringe
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Fringe 2000 Reviews (11)Picasso's Women: Dora For me this is the least successful of the four plays, which is surprising because there was more dramatic incident in Dora Maar's life than in any of the others', save, perhaps, for Jacqueline's suicide. A very highly regarded artist in her own right, she did have a tendency towards emotional instability which Picasso exploited and which led to her having electric shock treatment ("All his women got shock treatment," she says ironically) and being committed to an asylum. She chose him, she says, something which she had in common with Francois and Jacqueline. He expected pretty women to be gullible and vacuous, she tells us, but she was determined to be his equal. This was something that Picasso could not accept. The overall impression left on me by Toyah Wilcox' performance, surprisingly, was one of cheerfulness. This was partially due to her movement which had a kind of bounce to it which did seem somewhat inappropriate. There was, at times, a definite clash between what was happening on stage and the words. I was reminded frequently of Amanda Harris' performance as Francoise. The two characters did have a lot in common, of course: both were talented artists in their own right and both were determined to take Picasso on, as it were, but somehow Ms Wilcox' performance just did not gell with the words. Sincerity Sincerity begins very promisingly: a famous vaudeville comedian has died and his agent, Abe Froman, is speaking at his funeral. The speech, in American-Jewish-Vaudeville style, is full of wicked one-liners and is a real delight. Froman is played by writer Peter Morris and he certainly gets the best out of his own lines! The scene then moves to his office and the play begins to falter a little. Froman remains very funny but the other two characters, Skip (a stripper who won't take his clothes off) and Flo (a talking mime artist), simply don't have the strength to carry the play, in spite of valiant performances by Martin Roe and Muffy Marraco. The whole play is dedicated to the proposition by Oscar Wilde that "All bad art is sincere" and Morris attempts to prove this by showing the sincere but appalling act created by Skip and Flo. The trouble is, we don't care enough about the characters to be bothered about what happens to them. Skip, in paricular, is too much of a stereotype: gay, sincere and a pain in the rear end. Their dreadful performance goes on too long: here, unfortunately, Morris is making his point with a sledgehammer when a lighter touch would have been much more effective. Stil, the play does has its moments - Flo ringing the Nobel Foundation to ask for a Nobel Prize application form and beginning her conversation with "I think Abba is wonderful", for instance - but there are also longueurs and, after the first ten minutes, they tend to predominate. There is no doubt that Morris has a real writing talent. He has had a lot of success in the past - awards from the "Sunday Times", five stars from the "Scotsman" and the 1998 International Student Playscript Award - and this play has some lovely moments, but overall it disappointed. Bearing Gifts Another play written by a (recently graduated) student, but this one is much more serious in tone. It looks at giving to charity and the way charitable donations are used by the big organisations. Disenchanted by stories of waste, a group sets up The Little People, a charity which will aid refugees from war-torn Gorek, a fictional eastern European state which is suffering a civil war, and will deliver the aid directly to the people, missing out the middle-men. Inevitably it all ends in tears. An interesting idea, but the play is populated by stereotypes rather than real characters. The opening scene, for instance, in which the (wife of the) organiser of the charity gives a presentation to the audience, is played for laughs and the lady and her assistant are made to look foolish. If ever there was a case of telegraphing the ending, this was it! The Mayor of the town to which the refugees have escaped comes across as a daft foreigner and Therese, a French worker for the organisers of the distribution of aid is shown as so hard and sarcastic that one wonders how - and why - she ever became involved in charity work in the first place. The ending, as suggested above, was totally predictable. The performances - given the constraints of the writing - were never less than competent and Alexandra Nelte (Therese) gave many signs of having real potential. Not, I am afraid, one of the Mummers' best productions. Next page - - - Index |
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