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The
Edinburgh Fringe
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Fringe 2001 Reviews (1)Entangled Lives It may be considered slightly odd to begin our 2001 Fringe coverage with this show. After all, this site is About British Theatre and the show is a physical theatre piece based on a French poem, with an international cast, which is performed in seven different languages by a company based in London (although it has a French name), dedicated to developing the work of a Frenchman, Etienne Decroux! But what is more appropriate to the Edinburgh Fringe? The poem is about the constant dialogue between the conscious and the unconscious, and Entangled Lives uses video projection, the spoken word and highly expressive movement to explore the thoughts of its characters. It's an odd and intriguing piece which challenges one's conceptions,not only of theatre but of contemporary dance too. Indeed, I felt that someone who had no previous experience of theatre might be better placed to fully follow it than someone (like myelf!) who automatically tries to fit it within a preconceived notion of what theatre is all about. In spite of the seriousness of its subject matter,it is not without humour. In fact, like most good mime (it is described, incidentally, as "corporeal mime"), it makes good use of the absurd. The performances are superb: the complete physical control of each member of the cast speaks volumes for their dedication and training. And if I was left - as I have to confess I was - a little puzzled about just what was happening, I did come away with a tremendous admiration for their technique and command of their medium. Falsettoland Marvin and his wife Trina have split up, because he has discovered he is gay. However he is now split up from his lover, Whizzer, and his wife has married Mendel, his psychiatrist. Now his 13-year old son Jason's Bar Mitzvar is approaching and the lesbian couple from next door want to do the catering. It could go any way, couldn't it? Tragedy. Comedy. Sentimental melodrama. And so it does - all of them! And to cap it all, it's a musical! It was premiered off-Broadway in 1990, where it gained two Tony nominations, and this production received the Cameron Mackintosh Award for Outstanding Contribution to Musical Theatre and its director, Jamie Lloyd, the Buzz Goodbody Director Award at this year's National Student Drama Festival in Scarborough in April this year. It's a "chamber" musical, which means that there is none of the spectacle or special effects which have become typical of much of the musical theatre of the past decade or so: the piece has to engage the audience directly through the performance. Director Jamie Lloyd gets the best out of a talented cast (of which he is a part, playing the son, Jason), and plays the audience like a virtuoso musician plays his instrument, moving us from laughter to tears and back again numerous times. The (smallish - after all, it was the first day of the Fringe) audience thoroughly enjoyed the performance and I saw tears in quite a few eyes as we left. A thoroughly engaging and enjoyable performance, and Lloyd is a definite talent to look out for in the future. The Age of Consent Age of Consent is a two-hander about children who are not allowed to be children. Stephanie (Katherine Parkinson) is the single mother of 6-year old Racquel, whom she is driving to become a child theatrical star, whilst Timmy (Ben Silverstone) is a very young man about to be released after serving a sentence for a murder committed when he was a child. The play's structure is simple: the characters alternate, telling their story directly to the audience from a chair placed centre stage. This, of course, means that the performances have to be spot-on: we must be totally convinced by the characters from beginning to end. Parkinson and Silverstone succeed admirably: the weakness, for me, was in the writing. It is, I think, rather over-written. There were moments where it definitely sagged and would benefit from some judicious cutting. Morris does labour the point somewhat. Let Me Out!!! "An x-rated ventriloquial farce" is how the Fringe programme describes Let Me Out!!!, and that, together with Ken Campbell's name, was enough for me to decide that this was one show not to be missed. It wasn't till I got to the venue that I discovered that the actress performing the show, Nina Conti, is in fact Tom Conti and Kara Wilson's daughter. She tells the story about how, after one RSC performance, Cicely Berry took her to one side and , "Darling, there are two kinds of voices. One I can listen to, and the other I just shut off. Now make yours one I can listen to." She told Ken Campbell who suggested she take up ventriloquism. She did so; he wrote the play, and now it's playing in Edinburgh, having previewed at the Gate in Notting Hill in July. Along with co-stars the professor (an off-stage voice), Gladly ("my cross-eyed bear", of course!), a sock which plays Cleoptra's asp (Conti: "Be angry and dispatch." Sock: "What does that mean?" C: "Bite my tits." S: "It's a good part, the asp"), a morosely sex-mad Indian monkey, the devilish Jack (another puppet), a massive Ken Campbell lookalike and two invisible bogeymen (which take up residence in her nose), she kept the audience in stitches from beginning to end. Not great art, true. Not even great theatre. But definitely great entertainment. Conti does Campbell's typically zany script full justice. You can't ask for any more than that! Next page - - - Index |
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