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The
Edinburgh Fringe
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Fringe 2001 Reviews (2)Dangle in the Dust Playing to an audience of two is something that happens to a large number of Fringe shows at some time in their run and, although feared if not expected, must be disheartening. Playing a comedy in an almost empty theatre has got to be particularly difficult: where roars of laughter from a full house drive you forward, no matter how much an audience of two may be enjoying themselves, they don't give the cast much feedback. Certainly Lobster Productions deserved better for Dangle in the Dust. This black comedy is set in the changing room of a professional rugby club somewhere in England. Young John Foster, a newcomer to the club - "an investment in the future", the club chairman calls him - has the chance of gaining an England cap. Will he take the illegal performance-enhancing drug offered him by the club's physio? Writer Ken Reay, a former rugby player, uses the situation as a metaphor for the temptation of the greedy, with the physio a suitably devilish character - or is he the devil himself? Iain Cunningham is a suitably confused Foster - innocent, wanting to succeed but not knowing what to do for the best - whilst Wayne Miller has great fun bawling out foul language and even fouler rugby songs as the aging Einstein, whose reward for years of unquestioning loyalty to the club is replacment by Foster and a transfer to lowly West Hartlepool. And Darren Palmer, who also directed, is beautifully slimy as the physio/Lucifer. It's funny, shocking and thought-provoking, and deserving of a much bigger audience. Diatribe of Love Marquez is best known as a novelist, winner of the 1982 Nobel Prize for Literature, but he did write one play, Diatribe of Love, a one-woman piece, which is well suited to Linda Marlow. It lays bare the thoughts of a woman whose marriage began in passion and now, on the day of her Silver Wedding anniversary, she looks back on how everything has turned to ashes, thanks to a philandering husband and selfish son. Following the success of Berkoff's Women, Linda Marlowe presents us with yet another tour de force: her voice, her face, her body, are all deeply expressive, but, above all, she is a mistress of silence: her long, long pauses say more than hundreds of words and minutes of business from most actors. A definite "must" for Fringe-goers. The Matchmaker What a joy this is! Dicky Mick Dicky O'Connor, a farmer of Spider's Well in the Listowel area of Ireland, after some success with another local farmer, finds himself in demand as a matchmaker, "willing and able to perform services for those in a single or widowed state, to wit the making out of a marriage partner for those as require some of their free will and consent." Through the medium of letters from the other characters to Dicky Mick Dicky and his replies, we hear of the success or otherwise of his matchmaking for a most delightful set of strange characters, from a local widow of more than sixty years who describes herself as being "over forty", to a member of the local (very minor) aristocracy who actually prefers boys but does need a wife. All the parts are played by Anna Manahan (who won a Tony for The Beauty Queen of Leenane) and Des Keogh. A change of cap, stance and voice, and each character appears before our eyes in all his or her glorious eccentricity. And we, the audience, laughed and chuckled throughout the entire hour and three-quarters. It's what I would describe as "gentle comedy": Keane pokes fun at the foibles of his characters, but it is satire without malice. He writes from the point of view of someone inside the society he portrays and, beneath the laughter, there is a real affection for and understanding of these rather sad people. The play is an adaptation by Phyllis Ryan of Keane's novella Letters of a Matchmaker. Fern Hill & Other Dylan Thomas There's nothing wrong with a bit of self-indulgence now and again (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!), and that's what Guy Masterson's Fern Hill is, for him, for me and for the rest of the audience. Basically Masterson stands and performs some of Dylan Thomas' poems and short stories, peppering the performance with some personal comments and remarks. It's not great theatre - to be honest, I'm not even sure we should be calling it theatre at all - but it is a very enjoyable hour and a quarter. Masterson's love of the material shines through - and interestingly, as the programme progresses, the Welsh cadences and vowels grow stronger as Thomas' words work their magic. The programme illuminates the versatility of the great Welsh writer, from the contemplative Poem in October, through the rhetoric of And Death Shall have No Dominion and the anguish of Do Not Go Gentle, to the comic joyousness of A Child's Christmas in Wales. I enjoyed myself! Next page - - - Index |
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