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The
Edinburgh Fringe
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Fringe 2001 Reviews (10)Embryonic Dreams Embryonic Dreams was a great hit with the audience. It had so much: good quality video, juggling, acrobatics, shadow theatre, mime, dance, and fantastic use of fibre-optics, both in the costumes and the set. Wonderful spectacle! But that's all it was. It was great to look at, but ultimately said nothing except, "Wow! look at this!" The two stars are for its undoubted impact and the skill and technique of its creators/performers. C'est magnifique - but it's not theatre. Catastrophe I cannot get away with Beckett. Apart from Waiting for Godot, his work remains a mystery to me. I went to the Komedia's St Stephens venue for two reasons: first, because one of the best (according to me) actors we have, George Dillon, was playing and second, in the hope that I would have a sort of Road to Damascus experience and suddenly appreciate Beckett in all his glory. I didn't. The performances, by Dillon, Denise Evans and Mark Hewitt, were everything any director could want - superbly controlled, every word as clear as a bell, every movement precise and on the mark - but I still found that the plays said nothing to me. Correction: two of the plays said nothing to me; one whispered a bit but I couldn't quite catch what it was saying. The performance consisted of three plays: Rockaby, in which a woman sits in a rocking-chair and her thoughts are spoken over the PA system, interrupted occasionally by a sound rom off- or a few words from on-stage; Ohio Impromptu, in which two long-haired, gowned men sit at a table while one reads aloud at the gestured instructions of the other; and Catastrophe itself, in which a director positions a still figure, making small adjustments until he is satisfied that he has a figure which represents "catastophe". The critic Michael Billington has described Ohio Impromptu as "brilliant minimalist theatre proving that Beckett uses the stage like a painter to create images that will haunt you to the grave." Minimalist is certainly the right word: I am tempted to say that it is only minimally theatre, but I just have to be honest with myself and say that the fault is almost certainly in me. We all have our blind spots and Beckett is one of mine. Take my star rating as a comment on the production values of the plays rather than on the plays themselves, and in that I count the sound and lighting. On the Fringe one becomes so innured to scratchy sound and "almost" lighting that to see both designed and operated with such superb precision in a non-theatre venue was an absolute joy. Kudos, then, to Jules Deering (sound) and Martin Chandler (lighting). Is there a "Teach Yourself to Appreciate Beckett" book out there anywhere? Antigone's Last Dance The young cast deserved something much better than this. Billed as "a multi-media dance rock opera" (which is a bit like waving a huge banner saying "Steer clear!"), this is an "adaptation" of Sophocles' tragedy. In fact, it adapts the tragedy to melodrama and the pathos to bathos. Maybe it wasn't treason (sings Haemon)and then, a little later, to Kreon: You're not acting like my dad Kreon is a comic-book villain, exulting in power for its own sake. There is even a suggestion that he fancies Antigone. The subtleties of the original (and of Anouilh's wartime version) are completely lost in a welter of banal lyrics, meaningless dance routines and repetitive unmemorable music. The cast worked hard and many showed signs of real talent - although diction was somewhat sloppy at times - but they would always struggle against materal which, quite frankly, was not worthy of them. As we left the theatre, the heavens opened and the most torrential rainstorm we've had for months soaked pedestrians to the skin in seconds. A comment from Olympus, perhaps? Next page - - - Index |
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