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The
Edinburgh Fringe
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Fringe 2002 Reviews (7)The Secret Death of Salvador Dali
This surrealistic biography of Salvador Dali has already won a Fringe Award at the Adelaide Festival. You know that something odd is to come as you are welcomed by an angelic violinist suspended from the ceiling. He turns out to be a talented musician unnamed in the press release. The play is a two-hander starring Trevor Stuart and Julie Eckersley, not to mention a 20 foot long bean bag that shows remarkable versatility being death-bed, moustache and phallus inter alia. The premise behind The Secret Death is exactly the same as in the Catalan play, Daaali, which toured the world last year. The great man is on his deathbed and his life flashes before him in a very garbled dream-like form. We see his relationships with his parents and sister Ana Maria, greats like Lorca and Bunuel, not to mention Hitler and his great love and muse, Gala. All of this is accompanied with representations both verbal and visual of his greatest pieces. It is inevitable that in presenting Salvador Dali there will be much talk of sex and some powerful imagery. This play acts as a nice reminder of the artist's life and work but is fashioned far more as a memoir than a biography. Both Trevor Stuart and Julie Eckersley are remarkably energetic as they swap parts at great speed as the breathless pace and imagination of the playwright and his artistic hero sprint across the stage. Philip Fisher Safety Unlimited is one of the most exciting young theatre companies around. They have already won Fringe Firsts in each of the last two years and this year gain "promotion" to the Traverse Theatre. Safety is the second part of a trilogy that started with Static at the Pleasance a couple of years ago. The trilogy aims to bring to the fore the problems that are being suffered in war-torn countries and especially the Baltic states. Michael, played by Steven Dykes, is an internationally renowned war photographer who has gradually become desensitised to the brutality that he sees. His relationship with his wife, Susan (Bridget Escolme) and daughter Alice have become strained and he has turned to Louisa Ashley's gutter journalist, Tanya, for comfort. However, all that she can offer is the vision to understand him and his "art" too well. The stakes increase as Alice almost drowns under Michael's nose and is only rescued by Sean, a salt of the earth unemployed man. Playwright Chris Thorpe gives himself all of the funny lines as Sean, another person who can see through Michael. Ultimately, the play is about the way in which a man who is regarded as a hero who can end wars loses perspective on his life. He must lose everything and be confronted with his weakness before he can be persuaded to go back to his roots and a semblance of happiness. Under Jon Spooner's direction, Steven Dykes is particularly good as the photographer and the multi-media warzone scenes are terrifying. Despite the moving subject matter, there is a question about the sharpness of parts of this play when compared with its predecessors. It does, though have a surprising resonance that lingers with the viewer long after they have left the theatre. Philip Fisher Electra The tale of a family rife with hatred has been a staple classic for a couple of thousand years or so. Decoy Theatre is a company of teens who have set this version in Tsarist Russia. The stand out performance is by the talented Lydia Waine as the eponymous heroine. She conveys the grief and frustration of a woman who wishes to be avenged for the death of her father but is powerless to take the necessary action against her mother, Clytemnestra, and stepfather, Aegisthus. Her wish is for her brother, Orestes, to reappear as avenging angel. Her distress at the news of his purported death is touching to watch as is the subsequent realisation that the giant in front of her is actually her brother. There is a tendency for most members of Katherine Pottinger's staff to substitute volume for feeling on too many occasions, although John Bradley is a notable exception as the pedagogue. The direction can be a little static but much of the power of the tragedy comes through, especially as Miss Waine's Electra becomes increasingly hysterical and in the bloody denouement. Philip Fisher The Canterbury Tales: Tales from
the Decameron Cambridge University ADC have gone for a comic and subversive approach to the presentation of Chaucer and Bocaccio. They have taken eight tales and presented them in a variety of different theatrical styles. Perhaps inevitably, this means that there is an element of hit and miss, with far more of the former. The seven actors start off at a cracking pace with The Merchant's Tale starring Richard Crawley as the lecherous old man that decides to settle down with a young beauty - always a mistake. He is graphically cuckolded by his servant and sadly loses his sight in very dramatic fashion. The second tale also works well as The Wife of Bath becomes a carping split personality played simultaneously by Rachel Wilkinson and Katharine James. They assail their invisible husbands and the audience. The company progresses through several more tales using a combination of physical and verbal dexterity generally with humorous rather than serious intent. The star several times over is Edward Lake who ends with an excellent double act with Richard Crawley. This takes place in a finale that cleverly counterpoints tales of infidelity and suspicion from each of the collections. This is an entertaining, raunchy romp through the middle ages and at its best is of the highest quality. Philip Fisher |
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