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The
Edinburgh Fringe
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Fringe 2002 Reviews (8)I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change Last year Falsettoland, this year 6 Women with Brain Death: this NSTC group has a lot to live up to. Does it succeed? Indeed it does, and the four rather than five star rating is to do with the piece rather than the performances, for they were uniformly excellent. Colin Kilbride, Hayley Doyle, Richard Michael-Morse and Siri Steinmo are enormously talented as actors and singers, and the energy and skill they deploy in this production are second to none. In fact, they are just a wee bit more assured and stagewise than their colleagues in 6 Women, but separating the two casts is a hard call. In fact, the two shows are very similar in construction: both are ensemble pieces, both a mixture of dialogue and music, both made up of short individual scenes. I Love You, however, doesn't, for me, quite reach the heights that 6 Women does: it is a little too long and one or two of the scenes are a little weak (again, I must emphasise, in the writing, not the performance). Still, it's a very entertaining late-night show and, if you're a music theatre fan, it definitely should be on your "must see" list. Peter Lathan Michelle and the Landlady I can't remember why I decided to see this play. Possibly it was just that there was nothing else in that particular time slot on that day at that venue (or one nearby) which appealed. Whatever the reason, it was pure serendipity. This happens at the Fringe: something that makes you think, "Oh, that might be OK" turns out to be an absolute joy. For Michelle and the Landlady is, without any doubt, an absolute joy. It's a two-hander in which a most unlikely pairing of characters - Sylvia, the pensioner landlady, and Michelle, the rebellious late teen - carry out the last wishes of one of Sylvia's favourite tenants - to be burned in a fire ship like he had seen once in a documentary about India. And they succeed! It's very tightly written - originally it was a Radio 4 Play for the Day - and cleverly too, for the absurdities (a pensioner and a teenager smuggling a body out of the house, in a body bag but wrapped - because Sylvia had seen it on TV - in a rug) seem so plausible. But credit for this must also be given to Helen Gould (Sylvia) and Caroline Rippin (Michelle) for flawless performances. Unfortunately it closes on 17th August, so you've only got four days left. See it! Peter Lathan Cargo This is one of those plays that you feel you really should like. It's a serious piece, dealing with an important topic (asylum seekers), and performed well by a talented cast. At the end of it all, however, I came away feeling not a little dissatisfied. At some point in the first twenty minutes I scribbled "worthy but wordy" in my notebook and nothing happened thereafter to change my opinion. It was, in fact, quite predictable. Four people are hiding in a lorry bound from Croatia to Britain: the wise older man (you know he's going to die), a couple (a brother and sister, which is a bit different), and a younger man who you know is going to cause friction with the male member of the couple. And by the halfway point you know they're all going to die. And so it turns out. In fact, this could be a good play, but it needs extensive rewriting. At the moment, it just doesn't grip as it should: I found my attention wandering and I don't think I'm kidding myself when I say that I sensed a similardisengagement in others in the audience. Peter Lathan The Al Hamlet Summit The story of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is well known in William Shakespeare's version. The equivalent Middle-Eastern version deserves wider acclaim. There is very little Shakespearean language and the plot has been hacked around. Even so, playwright/director Sulayman Al Bassam has managed to concoct a very intriguing thriller that tells his audience a great deal about society in the Middle East and shows how close it is in some ways to Elsinore. The cast of seven mostly sit at conference tables with their names in front of them. There is also a mysterious female arms dealer who drifts in and out of the action, becoming friendly with each of the other characters. Claudius and Gertrude have become leaders of a Gulf State which is threatened by Fortinbras. Young Hamlet, grieving for his father, plans insurrection. The politics and religion of the region are reasonably clearly delineated and the action is assisted by a video screen that often shows close ups of key protagonists before ultimately succumbing to war shots as Fortinbras invades. Neil Edmond makes a good (Al) Hamlet while Olivia Macdonald as Gertrude and Marlene Kaminsky as the international arms dealer also act their parts well. The live music on an assortment of instruments played by Lewis Gibson and Alfredo Gernovesi significantly enhances the experience. This is a well-written bit of fun with some deeper cultural messages. It does not add anything to the original but benefits from an oblique look at a familiar structure. It also benefits from incredibly high production qualities and will travel to Egypt once it leaves Edinburgh. Philip Fisher |
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