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The
Edinburgh Fringe
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Fringe 2002 Reviews (18)Messenger This production comes very close to getting it right. Set in an insane assylum, we see challenge the perception of what is real, what is believe, and what is the difference. It tries to be too obscure to focus of what the author wants to say to us. Catherine Lamm The Love of a Nightingale This is one of those real Fringe pleasures: a school's company that is exceptionally well directed, has some talented actors and puts on a really good production. Nightingale Productions, run by Robert Hersey, is based at The Westfield Girls School in Newcastle. They have brought this show up to Edinburgh in order to showcase the acting talents of their 17 and 18 year olds. The Love of a Nightingale is a very familiar Tale from Ovid that has been used by several playwrights. It tells the tragedy of the sisters, Philomel and Procne. They are happy young Athenian princesses who are beginning to grow into women. When Tereus of Thrace (Hannah Lucas) decides that he wants to take a wife, he asks their father for Procne's hand and takes her to Thrace where they have a son. Five years later, Procne (Holly Warden) is missing her sister and Tereus offers to return to Athens and bring her to visit. Through an incredibly realistic storm and then slow calm, the ship weaves towards Thrace. However, Tereus falls in love with Philomel, a particularly good performance from Suzi Howie, mirroring the passion that Phaedra felt for Hippolytus. He rapes her in a terrifying scene and then even more scarily rips out her tongue. The eventual cruel revenge of the sisters is reminiscent of the tragedy of Medea. Through well-drilled acting, a simple but effective set, attractive costumes (the Guess Jeans ignored!) and carefully selected music the tension builds to an exciting and moving finale. This is a real credit to director, Robert Hersey and to all involved in this excellent production. Philip Fisher Assassins Eyebrow Productions is an independent, student-run company based at Bristol University, but it is not entirely a student production: members of the cast are present and past members of the University. The opening was a bit rocky: voices sounded strained and a little tired, and the first soloist was having a bit of trouble getting to the high notes - he got there, but it was a struggle. My heart sank: was this a case of untrained voices being overworked? Then the Balladeer (Ed Handoll) began his first solo: his voice was easy and melliflous and, from that point on, the production just got better and better: the guy who had struggled a little hit his form, too. Like many of Sondheim's shows, Assassins is somewhat of an ensemble piece: there is no obviously star role, although there are some parts which could be termed minor. Minor, perhaps, but not - in this production, at any rate - weak. Two, however, stood out: Gunnar Cauthery as Charles Guiteau (who shot President James Garfield) was brilliant: his staring eyes made him look wonderfully mad and he acted every syllable of his words and every note and pause of the music. Andrew Lyon, who played the would-be assassin of Richard Nixon, Samuel Byck, also impressed, particularly in the spoken lines - another actor of no mean talent. If every actor had been up to the standard set by these two, this would have been a five star production. As it is, the amateur cast and the six-piece band (conducted by Musical Director Leigh Thompson) gave a packed house - including a, by this time, very tired reviewer - a great 100 minutes' entertainment. Esther Biddle, who both directed and designed the production, made excellent use of the almost postage-stamp thrust space of Old St Paul's. Peter Lathan Conjunto di Nero If you are a hard core dance junky. . .if you want more dance than in Swan Lake. . .if you need more choreography than The Nutcracker. . .if you long for the dance that makes your heart race and makes you hold your breath, than Emio Greco could well fit the bill. All of the textures (scenery, sound, music, lights) are important parts of the construction. But it is his choreography and his dancers that mesmerize. There are times during the evening when there was no sound, the occasional cough puntuating such silence, when you could hear the dancers' footfalls, breathing, panting, grunting with exertion. Some of these breath sounds were intentional, if for no other reason than to share time and rhythm. Conjunto di Nero (Conjunction of Black) defines the black and not black of movement, sound, and light. What one knows or understands as one watches is individual and, in the long run, unimportant. The act of giving oneself over is enough. Catherine Lamm |
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