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The
Edinburgh Fringe
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Fringe 2003 Reviews (1)Cheek Cheek is all about the "builders from hell". It takes its name from the "builder's bum", what is revealed when someone bends over in low-cut jeans. A recurring theme is a radio phone-in programme, hosted by an hysterical woman with an Irish accent, in which people complain about these builders. It is listed under Comedy in the Fringe programme.. It consists of a string of songs and "comic" dances, interspersed with the builders' tea breaks, each containing one of the phone-in extracts. It is a two-hour show. Half an hour into the first half, about ten people walked out. After the interval, a fair number did not return. I did because I'm a reviewer. I needn't have bothered: the second half was just more of the same. And what was that? Derivative music, weak comedy, "funny" dances, excruciatingly embarrasing radio interludes. One to avoid! Peter Lathan Only the Lonely "Is there nothing that man can't do?" a woman ahead of me asked her husband as we left. Fair comment! If that was his bent, Pip Utton could take on the likes of Rory Bremner and other impressionists at their own game and they'd have a job keeping up, but he wants to do more than that. He explores the feelings and motivations below the surface: he tries, in fact, to understand. His persona in this his latest show is Dave Williams - Troy Orbison, a Roy Orbison lookalike. Utton's performance as Orbison is, as we have come to expect over the years, impeccable, but it is his dissection of Dave Willimas, who has, he says, "enjoyed being Troy far more than I've ever enjoyed being Dave Williams," that is the heart of the piece. He does it simply through monologue: in the beginning conversations with his off-stage wife and, later, talking directly to the audience. But Only the Lonely is more than a character study: it is also a study of the nature of celebrity and of those who thirst for it. Utton's shows are always deceptively simple, and this is no exception. As the woman said: is there nothing that man can't do? Peter Lathan Some Kind of Love Story This is a little-known "short" from Arthur Miller, one of those little gems which the Fringe occasionally throws up. It's a two hander - nicely played by Claire Cordier and Eddie Holmes - and deals with an odd kind of love affair between a private detective and schizophrenic whore, who is, she claims, a prime witness in a case which he believes to have been a miscarriage of justice. Nothing is resolved here. We don't find out if she actually does have the information he needs, nor do we discover if he will, as he threatens, abandon her. We see a snapshot of their "some kind of love story", a snapshot that we gather has been played out before and is destined to be played out again, and again. It's an interesting piece, and one that was definitely well worth reviving. Peter Lathan |
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