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The
Edinburgh Fringe
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Fringe 2003 Reviews (9)Cyril's Little Moments of Weakness
and Strength This is a beautiful little piece that, like Garner's award-winning Silent Engine last year, gets under the skin of real people. It is both poignant and funny despite apparently limited material. Cyril, played by Jeffrey Mayhew who also directs, has a lot to put up with. He looks after his elder brother, Josh (David Williams). This may not sound too great an imposition but Josh is confined to a wheelchair and blind. The relationship between the two is crafted with real love. Their tetchy bickering and considerate moments are equally believable and each knows all too well when he is winding the other up. The frustrations of both are manifest. The only entertainment that Josh has, other than irritating his brother, is listening to reports of football matches. He has a bank of 500 and knows them by heart. Cyril, who dislikes football, has to feed this need by attending games between the likes of Erith and Welling or in the local pub league, to create some excitement for Josh. He would rather be tending his fuschias. Their stable lives are thrown into turmoil when Cyril, hardly the master of the chat-up line, meets a schoolteacher, Janie Booth's Alice, and invites her home. The reactions of all three to this strange situation are both inevitable and tear-provoking. For anyone that has looked after an infirm relative or watched anyone doing it, Cyril will be extremely familiar. All three actors are excellent, particularly Williams, eyes screwed shut, and like Silent Engine, this touching drama is a gem. The Seagull When one is visiting four or five shows a day, occasionally the raison d'être can disappear from view. A superlative production like Peter Stein's version of The Seagull cleans the palate wonderfully. The enthusiasm for theatre floods back and the next thirty shows become tempting. Stein has a reputation as one of the great theatre directors working today. This is enhanced when you can call on the kind of dream cast that he is presented with here. He also has a fantastic vision that ensures that beautiful images abound. He uses a 20' high widescreen monitor to generate images and add a special visual quality, not least of light. At the start, it gradually darkens as Kostya's play is produced. Later it adds degrees of pathetic fallacy with skies blue, then spectacularly stormy. The final coup is when the sky turns red to symbolise the final tragedy. The list of good performances is almost too long for a single review. Fiona Shaw's Arkadina, brightly clad in red dress and dark blue scarf, is massively expressive, perhaps a touch too much so on occasion. Michael Penington's doctor is all patient reason, observing the action rather than taking part. Ian Glen's immoral Trigorin is a trifler who effortlessly brings unhappiness to satisfy a whim. The younger members of the cast all demonstrate the ways in which love makes one yearn desperately for what can never be. Jodhi May, the beautiful white seagull, comes into her own as Nina when she returns in black shame. Cillian Murphy, so far from his last Edinburgh role in Disco Pigs, strolls unhappily around longing for his lost love, while Charlotte Emmerson's Masha marries unhappily in an effort to suppress her passion for Kostya. All three give humanity to their characters. The cast is greatly helped by both set and costume designers (Ferdinand W\'f6gerbauer and Anna Maria Heinreich) and director. Everything looks wonderful under A.J. Weissbard's thoughtful lighting and the big screen. Stein is particularly strong on gesture and body language. This is most apparent as first Arkadina and then Nina are seen floating around like seagulls. It is greatly to be hoped that this production will be given the opportunity to tour widely. It is very special. |
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