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The
Edinburgh Fringe
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Fringe 2003 Reviews (19)Kvetch It is almost unprecedented to get a school production that really grasps the imagination. Theatre Vivant's hilarious production of Kvetch, featuring a cast of seventeen year olds, is the exception. The cast is led by a Berkoff in the making, Robin Green playing Frank, a weak Jewish patriarch. This is a man who cannot express his feelings to his family and friend. However, being Berkoff, he does pour his inner feelings out to the audience in a massively overblown physical style. Frank lives with his wife, Natalie Foster as the "desirable" but unfulfilled Donna, and her constantly belching mother played by Scott Sturgess. This unhappy family takes a step or two into the unknown when Daniel Sharman's Hal, a colleague of Frank's, turns up for a dinner that no one wants. The dinner is extremely funny as we hear both what is said and what the characters are actually thinking, all delivered with arm's flying and frozen pauses. This is a credit to director, David Proudlock, who has successfully drilled his cast to imitate the original production. The tension drops a little as both Frank and Donna embark on affairs but, inevitably, they all live happily ever after (well perhaps). The cast contains a number of actors who are talented well beyond their ages and can unreservedly be recommended for entertainment value. Blowing It The idea of another look at the cops and drug scene may seem to be a pretty dried up source for new material but I’m sure that there is an aspect still new and fresh out there waiting. Sadly, you won’t find it here. Stephen Papps and Stephen Sinclair explore the fate of a undercover cop on the hunt for a really big take, manages to infiltrate a biker gang only to end up sampling the merchandise too heavily and too often. Mike (Papps), in the requisite black tee and black jeans, enters the biker bar of focus, trying to look like he is not out of place when we hear from his thoughts that he feels very out of place. Much alcohol is quickly consumed; “beer, beer, beer, shot, shot“. “Validated” by Titch, the prairie rat of the group, he slowly climbs up the ladder of accountability past Cheryl, a "Dolly Parton type in white jeans, white boots” to Weasel, Cheryl’s ex, the head of the gang and subject of the bust. There is an unending parade of interesting characters, well conceived and defined, but this is the Chinese food of the theatrical menu. Although the material is funny and well written by the Stevens, well directed by one (Sinclair), and performed by the other (Papps), no new ground is broken. Been there, done that. Cleansed It didn't seem likely that a small company would ever bring any of Sarah Kane's first three plays to Edinburgh as they are almost impossible to stage. However, Androgynous who produced a stylish version of Caryl Churchill's This is a Chair last year have come up trumps. This is a brave attempt at what is arguably Sarah Kane's most brutal play. The original production at the Royal Court proved so hard on the actors that Miss Kane herself had to understudy as Grace for a couple of weeks. It also tested the audience's collective stomach to the limit and beyond. This new production by a young company is incredibly brave and while not quite as effective as the original, it packs a real punch as bodies and minds are mutilated on stage. The play is set in some kind of psychiatric institution where torturing the patients is the norm. This is ruled over by the cruel and very mysterious Tinker (Lachlan McCall). When Grace's brother Graham (Owen Lloyd) dies there, she demands to see his clothes and soon tries to take on his persona, in the process "adopting" the backward Robin (Will Emsworth). There has often been debate about the real meaning of Miss Kane's plays and inevitably, that is coloured by her early death. Cleansed is primarily about the success and failure of people to communicate and the symbolic muteness of characters with their tongues ripped out silently speaks volumes. It also looks at love and people's ability to survive almost anything. The other theme is identity, with Grace, a fine performance from Nicola Brown, seemingly represented by three actors and swapping places and clothes with others. Her main goal is to become her brother which she ultimately does. Some of the staging is unforgettable, in particular the whipping scenes, cut down to avoid backlash in the audience, and the mutilations. This production always holds the attention and being stylised, is not so gruesome that one cannot watch. Androgynous have done a great job with a difficult play and are a company to follow. |
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