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The
Edinburgh Fringe
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Fringe 2003 Reviews (23)Ideas Men David Woods & Jon Hough are at it again. They force us to look at ourselves in glaring neon with all our warts and ticks. And we love to hate it. Or hate to love it. I am going out on a limb here as I think the Ridiculusmus is so stuffed with ideas that audiences could take something different away, not unlike Samuel Beckett. If fact, they quote Beckett as inspiration; “To find a form that accommodates the mess, that is the task of the artist now.” And how! In this freeze-dried, economy sized society we get a distilled glimpse of the manners of the socialized being in the office environments of the “ad world“. More than come up with an idea, they hit all the marks of the day to day office lunacy. For example, they have barely got to their desks, a treat to watch, before starting to talk about lunch and leaving early. The whole day is peopled with exchanges of our most ridiculous moments. I recognized far too many. It’s the Marx Brothers doing CNN editorialising. And like Beckett, it's not material for everyone. Riduculusmus must find that it is preaching to choir. Cry Wolf Word had got around Edinburgh that this adaptation of the Little Red Riding Hood story was something special. Cornish company Kneehigh have joined up with eclectic musicians the Baghdaddies to create something really magical. They have turned the children's fairy tale into something dark and exciting. They use vibrant music of many types from jazz through Eastern European folk to Nick Cave-like rock and combine it with dance, movement, song and crazy imagination. The banter with the audience also adds to the experience. The cast, distinguished by the shoe brushes on their foreheads, come in with the crowd and use paying extras to hump some of the furniture. The look is also appealing. The overriding feel is of a silent movie with dark sunken eyes and the wolf in top hat and fur coat. This builds to the excitement of a wonderfully orchestrated final multimedia chase after the poor wolf. The acting is very good with Emma Rice bouncing around as the bloody wolf, Giles King playing a particularly raunchy Little Red Riding Hood and, as the programme says, Craig Johnson plays "Everyone else", not to mention the accordion. While children will probably love this show, there is no guarantee that they won't have nightmares for weeks. Some adults may have similar problems after seeing this very visually striking show. The man in the front row who caught Emma Rice after a stage dive will also long remember his visit. He will not be the only one. English Journeys This is a three-hander about post-natal stress and the effect that it has on both wife and husband. The action takes place during a series of car journeys. We see barrister Kathy (Julia Stubbs), who has gone AWOL after ten years of marriage. She is trying to come to terms with life now that little Harry is on the scene. At the same time, Pete (Graham Elwell), her husband, picks up a teenage runaway (Melissa D'Arcy) who wants to be a prostitute. He is tempted but cannot go through with things. The play also flashes back to the time when the couple were courting and shows the initial happiness before everything went sour. Too much of the writing and plotting of English Journeys is unoriginal and unexciting. This means that the predicaments of the three unhappy characters do not engage the audience. |
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