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The
Edinburgh Fringe
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Fringe 2004 Reviews (4)Loaded Loaded is a one-man show that mysteriously gains a friend and becomes a two-hander, thanks to the efforts of the playwright and his director, Owen Lewis. What initially appears to be an homage from the gay San Franciscan Scott Capurro to cute murderers expands into a comic drama about his search for love and parental respect. While Capurro is in love with Ian Huntley and the Osmonds, the real object of his bizarre affections is Eric Menendez, a man who murdered the father that constantly abused him. Menendez looks uncannily like Chico Marx and the combination of looks and murderous instincts is enough to make maternal women and the gay men that don't worship Judy Garland, including the playwright, go weak at the knees. Capurro describes himself as "an out of work actor who tells dick jokes for a living". He also gets rather deeper when investigating his own contrary feelings about Eric Menendez and relating them to his long-standing failure to communicate with his father, now suffering from prostate cancer. In relating his story, writer picks on members of the audience. Eventually one joins him onstage in a variety of roles. This turns out to be Anorak of Fire star, James Holmes. He plays geeky accountant, Simon, a man who has not known an emotion in his life; and in addition the serenely beatific tennis-playing murderer, Menendez, and super salesman Tom, the dumbest of blondes. The ending is bittersweet, as Simon rides off into the sunset and even Eric "got married...... to a woman ugh". It does though, achieve a kind of satisfying conclusion in the likeable Capurro's self-discovery and potential reconciliation with his father. Philip Fisher Phaedra's Love Sarah Kane's early, short play Phaedra's Love is probably her least performed. It updates the world of the classical Greeks to that of Britain. This powerful production, directed by Jonathan Heron for Fail Better Productions, does the play justice as it condenses a tale told by Sophocles, Euripides and Racine into minimalist modernity. The cleverly designed set, courtesy of Nomi Everall, has a throne at one end of a red carpet and a Tracy Emin bed and stained glass window at the other. The bed is littered with fast food, underwear and the grimy Hippolytus, gorging himself and masturbating in front of the TV. The opening scene as the desperate Phaedra declares her anguished love for her indolent stepson is given real feeling and intensity by an excellent performance from the quivering Steph Pötschke. Her passion contrasts with her stepson's lack of life. He has everything that a man can want including the devotions of stepmother and stepsister, Strophe (Helen Bradbury) but wants more. Ultimately, the tragedy is played out in little more that three-quarters of an hour, as death piles on death so that by the end, all of the major characters are laid out on stage as the city burns. Philip Fisher Nine Days Crazy In 1599, the actor Will Kemp had a fight with his chums at the Globe, Shakespeare included. As a result, he was persuaded that his career could really take off if he were to Morris Dance from London to Norwich in nine days. The result was sore feet and a book entitled Nine Days Wonder. Roll on half a millennium and after a falling out with an Eastern European, existentialist director, writer/performer Chris Goode had a few too many with his mates at the tavern. He woke up the next morning to find himself on the journey of his life, in every sense. The double Fringe First-winner realised that a journey of this type would provide a metaphor for the journey of life. He might also have known that it would also double as a metaphor for a touching search for the man of his dreams. This was the rather weedy-sounding musician, Thomas, with whom he eventually limps into the sunset. Accompanied by projected images, many of them cartoons in a hand-drawn flicker book, the increasingly weary man dances his way through Romford and Bury St Edmunds. At long last, exhausted, he first hallucinates his way into Norwich cheered like the winner of the London Marathon, then hobbles in to his reward, a love that seems almost as unlikely to be eternal as that in his award-winning Kiss of Life. Chris Goode has an understated style that is all his own. With its clever internal allusions, Nine Days Crazy is a well-written and delivered piece. However, some prudent cutting is probably needed, especially at the beginning, if he is to deserve yet another accolade from The Scotsman. Philip Fisher |
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