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The
Edinburgh Fringe
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Fringe 2004 Reviews (9)Hedwig and the Angry Inch Growing up in East Berlin before the wall came down and seduced into a botched sex operation by an American GI, the title character in this rock musical is the glorious, transsexual, wig-adorned, vodka-swilling Hedwig (Matthew Tapscott). The show, Hedwig's attempt to tell the world about her betrayal by the trailer trash rock star who's made it big by stealing her tunes, shows the transformation Hedwig has undergone both physically and mentally, from the naïve young German boy to the world-weary and cynical half of a relationship which eventually results in the reclaiming of both Hedwig and "husband" Yitzhak's (Mel Farmery) lost genders. As Tapscott, in high-heeled boots and an incredible variety of wigs, parades not just around the stage but also out into the audience, viewers may get a false sense of security about the kind of participation that's expected of them. For the most part the performers are gentle with their audience, and the audience repays this in kind - responding without much prompting when, rock-show-style, Hedwig or the other players request an answer or help with a sing-along. Projectile tomatoes and vodka spit-takes are the exceptions to this rule, so the front rows should watch out. What this production of Hedwig does so expertly is capture the energy of a rock concert without the audiences' needing any kind of pre-show familiarity with the performers or storyline. Tapscott, Farmery, and Lick (made up of Steve Lockwood, Lee Farmery, Stu, Marcus Lane, and Nick Tettersell, who together play The Angry Inch) manage to gain the near-complete loyalty and devotion of their audience; after the closing number the entire audience stayed put until the performers came back out for an encore. The staging takes place in the basement of a church (bit ironic, really), but this doesn't prevent the technical spectacle from being almost as dramatic as that of the performance. Video projection is used to highlight the critical plot points early in the show, though it's not used much in the middle of the story. Luckily, by the end of the show Tapscott's performances - as both Hedwig and her ex-lover Tommy - are so well differentiated (Tapscott uses completely different personalities for the German transsexual and the American-trailer-park-trash-cum-rock-star) that the video is hardly necessary until final scenes where it returns to create a stadium concert atmosphere. Between Hedwig's late start time and extreme subject matter, some audience members may shy away - worried either about getting their beauty sleep, or about being offended. But with an eight day run - two of which have already passed - there isn't time to worry about these things. Don't take too long to warm up to the idea of checking Hedwig out, or it might be too late to catch this incredibly hot show. Rachel Lynn BrodyKenneth, What's the Frequency? 78th Street Lab proved to be one of the successes of the 2003 Fringe with their slightly quirky, tightly-directed shows and in particular the wonderful Boy Steals Train. Kenneth, What's the Frequency? fits that description but may prove more popular with avant garde American audiences than British holidaymakers. Ideally, it helps to know a little about Dan Rather, the CBS news anchorman, and Donald Barthelme, post-modern short story writer, novelist and apparently, TV chef. Paul Allman came up with a theory that the two were spiritual twins divided by a hurricane that defined each of their lives. The play is a combination of comedy and detective story with more than a little surreal philosophy added to the ingredients. It starts from an assault by unnamed men on Rather, played by Toby Wherry. They ask him the question of the title and this sends the well-respected anchor rather loopy. He becomes obsessed with finding an answer and a reason for his assault. The mysterious femme fatale and hurricane Carla (Melanie Rey) might provide a solution or merely a pleasant diversion. Eventually, Rather is led to Donald Barthelme's Sixty Stories. This contains the the question and several Kenneths. Add in two and two together sometimes comes to five. In this case, the lives of this pair of Houston-born men run in something of a parallel and were each turned by Hurricane Carla in 1961. This made Rather's career and turned Lawrence E. Bull's Barthelme from a successful curator of an art gallery into a writer. The plot may sometimes read like an obscure Barthelme short story with too many twists and turns but the ambitious production qualities demanded by director Eric Nightengale are high and two images are unforgettable. The cleverly-lit scenes in which Rather reads the news are worth the admission price, alone; and the assault on Rather, accompanied on a pair of cleavers may not be original but are still very effective. Philip Fisher Tempting Providence Tempting Providence is an old fashioned play, telling the tale of an unsung heroine. Myra Bennett, played by Deirdre Gillard-Rowlings, is an English nurse whose vocation takes her, just after the Great War, to Daniel's Harbour, a remote location, even in Newfoundland. Though prim and stern, she is so strong, caring and brave that she eventually became known, perhaps inevitably as "The Florence Nightingale of the North". Everything about the production speaks of simplicity and hardship. The cast of four wear white; and the props consist of no more that a table, four chairs and a sheet. However, by the end of the 90 minutes, they have appeared in dozens of guises and every conceivable combination. Director Jillian Keiley is incredibly precise and her cast well-rehearsed. On first meeting, bearded Angus Bennett (Darryl Hopkins) knows that he will marry the nurse but she takes longer to thaw than the hardest northern winter. Eventually he gets his woman and is rewarded by a love and devotion that is extraordinary, and culminates in the saving of his brother's life. Their tale eventually ends with a heart-warming finale as a people's heroine goes so far beyond the call of duty that word of her heroism even reaches Britain with the reward of an MBE. Her fame was greatly helped by her discovery of the reason for a preponderance of breech births in her community and thus the saving of many future lives. Myra Bennett was the toughest of cookies and it should come as no surprise that by the time of her death in 1990, she was a centenarian. Her tale is moving and well worth the telling. Philip Fisher |
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