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The
Edinburgh Fringe
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Fringe 2004 Reviews (23)Crooked Catherine Trieschmann is a very promising talent, who so nearly gets it right in Crooked. Her portrayal of the relationship between a liberal mother and her very intelligent 14-year-old daughter is first-rate. Life has not been easy for Elise (Vanessa Shealy) after her beloved husband suffers a mental breakdown that almost leads him to sacrifice their daughter, Francie, believing her to be Isaac to his own Abraham. Following his institutionalisation, the women have moved from Madison, Wisconsin to Mississippi, where Francie is given the cold shoulder by all at school. For the talented Shelly Stover's Francie, life is only supported by her writing. Like her creator, she has a great talent for image-rich descriptive writing. As a catalyst to fire up the mother-daughter relationship, the playwright inserts a third character, the backward bible-basher, Maribel. Like Francie, she is friendless but it is all too clear to see why. She has no social skills and her sole topic of conversation is the impact of any action on the chances of getting to heaven or ending in hell. This soon becomes wearing. It is hard to credit that Francie, however lonely, would have tolerated Maribel for any length of time. Catherine Trieschmann will undoubtedly write very good literature,
either on stage or page. In Crooked, she has created two wonderfully
believable characters in an interesting situation. Next time around,
she could come up with something really special. Philip Fisher The Clink Edward's Theatre Company is a young people's theatre company based in Lincolnshire that appears at the Quaker Meeting House every year and always tackles a difficult play. This year they have brought to the Fringe Stephen Jeffreys's The Clink, a tale of political intrigue in the court of Queen Elizabeth I towards the end of her reign. Lucius Bodkin is a fool, from a family of fools, who experiments with a more aggressive, satirical form of stand-up comedy. However he attracts the attention of one of the Queen's corrupt advisers who sees a chance to use him as a sacrifice to increase his own power. The Queen admits to Lucius in private that she knows he is innocent but has to go through with his punishment to keep the balance of power within her court. Russell Jackson plays the part of Lucius Bodkin well, and although he doesn't quite make it as a stand-up yet, he has a good attempt at the comedy routines. However the actor who particularly stands out in this production is Aryan Ramkhalawon as the scheming female "blackamoor" servant Zanda. Some of the others play two or more characters, which can, at times, be a little confusing as there is often little to distinguish them in their costume and performance. The play itself has some humour, which this production manages to bring out, and a story of plotting and political intrigue, but the pace is often dragged down by long, dense narration speeches and moralising scenes. However this young company should be pleased with themselves for creating a very watchable production from this difficult piece. David Chadderton Smoke! Smoke! is the history of Middlesborough told by a talented young group from the town's college. It began as a kind of pageant with a cast of...well, lots, at the Middlesborough Town Hall Theatre and has been adapted to fit the smaller company and a smaller venue. There's a lot of narration, spread between members of the company, sone phyiucal work and a number of good songs, but the script, written in rhyming verse, rather lets it down. Too often it sounds, to be honest, rather trite. That's a pity, for the audience, made up almost entirely of people who know nothing about Middlesborough (including one Canadian), were definitely impressed by the talent, energy and enthusiasm shown by the young cast. There were obviously some weaknesses - these youngsters are right at the beginning of learning the trade - including an tendency to end-stop lines, always a temptation with rhyming verse - but on the whole it was a very creditable performance. What could they have done with a better script! Peter Lathan |
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