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The
Edinburgh Fringe
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Fringe 2004 Reviews (24)Japan Experience - Lyflink Theatre must be entertaining, engaging, beautiful, and/or informative. It is not good enough to use technique as your production. Lyflink does not succeed as a theatre piece for just this reason. Catherine Lamm The Smallest Person Trestle's latest production is based on the true story of Caroline Crachami, who was only 19 1/2 inches tall. At the age of eight, she was paraded around Georgian England as the 'Sicilian Fairy' and was even introduced to King George IV. She died of tuberculosis, but her story didn't end there; whilst her parents wanted to bury her body, the scientific community preferred to keep it for study and research, and her skeleton ended up as a museum exhibit. In Timothy Knapman's script, Caroline's story is combined with a modern day story about a girl, Laura, hiding her terminally-ill brother Charlie because she doesn't agree with her mother's decision to send him to Italy for experimental treatment. The links between the two are a school project that Laura did about Caroline and the connection she has made between the way the doctors treated Caroline and the way they are treating her brother. As in all of Trestle's productions, mask plays a major part. Caroline's parents use full-face masks, and therefore do not speak, and the rest of the characters in the nineteenth century story use half-masks. The modern-day characters do not wear masks. Caroline and Charlie are both represented by rod puppets, operated by the actors. Most of the performers play a large number of characters and, although it is obvious that there is some doubling of parts, it is still a surprise when only five people come out to take a bow at the end. There are some very good performances in this production and some good scenes, but the modern-day story is a bit thin and the links between it and the main story rather tenuous. It introduces an interesting debate about the morality of using someone with an illness or deformity to experiment on. There is an interesting story here, and Trestle's distinctive style of performance keeps it lively and entertaining for most of the time. David Chadderton Dark Angels Before the first number is completed in this musical about unrealistically and fatal love, Daniel Hyde looks more like he should be in the chorus of a West End or Broadway show. He sparkles with potential. But more than his talent, commitment and enthusiasm, he looks as if (a dozen or so musicals down the road) as if he could be a contender in the musical theatre world. That said, the book is almost insultingly immature in content. The audience laughed at places that should have been tragic. A young woman falls in love after a one-night stand and is rebuffed with “we had sex, I’m a bastard, get over it.” “You’re on my mind a lot of the time.“ But then Mr. Hyde will touch us with lyrics; “I’ve been hurt too many times, I’ve heard too many lines.” His music ties the piece together nicely. The choreography is good but a little repetitive. The cast works hard at being just okay. Luke McNicholas as a member of the ensemble and assistant choreographer is noteworthy. Mr. Hyde by his sheer stage presence pulls focus. Robin Bigwood (musical director) has made it easy for the cast. The direction by Jill Coles at times seems nonexistent and at times quite novel; as when the cast, during bits of dialogue, changes positions and then freezes. So choreographed that I wonder if it is Mr. Hyde’s handiwork that we are witnessing. Catherine Lamm |
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