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The
Edinburgh Fringe
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Fringe 2004 Reviews (50)Handbag What a dreadful world Mark Ravenhill inhabits! There is no one in this play, neither in the main plot of the 1990s nor the sub-plot world of Oscar Wilde's Importance, who is anything other than selfish. Gay and lesbian marriage, rent boys, in vitro fertilisation (sperm from gay man, ovum from lesbian woman), Lady Bracknell and Miss Prism: a very odd combination indeed, but one which, in Ravenhill's hands, works, although both of these self-centred worlds are not ones of which I (and, I suspect, everyone who sees the play) would like to be a part. Each and every character is truly objectionable, with even their apparently good traits being, below the surface, founded on nothing more than fulfilling their own desires and to hell with everyone else. This production, from a company of graduating actors from the Birmingham School of Acting, works well and gives us a few laughs along the way, but it's tainted laughter and left me, at any rate, feeling not a little despair and disgust at the human race - all of them, for the homo- and hetero-sexuals are equally obnoxious and egocentric. It's good theatre but gives a profoundly pessimistic view of life. Peter Lathan Football It's 2006. England's won the World Cup. (Thank F***, otherwise we'd have to invade Iraq again.) Sir David Beckham is a national hero. His shirt has been sold for 137,000 euros at a charity auction. Three friends meet for dinner. Two want sex. The other bought the shirt. It's almost Art. That's the blurb in the programme, and, yes, "Art" should have a capital A because not only should "Art" have a capital A because of its importance, it's also almost Art, the Yasmina Reza play. There's a tangled web (on proof-reading this page, I discovered I had written wen, not web: it seems appropriate) of relationships here, and an intermingling of success and failure, and thoughts about what gives an object value. What, indeed, is art (or Art)? In other words, this 45 minute piece manages to explore a number of themes and still be entertaining. Peter Lathan Drag King Richard III This piece starts from a really original concept but unfortunately, the delivery falls well short of the promise. Richard III is an incidental character in the troubled life of Laurie, a man born into a woman's body. Jacqueline Y. White plays La Femme, a lesbian who suddenly catches up with old friend Laurie after a long gap. She is really surprised when Laurie, played by the playwright, announces that she is now Laurence and is in the middle of a course of hormone therapy that will confirm her masculinity. As a means of conveying the bodily confusion of a transsexual, she delivers various speeches from Shakespeare's Richard III. On occasions, for example in the seduction speech delivered to Queen Anne, this works quite well. On too many occasions, it does not. A play that explores the problems faced by somebody born the wrong gender is clearly of the greatest importance. However, by combining Laurie's dilemma with that of Richard III, little is added to the debate. Philip Fisher |
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