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Fringe 2005 Reviews (6)
Where Spirits and Fairies
Dwell
Kawasemi-Za
Story by Yoshiya Yamamoto and Izumi Masumura
C
***
Kawasemi-Za is a group from Tokyo that mixes marionettes with live
actors - one of whom cannot be any more than five years old - in this
collage of traditional Japanese folklore characters and tales.
The puppets are wonderful creations of a variety of supernatural creatures
from the mischievous flower demons to the spirit of a small child to
the winged Shinto mountain gods. Puppeteers and story writers Yoshiya
Yamamoto and Izumi Masumura manage to produce an amazing range of movement
and expression from the marionettes using a very complex-looking array
of strings, rods and levers. The weasel puppet is incredibly lifelike
with loads of wonderful little touches of movement that the real animal
would do, such as chasing and biting its tail, that you would not expect
to see from a puppet. There is a funny routine from the winged mountain
gods, who become drunk on the offerings from their human worshippers.
This is a charming and often funny show with some very impressive puppets
and puppetry. The main problem is with the venue - the seats are on
such a shallow slope (there is no raised stage platform) that it would
be difficult to see even a play involving human adults who were stood
up all the time. Due to the nature of this show, a lot happens at a
low level and most of the spectators will struggle to see a lot of it.
If you go to see it, either sit on the front couple of rows or on the
very back row where you can stand up without blocking anyone else's
view.
David Chadderton
East Coast Chicken Supper
By Martin J Taylor
Traverse 1
**
This is a slice of life comedy drama is set amongst that favourite
subject for younger playwrights, the drug-dealing community.
Stew and Fred (Pauls Blair and Rattray) are making good money as incomers
to a small town in Fife. Their only problem is the mysterious disappearance
of the third musketeer, their old school chum Gibby (Garry Collins)
and its consequences. They have become laughing stock and this may be
bad for business.
When their fresh-faced friend returns, he has apparently been a rent
boy junkie in London who restricted his trade to hand jobs. Why he left
the Fife good life for such squalor remains unexplained.
After a tense reunion, the boys relax together to the extent that Stew
almost kills himself on a cocktail of drink, drugs but not Fred's wonderfully
aromatic stir-fry. The last had stomachs rumbling around the Theatre.
The action hots up a little with the arrival of Malcolm Shields' Malone,
an attempted racist and nasty piece of work who inexplicably has a heart
of gold.
East Coast Chicken Supper does not really go anywhere, which
is not the fault of its distinguished director, Richard Wilson. It can
amuse or horrify but too often, it borders on a cross between East
Fife Enders and Scotsmen Behaving Badly.
Philip Fisher
My Pyramids
By Judith Thompson
Traverse 1
***
Inevitably, one of the major themes of Edinburgh 2005 is the War on
Terror. Canadian playwright, Judith Thompson has written a one-woman
show about the notorious Private Lynndie England.
This is Private England's imagined apologia for her behaviour at Abu
Ghraib prison, where not only did she enjoy torturing Iraqi prisoners
but had the misfortune to be caught on camera in the process.
In Waneta Storms' portrayal, the lady derives a measure of sympathy
but hard as she tries to justify her actions, her behaviour keeps coming
through as unacceptable in civilised society.
She was a cruel school bully of limited intelligence and low self-esteem
who never grew up. For most people, being sack from the local Dairy
Queen would be a low point in an undistinguished life; for her though
it was a stepping-stone to a new career.
The sad thing is that Private Lynndie England ended up in a position
where she could indulge her overt patriotism by unapologetically attacking
men whom she thought of as terrorists. In doing so she became a war
hero, an American Joan of Arc or Napoleon - but only in her own eyes.
Under Ross Manson's direction, Miss Storms gives a good performance
in this short, late-evening play that might have been better suited
to a venue smaller than the less than intimate Traverse 1.
Philip Fisher
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