|
Fringe 2005 Reviews (9)
The Odd Couple
By Neil Simon
Assembly Hall
****
Guy Masterson knows how to fill large theatres in competitive Edinburgh.
For the third year in a row, he has achieved a sell-out by borrowing
a team of stand-up comedians to appear in a stage version of a work
made famous on film. His revival of The Odd Couple seems appropriate
in a year when Civil Partnerships, gay marriages in all but name, will
finally become law in the United Kingdom.
Already, before a review is published, The Odd Couple, which
started life on stage almost 40 years ago, is a popular hit. The large
and attractive Church of Scotland Assembly Hall will be filled every
afternoon throughout the Festival and it would not be a surprise to
find ticket touts gathering on the Mound. This is a testimony to the
attraction of well-known names, Masterson's reputation and a very limited
run.
The faces are now familiar as most of this team appeared in either
or both of Twelve Angry Men and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's
Nest. So is Katy Tuxford's characteristic, simple, wide set. This
represents Oscar Madison's messy 12th floor Manhattan apartment, ash
and crisps strewn around the carpet with glee.
The lights come up on the minor stars, Owen O'Neill's accountant, Dave
John's almost-Keystone cop plus Ian Coppinger and Phil Nichol. The pace
picks up as they are joined by TV star Bill Bailey's sports journalist
Oscar. Bailey could hardly look less like Walter Matthau, much more
a Hunter S. Thompson Gonzo creation with his flowing hair, beard and
loud shirts.
The poker-playing group are all concerned about absent Felix, who has
not missed a card game in years. After his wife announces that she has
ejected him, it is a major relief when the morose Alan Davies' Felix
appears alive, if unhappy.
In no time, Oscar the slob has invited maniacally tidy Felix to stay.
This is a recipe for disaster and within weeks, they are at each other's
throats.
There is a nice storyline involving two Wildean sisters, the very British
(and very thick) Gwendoline and Cecily, played by Lizzie Roper and Katherine
Jakeways. In a real comic highlight, Felix gets the girls much to the
irritation of lounging lizard Oscar.
Bill Bailey is excellent both with his acting and comic timing. Jonathan
Creek's Alan Davies doesn't seem ideally cast in the Jack Lemmon role,
particularly as he struggles with an accent that barely reaches transatlantic
and tries to be both dreadfully camp and macho almost simultaneously.
The Odd Couple deserves to be a financial and critical success,
as it is extremely funny and will delight audiences. It will be interesting
to see whether a West End producer can be persuaded to take a transfer.
Philip Fisher
Faust
By Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Theatr Nowy
Assembly Rooms
***
If you are fluent in Polish, this may well be a five star show. However,
without surtitles, those who are not intimately familiar with Goethe's
play may struggle at times to understand what is going on and who is
who. As a minimum, it would be wise to read the programme synopsis before
the curtain rises.
Theatr Nowy hail from Poznan where the production premiered under the
direction of Janusz Wisniewski.
Their vision of Goethe's play about a man who made a pact with the
devil in order to gain short-term happiness at the expense of his immortal
soul is impressive. It is constantly artistic in a style not too far
from George Grosz and the music from Jerzy Satanowski (really) is jaunty
and folk-influenced.
The stage is populated by a large cast of grotesques including twin
dignitaries modelled on Adolf Hitler, a Frida Kahlo-lookalike and a
big dark-haired woman who hasn't bothered to shave,
Faust himself starts off bald and corpulent, which makes a good contrast
with the hunch-backed, skeletal Mephistopheles. Once they have made
their pact, Faust sheds fat and grows a lush head of hair and in no
time has won the love of the beautiful Gretchen.
Then though it is all downhill on his journey along the road to damnation,
which runs hand in hand with rehearsals for, and a realistic crucifixion
of, Jesus.
While some of the meaning is inevitably lost in non-translation, the
acting by the company is outstanding, and the staging memorable.
Philip Fisher
Angry Young Man
By Ben Woolf
Pleasance Dome
****
This comedy thriller is actually performed by four young men although
they do not immediately appear to be angry. The premise is that Yuri,
a surgeon from a former Soviet country, arrives in London seeking a
new life but in contemporary Britain, that is never easy.
He is adopted by a team of symbolic ducks, as well as upper class Patrick
and his friends and the flirtatious Alison, wonderfully portrayed by
the fluttery-eyed Alex Waldmann.
Playwright Ben Woolf not only acts but directs with great skill too.
The keys to the play's success are an ironic view of British pomposity
and understatement; and the use of all four cast members to play the
heavily-accented Yuri, sometimes simultaneously.
Dressed in identical sharp outfits, the four take us through Yuri's
life in London as he is adopted by Patrick but finds that he his friend
is a member of a shadowy National Front-style organisation with violent
skinheads in support of double-barrelled toffs.
Along the way, the young surgeon, primarily played by Hywel John and
Waldmann, meets a variety of people, most memorably Alison and young
Jerzy (John again). These two actors are well supported by Gary Shelford
who plays - well Yuri actually; and the writer/director who does a nice
line in dogs and dead stags.
Angry Young Man is a very funny comic spoof that benefits from
good writing and excellent direction. All of this ensured that the packed
house showed well-deserved appreciation at the end of an hour that passed
in a trice.
Philip Fisher
Next
page - - - Index
|
