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Fringe 2005 Reviews (19)
A Limited Run
RPM Arts Ltd
Gilded Balloon Teviot
*****
We are in a slightly squalid living room/kitchen somewhere in Scotland
(possibly Fife), where a bearded middle-aged man potters around, doing
a bit of dusting occasionally and, as the audience enters, chatting
to them. He's a nice guy, very friendly, who occasionally pokes a little
gentle fun at audience members. Almost imperceptibly the house lights
go out and we segue into the play.
It turns out that the nice middle-aged man is actually God - he has
downsized - and he spends some time telling us about his life (eternal),
what he knows (everything) and a little bit about his son, whose picture
he shows us. He tells us how, in this modern age, prayers arrive via
his fax machine and indeed a fax does arrive as he chats. He seems a
bit upset about it and throws it away.
We learn that he has one very important rule: he mustn't interfere
- ever. He did once, and he tells what happened, and here the mood changes
as he reveals a small (in the wider scheme of things) human tragedy.
The transition is made without mawkishness or sentimentality and there
were little cries of "Oh" from some members of the audience.
It was, I have to admit, hard to ignore the little lump in the throat
that came with the telling of the story, a sadness made greater by his
obvious distress.
Actor Andy Gray gave a beautifully judged performance under the direction
of Elaine C Smith (Rab C Nesbitt's wife).
Peter Lathan
Elephant
Dodgy Clutch
George Square Theatre
*****
A company of seventeen, including a band. African song. African dance.
Story-telling. Contemporary dance. A cast from the UK and South Africa.
Amazing puppets. Excellent acting. Elephant has it all and it's
a heart-warming show too.
In other words, it's not your typical Fringe show. For a start, there
are more in the band than there are in most Fringe casts!
The story is simple: an African chief dies but is refused entry into
heaven. However, he is given a second chance: he can go back through
his life, find what he did wrong and repent. There's just one problem:
the man who claims to be trying to help him is, in fact, the Devil!
The play, in two languages (English and - I think! - Xhosa), shows him
and his brother growing up, playing games, flirting with the girls,
going through their initiation into manhood, and becoming chief. The
story is told through acting (both straight and comic), dance and song.
A highlight is the magnificent two puppets, a baby elephant and its
parent, both made out of what seems to be cheese-cloth and operated
by people inside. The baby is endearing, the adult impressive and both
simply stunning.
In fact the word "stunning" is the perfect word to describe
the visual impact of the show and that alone would be enough to give
it five stars, but couple it with excellent acting, dancing and singing
and you have what for me is my "top tip" of the Fringe so
far.
Peter Lathan
The Opening
Written and devised by the company
Bad Penny Theatre
The Underbelly
**
The Opening begins with one of the girls in the cast simulating
a blow job with a plastic bottle. That more or less sets the tone for
the rest of the show, a series of simulated sex scenes both heterosexual
and lesbian, all centred around characters who represent types: the
Bitch, the Lad, the omantic, the Who?, the Loner, the Hurt, and Pandora
who seems to be a kind of glorified Madam and whose name suggests both
Pander and the classical Pandora, the opening of whose box let loose
all kinds of ills into the world.
There's no unifying storyline and what emotional impact the individual
scenes have is predictable. There's no doubting the enthusiasm, energy
and, indeed, talent of the cast, and it was probably great fun to do,
but as a piece of theatre it just doesn't work.
Peter Lathan
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