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Fringe 2005 Reviews (21)
The Girls of the 3½
Floppies
By Luis Enrique Gutiérrez Ortiz Monasterio, with surtitles by
Mark Ravenhill
Traverse 2
****
This slice of life drama from the Mexican Barrios has an excellent
pedigree. It teams an award-winning young Mexican writer with a name
and a half, Luis Enrique Gutiérrez Ortiz Monasterio, and two
excellent actresses from his home country with the English playwright
best-placed to translate this kind of gritty tale of low life, Mark
Ravenhill, and Scottish director John Tiffany.
This dream team presents a two-hander about women well beyond the edge
in their efforts to survive and feed their coke habit. Aida López
plays a landlady who struggles to provide for herself and her children.
Her solutions include drug-dealing, letting a room and, towards the
end of each month, prostitution. The Catholic faith symbolised by a
shrine to the madonna turns out to be something far more materialistic.
Gabriela Murray's younger woman is even worse off. Her only source
of money is her body but she dreams of charity from a mother to whom
she hasn't spoken in years or from a long-term man. Each seems equally
unlikely and so she has the constant debate about whether to spend her
money on school fees for her son or coke. In fact, her lack of willpower
means that making the decision is hardly a struggle.
It is rare to see a Mexican play in the UK and this sad comedy demonstrates
what we are missing. Its portrayal of life just above the gutter is
both humorous and chilling. The real message might possibly be found
in the spirit of optimism that something will come along, with which
these women buoy themselves.
Philip Fisher
I Miss Communism
By Ines Wurth and Mark Soper
Pleasance Dome
***
This is an autobiographical horror story presented by the very attractive
actress Ines Wurth. She is now well established in LA but started life
in the part of Yugoslavia that is now known as Croatia.
Giving a variety of impressions and delivering a number of songs, including
the sexiest ever version of The Red Flag, Miss Wurth allows a
picture of her life to emerge.
When she was a little girl, she lived in a matriarchal society with
her beloved grandmother and feared mother. The worst times occurred
when she was consigned to the cellar and had to console herself by imagining
that she was Oliver Twist, in the Mark Lester version. Mum inevitably
gets cast as Fagin.
Life doesn't get that much better as she escapes to the USA and a college
course that can only be funded by doing three jobs. Luckily, a fellow
Croatian adopts and houses her so that things begin to improve.
Hanging over her (and us) is "the incident". We only learn
what this was as she returns to Croatia to make peace with her mother
and sell the family home. The tale of suppressed memory about a near
rape perpetrated by enemy soldiers is horrible and must take considerable
bravery to deliver.
I Miss Communism has already had considerable success in the
USA and the bouncy Miss Wurth ensures that this is perfect Edinburgh
fare.
Philip Fisher
Life in Show
By Catherine O'Shea
Aireborn Theatre Company
Baby Belly
***
This is an ambitious piece which doesn't quite come off. It's ambitious
because of its complexity: we start with what seeems to be a play about
the 18th century actress Susannah Cibber and her relationships with
her husband, her lover and the actor David Garrick. It then becomes
obvious that we are watching a rehearsal for that play and we have some
discussion about Susannah's situation and about modern day attitudes
to feminism, and interspersed we have some filmed sequences which convey
a fear of stranger rape in the streets and then an accusation of date
rape. All, of course, relate to the position of women in the 18th century
and in modern society - and we learn a lot about Mrs Cibber on the way.
She was a singer as well as an actress and was the first soprano soloist
in Handel's Messiah and we are treated to one of the soprano arias by
the actress who plays her, Alice Trueman - and she sings it well.
The problem is that the filmed sequences slow down the action and one
could feel the audience's attention drifting, with a fair amount of
surreptitious looking at watches going on, but their concentration did
return with the resumption of the on-stage performance. Here was a clear
demonstration of the greater immediacy and impact of the live performance!
There are no problems with the acting: the company of six give solid
performances and the differentiation between the "play within the
play" and the rest is sharp and clear.
Peter Lathan
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