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Fringe 2005 Reviews (22)
The Night Shift
By Mark Murphy
Traverse 2
***
The Night Shift takes a long time to get going but once it does,
like central character Andrew, it packs a big punch.
Initially, we see Alice and Gray struggling to hold their relationship
together in the shadow of her parasomnia, the acting out of dreams.
In parallel, geeky Andrew is in some kind of psychiatric institution
for unexplained reasons. He is visited by Helen, a therapist who should
understand him having recovered from alcoholism herself.
In a series of short, often mysterious scenes, we begin to understand
that both Alice and Andrew have serious psychological problems connected
with schizophrenia.
Only at the end of a production directed by the playwright do the two
stories come together, revealing the tragedy that has blighted these
two lives and by extension affected those of anyone within firing range.
This sensitive two-hander features outstanding performances from Jason
Thorpe and in particular Catherine Dyson. With a little cutting early
on, it could have had an even greater impact.
Philip Fisher
Snuff
By Davey Anderson
Traverse 2
***
This two-hander enters a netherworld where In Yer Face theatre meets
nihilism. The play takes place in a room bare but for a TV and a poster
of Al Pacino pointing a gun. There, Brian Ferguson's Kevin watches home
movies of his little sister, Pamela.
As he threatens her on screen, ex-soldier Billy (Steven Ritchie) appears,
fresh out of Iraq. The men then re-live their past and threaten each
other with a pistol. The violence is barely suppressed as they discuss
Pamela and her absence.
Things begin to boil over as Kevin gets ever closer to tipping over
the edge into madness and the play's title suggests that the final video
of a set could lead to Billy's death as the ninth victim to appear in
a Snuff movie.
This terrifying Glaswegian world has enough insanity to suggest Sarah
Kane but never quite gets to the stage of explicit violence. The acting
is good and there is enough in the award-winning script to suggest that
we will be hearing more from Davey Anderson.
Philip Fisher
Lilita
By Tracy Keeling and Mary Cimino
The Allies Theatre Company
Smirnoff Big Belly (The Underbelly)
**(*)
Although the exact question it’s trying to pose is unclear, Lilita
is a colourful and engaging exploration of childhood sexuality and womanhood
in an age where the barely-pubescent child is packaged and sold by the
media.
The writers have cobbled together a script from legends and archetypes
including Lilith, Lolita, and the Big Bad Wolf, thrown in some postmodern
feminism and good old, down-home fire and brimstone, but the result
is a piece which raises too many issues to fully investigate in the
space of an hour.
This would be fine if audience members weren’t asked, in a last
ditch (and one-sided) effort to make us question our own stance on paedophilia
because there’s more than one acceptable opinion? except
that the sides of the ‘issue’ are so clear-cut there’s
no real question at all.
The play works best in its latter half, and could use further development
(and perhaps some re-casting) but as far as Fringe shows go it at least
raises pertinent issues in an entertaining manner.
Rachel Lynn Brody
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