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Fringe 2005 Reviews (26)
Russian Beauty
By Victor Sobchak
C Electric
**
The Russian Beauty in question is Katya, whose only goal in life is
to leave her homeland forever. She has what it takes to attract her
dream, a foreign husband with her blonde hair, impossibly high heels
and padded bra.
Trine Thielen catches the accent perfectly as her character awaits
a call that will never come from John, her stupid, spectacled English
accountant.
While we wait with her, we begin to understand why life in Putin's
Russia is far from satisfactory despite the ending of Communism.
This is a sad tale, well related although the odd songs seem superfluous
as we build to a round of Russian Roulette and a suitably ambiguous
ending.
Philip Fisher
The Evils of Tobacco
By Anton Chekhov
C Electric
**
This half hour monologue might be prosecuted under the Trade Descriptions
Act. The one subject that it does not address in any way is that of
the title.
In fact, Geir Kjelland plays a schoolteacher undergoing a nervous breakdown
after 33 miserable years of marriage.
The poor bow-tied sap is bullied by his wife and soon turns the anticipated
lecture into a lengthy whine about his failed sex life and the other
marital problems that living with a horrible wife and her seven daughters
entails.
Kjelland looks rather like Will Hay as he delivers the monologue and
catches the frustration and fear of a cowed man well.
Philip Fisher
Sleep…less…ness
Do-Theatre
AuroraNova@St Stephens
***
This is a gentle and somewhat conventional piece of dance theatre in
comparison with Do-Theatre's previous work. While they are now based
in Aachen in Germany, Sleep…less…ness has an inherently
Russian flavour resonating with a Tarkovskian surrealism. The shaven
heads, the hint of the insanity below the surface along with the intimation
of deeper and overwhelming emotions is mellowed by the music. There
is a strong sense of an aching nostalgia underpinning the sweep of the
performance and this is tied inextricably to the insomniac's yearning
for the blessed oblivion of sleep.
As usual Do-theatre treat us to finely honed movement with an ensemble
spirit and it is possible that they are not well-served by the lateness
of the slot. Nonetheless, powerful images will stick in the mind for
long to come, another of Do-Theatre's strengths. Projections filtered
through several gauzes before they hit the back screen echo the distortions
in the mind of the semi-consciousness dreamer. Real-water rain running
down a window pane while a host of longing sleepwalkers watch a sleeping
figure within: this is a seemingly simple image with a range of complex
resonances that linger. That is the one I'll take away with me.
Jackie Fletcher
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