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Fringe 2005 Reviews (29)
Dylan Thomas in America
By Dylan Thomas, adapted by Gwynne Edwards
Venue 13
****
The major impression that one gets from this excellent monologue developed
from the letters and poetry of Dylan Thomas is of a contrary man. One
pities his wife Caitlin, who had her own problems. Thomas is like a
greedy schoolboy who always wants to have his cake and eat it. Well,
not so much cake as wine, women and song!
Peter Read plays the ageing writer convincingly though he doesn't really
look or sound the part. Thomas was a natural poet and almost every sentence,
whether poetic, dramatic or apparently mundane is packed with lush language
and memorable symbols.
He initially braved the long sea voyage to the USA just over fifty
years ago. He did so because he needed money and by taking his "Pilgrimage
of the damned" helped to fund his expensive habits. He described
himself as a voice on wheels as he travelled thousands of miles in search
of dollars.
While there, he railed at and missed Caitlin in equal measures and,
when she wasn't there, consoled himself with numerous surrogates including
his secretary Liz, a woman with whom he was really in love. There is
little doubt that he also shared much time with that other love of his
life, the bottle.
This "professional Welshman" had a love/hate relationship
with his homeland, "This sick, sad yet fond Wales of mine".
He described Swansea as a "dingy hell" but was more comfortable
once he had moved to Laugharne. Despite his reservations about Wales,
he also admits that "I love it more than anywhere".
Laugharne was also the site, as Llareggub, of what is probably his
greatest achievement and source of financial comfort, the tone poem
for voices, Under Milk Wood.
Director Owen Gruffudd ensures that his actor is comfortable with carpet,
comfy chairs and lectern. Peter Read returns the favour with a strong
performance that conveys the bewildered sadness of the man and recites
the poetry well, especially the deeply appropriate "Do not go gentle
into that good night/Rage, rage against the dying of the light".
Eschewing the fireworks of so much of the Fringe programme, Dylan
Thomas in America is a thoroughly professional and enjoyable play
that is deservedly drawing in large numbers of delighted Dylanites.
It may create a few more too.
Philip Fisher
Shi-Zen, 7 Bowls
Lume (Brazil) and Tadashi Endo (Japan)
Aurora Nova@St Stephen's
*****
Every year I mark up one show as being outstanding. Already about twenty
minutes into this show, I knew it would be my outstanding performance
for the 2005 festival. I knew nothing was going to surpass it. It is
a tour de force, a joy, a gift of an experience for mind, body and spirit,
given with generosity by a cast of superb performers. A collaboration
between Japanese Butoh expert Tadashi Endo and the Brazilian theatre
company Lume, it is a sumptuous blend of Japanese aesthetics and Latin
joie de vivre. Shi-Zen, 7 Bowls is a richly textured, sensual
piece of work blending that exquisitely beautiful minimalism so characteristic
of the Japanese with laughter, irony, eroticism and deep, truthful emotions.
If you believe that theatre should be sensual, then this show is close
to perfection. It seduces the senses and lulls you into a readiness
for new experience and transformation. The work has been developed through
improvisation, and Endo's direction negotiates a seamless integration
of elements. Shi-Zen is a triumph for the physical presence of
the actor. The music, lighting and other visuals are simple, but scrumptious,
and are never obtrusive or exist solely for their own sake; they serve
the actor and enhance the mood. The lighting is striking but used to
sculpt, to isolate, to form connections and heighten moods. Beneath
the surface of simplicity, new realms of experience vibrate and beckon.
The plaintive tones of a clarinet, a distorted toe, a pair of red and
pointy tongues, a tango-obsessed drill sergeant, the shimmer of light
on a smooth surface, an ocean of blue light, these are all invitations
to cast aside the haste of our daily lives and look, listen, smell,
touch, taste and enjoy.
The seven actors are permanent members of a long-standing troupe that
is committed to an ongoing research into the expressive potential of
the human body in collaboration with the University of Campinas. The
butoh elements have been unobtrusively assimilated into Lume's physical
style in which graceful gestures coincide with grit and humour. The
combination is mesmerizing and seems to reveal hidden inner truths,
recognisably human, but unique to each individual performer. There are
bowls of every conceivable shape and size and texture; bowls to sit
in, bowls to scatter seeds from, bowls that reflect light and resonate;
the actors themselves are bowls, vessels that carry human life. We are
carried along with them on a journey with birds and beasts, angels and
humans. It is like having sex; it grows to a delicious climax and then
there is a moment of peace and fulfilment.
As I was leaving, I overheard a man in front of me saying to his companion,
'Well, I'll have to understand it.' I hear this so often and consider
it with sadness. Understanding in Western culture has come to be irrevocably
concerned with the certain aspects of the brain. We have come to expect
of our performative arts forms that they should tell us a story with
a beginning, a middle and an end, and do it with words so that we might
'understand'. The conflation of 'words' with 'understanding' in Western
societies, particularly in British philosophy, is a human tragedy. We
are all so much more than brains. There are ways of understanding that
go far beyond the powers of the ratiocination so prized, but so often
lacking, in Western societies.
Nor can theatre ever tell us a story which we apprehend as an audience
with uniformity. We all bring our own unique blend of cultural references
and individual experiences that make meaning out of what we see. Alongside
the creators of a performance, the spectator is a full collaborator
in the equation. If I have to discuss what Shi-Zen, 7 Bowls means
I will have to say that what it means to me is different than what it
means to you. It is an invitation to have your own experience, one which
will, hopefully be enriching and challenging; one which we apprehend
with the senses. Bodies speak truths about human experience familiar
to us all, but with a complex and fascinatingly agile language independent
of the spoken word; it is a dialogue of bodies. Shi-Zen, 7 bowls
is an invitation to openness, an encouragement to put our cynicism in
our pockets with our ticket stubs, and to enjoy, to discover, to be
provoked and refreshed and endorsed in our own particular truths. It
is a celebration of the possible, of human potential, of the triumph
of the imagination over the grindingly mundane.
Jackie Fletcher
Bicycle Men
Written and Performed by Dave Lewman, Joe Liss, Mark Nutter and John
Rubano
Underbelly
*****
What happens when a bumbling American bicyclist hits a pothole in rural
France? But of course...a musical breaks out.
Dave Lewman excuisitely portrays the American rube to the multiple
country cousins and superhero (L'Homme de Bicyclette) played by Jos
Liss, Mark Nutter, and John Rubano. Going in, a lot is expected of these
veterans of the Chicago comedy circuit as well as Seinfeld, 3rd
Rock From The Sun, Saturday Night Live, and SpongeBob
Squarepants.
And, although these four are more than a little bit naughty, the humour
is more cerebral fare than the usual comics who survive on spewing earsplitting
obscenities. But still, this is a musical by any definition of the genre.
There is a plot even if it is there only to serve the humour.
Although no dancers these, there is a lot of movement and even dance
handled capably. And not great singers, the music is hummable, the lyrics
are mostly clever and move the plot along. We easily forgive them any
of their shortcomings.
But this is still about the humor. These four make that very clear
from the start. "When can I get my bicycle?" "Oh, six
months." "Six months! I can't wait six month!" "Okay,
tomorrow." One wonders if it is set in France because there is
much more that rhymes with bicyclette.
Catherine Lamm
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