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Fringe 2005 Reviews (36)
Give Up! Start Over!
B y Jessica Almasy and Rebecca Chavkin
C
**
In their hit song 1985, the band Bowling for Soup ask "When
did reality become TV?" In this Fringe First winner, American company
TEAM ask pretty much the same question.
Jessica Almasy, who is also co-writer, gives a bravura, sweat-soaked
solo performance in a mega mind-dump that can be repetitive and doesn't
always make sense.
Ultimately, it asks serious questions about the relationship of reality
and TV and addresses the increasingly prevalent blurring in the middle.
Can you trust the camera? Whether it is Tricky Dick Nixon, Jennifer
Aniston or the Twin Towers, the answer is a resounding negative.
Along the way, physical action and film are utilised, together with
an incredible volume of words in what sometimes sounds more like a mad
university lecture than a variety of entertainment.
Philip Fisher
Yeehad! The Musical
The Greater Los Angeles Performance Arts Project
By William Whitehurst
C Electric
****
Somewhere in Yeehad! there seems to be an underlying message
about the state of America today, but it's tough to tell exactly what
this message might be. Watching the show, one might be forgiven for
assuming all Americans are self-centered, wishy-washy, irritable and
shallow, for this show doesn't have many (if any) sympathetic characters.
The cast have almost uniformly good voices, which are shown off to
particular skill in an a capella number, although funnily enough
it's the two camera operators who have the best voices of the group
- a pity considering their parts are so small.
The show starts out slowly but quickly builds up to a good pace, and
while the first song goes on too long the rest are easy to listen to.
The show probably won't appeal to oil barons or conservatives, and
some of the humour might not be accessible to people who aren't familiar
with the ins and outs of life in the USA, but as the audience seemed
made up primarily of American tourists this shouldn't be a problem for
the company.
Rachel Lynn Brody
Binkie Beaumont and the Body
Backstage
By Mark Ryan
Venue 13
****
This comedy thriller will appeal to theatre aficionados but also to
a more general public. Like Theatre of Blood at the National
in London, it may not get a great critical reception since the body
is that of an unlamented critic. The fact that his name is the Wildean
Bunbury is a clue as to themes.
Binkie Beaumont was the great theatre impresario in Coronation year,
1953, when the play is set. The action takes place in his Will Goad-designed
office at HM Tennent above the theatres of Shaftesbury Avenue.
Beaumont, played by Chris Morgan, has to solve the mystery behind the
critic's death and also to keep the corpse a secret. This is less than
easy when four notoriously indiscreet thespians are traipsing in and
out of his office.
John Gielgud, Noel Coward, Dame Edith Evans (playing at Lady Bracknell
but looking more like Charley's Aunt) and stormy Emlyn Williams are
all well defined, thanks to the acting skills of Alastair Sill.
The two actors are clearly enjoying themselves, particularly when the
Dame gets locked into Bracknell mode, and director Alex Ferris keeps
everything moving along rapidly.
The play can be somewhat processional but has lots of laughs and a
suitably unexpected resolution, about which theatregoers have been sworn
to secrecy.
Philip Fisher
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