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Fringe 2005 Reviews (50)
MacHomer
By Rick Miller
Assembly Rooms
****
Canadian, Rick Miller has been touring his slickly inventive reworking
of Macbeth for ten years now. That is a mark of both its quality
and saleability.
The concept is simple. Take Macbeth and re-cast it using characters
from th ever-popular TV show, The Simpsons. Witless Homer gets
the lead and lovely Marge plays ambitious Lady Macbeth, crown perched
on beehive.
Miller's adaptation of Shakespeare is far closer to the original than
one might expect and this could even prove an easy way to introduce
children to the Bard. All of the main, and many of the secondary characters
are there and the plot follows through from the weird sisters to the
march of Burn 'em wood (a 10.5º Driver) to Dunsinane and the hero's
unlamented death.
There are many laughs along the way for lovers of Shakespeare and,
to a greater extent, The Simpsons. Miller is fantastically energetic,
pounding words out through a microphone that helps reproduce the familiar
voices.
He is greatly assisted by an animated backing film that introduces
characters, thereby helping identification, and also enhances the story.
This is hip, swashbuckling stiff and there is no doubt that it will
remain popular for as long as The Simpsons can be found on TV
and Mr Miller has the energy to take it around the world.
Philip Fisher
Hitting Funny
Written and performed by Philip Ralph
Volcano Theatre Company
Assembly Rooms
*(*)
My first note on this show, written within minutes of leaving the venue,
says "It didn't really".
Chris Rich is a stand-up comedian who is clearly on the verge of a
complete breakdown and is becoming increasingly desperate. His act becomes
more and more obscene and offensive in almost every sense of the word.
The problem is that the writing doesn't allow us to differentiate between
the play and the act, so the show comes across just as a bad stand-up
routine.
He got some laughs at the beginning but the audience became increasingly
stony-faced as the (long) hour progressed, so he got the failing comic
bit well: unfortunately it didn't come across clearly as a play, just
as bad stand-up.
Peter Lathan
Manifest Destiny
Music by Keith Burnstein, libretto by Dic Edwards
Daniel X Opera
Assembly @ St George's West
*****
Much has been written about Manifest Destiny's subject matter
(the War on Terror) and Keith Burnstein's music (more melodic than most
modern opera), and it is fitting that this should be so, for it is right
that opera should take on such subjects.
Leila, a Palestinian poetess, is writing a libretto for her partner,
Daniel, an Israeli composer who is gradually going blind. The intensification
of the polarisation between the West and the Muslim world leads her,
first, into Palestinian activism and then to the pursuit of Jihad and
martyrdom. Against this background a triangular love story grows (the
third leg of the triangle being another Jihadi, Mohammed) and the scenes
switche between Daniel's London flat, a terrorist training camp, the
White House and Guantanamo Bay.
Director David Wybrow has opted for a minimalist staging. On the high
St George's stage - no sightline problems that can bedevil some Fringe
venues here! - sits a piano at stage right where Daniel is first discovered
as the play opens, soon to be replaced by composer/accompanist Keith
Burstein. This might be thought of as simply a convenience, as Fringe
venues are not noted for having orchestra pits, but it is more than
that, for it enables the recovering Daniel to place his score (with
Leila's libretto) alongside the closed score of the opera at the very
end - a very telling moment.
Otherwise the set consists of three small black boxes that can be used
as seats and a screen at the rear onto which are projected words, still
images and video. High up on stage left is a screen onto which surtitles
are projected: thanks to the singers' clarity of diction this was unnecessary
for English speakers in the audience.
This minimalist approach to setting forces the audience to concentrate
on the performances: there is nothing to take the attention away from
the words and music. It also means that the singers have nothing to
hide behind - it is not enough to stand and sing; they must make full
use of body language.
It is a powerful piece, powerfully performed. Dic Edwards' libretto
is spare and to the point, although there are a few typically Edwards
obscurities - "Who is this partially explained person?" And
there is also the unexplained, as so often in Edwards' work. How is
it that the Director of the CIA can so dominate the President (called
Hilary and looking remarkably like the wife of a certain ex-president)?
We are presented with two alternatives: the polarisation of east and
west as represented by the White House ("This is the American century"
sings the CIA Director) and the possibilities of rapprochement,
as exemplified by the love of Daniel and Leila and Mohammed's final
hugely symbolic embrace of Daniel at the end.
Political opera is a very rare bird, even today, and this piece is
one to be cherished.
Peter Lathan
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