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Fringe 2005 Reviews (54)
Beastly Beauties
Devised by Carran Waterfield
Underbelly
*
This is one of those devised pieces that appears to be no more than
an opportunity for eight young women to prance around for 45 minutes.
The ostensible reason for their appearance is a meeting of the British
Society of Tree Lovers or some such.
They start off dressed in anoraks and eventually become ballerinas.
They support their favourite trees, rant a lot, bicker and do bits of
riverdancing.
Occasionally things turn nasty with beasts blundering around in darkness
and threats from an axe and a pyromaniac.
By the end, a handful get the chance to play musical instruments, sing
(rather nicely) and do a bit more dancing. If there is any greater point,
sadly it isn't immediately apparent.
Philip Fisher
Swift
By Jeffrey Mayhew
Assembly Rooms
****
Dean Jonathan Swift was a famous satirist of the early Eighteenth Century.
This solo performance by Jeffrey Mayhew starts with an extract from
his most famous work, Gulliver's Travels, and returns to the
much-loved novel again and again.
This fresh look at Gulliver and so much other work proves that in political
matters, the passage of 300 years makes little difference. Rivalries
and infighting today are remarkably similar to those in Swift's time,
if far more public.
In a little over an hour, we get extracts from poetry, prose, plays
and even Swift's will. The surprise for those who imagine that the 1960s
created the permissive society is that the writer, though a churchman,
could be bawdy with the best of them and some of the diseases from which
he suffered are commonly believed to be transmitted sexually.
This is far more than a memoir of the pessimistic Swift's life as it
was drawing to a close. He was a man who was constantly quipping and
name-dropping. The play therefore also covers the times in which he
lived with anecdotes about his protege, Gay, Pope (who had the idea
that eventually became Gulliver) and even the Queen.
Under Guy Masterson's direction, Jeffrey Mayhew demonstrates great
acting skill and sympathetically portrays a tremedous historical and
literary figure.
Philip Fisher
The Waiting Room
By Isabel Wright
Pend Fringe @ Gateway
*
This is the kind of work that if written by Pinter or Beckett might
be strangely moving, by an imitator, it will often be excruciating.
Two women are sheltering in a room during a major war in an unnamed
country. Marah (Sian Mannifield) was married to good, clever Abraham,
neurotic Naomi (Victoria Macleod) to their son, David.
Amongst much repetition, gnashing of teeth and wailing, we learn little
about the women but do discover that David has betrayed his "foreign"
wife and, before dying, joined the opposition and killed many people.
Every character has biblical names, which may be a clue to Isabel Wright's
intentions. For the audience, we see little more than two suffering
madwomen wallowing in their unhappiness.
While the underlying situation gave scope to write an important play
about the human condition, the meaning is too far below the surface
to support The Waiting Room's 70 minutes.
Philip Fisher
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