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The
Edinburgh Fringe
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Fringe 2005 Reviews (57)I'll Sell the House in Which
I Can Live No More This is the second piece by a top Polish company with no English translation. However, The KTO Theatre's tribute to Czech novelist Bohumil Hrabal has no words and therefore is internationally intelligible. Hrabal was one of a group of writers who emerged in the Soviet-controlled Czechoslovakia. He wrote great satirical novels and short stories. The most famous of these, Closely Observed Trains, was filmed by Milos Forman and is now a classic. Jerzy Zon has devised this physical play to illuminate the life and work of the writer. The scenes are broken by the sound of racing trains for obvious reasons. The team of three men and two women run through a life to the accompaniment of local folk music. We start with a hospital scene reminiscent of a Carry On film, as an expectant father struggles to maintain his composure (and almost his life). From there, christenings and marriages, life and eventual death are all put under the microscope. Zon has a good eye for the visually humorous, which is necessary for anybody trying to emulate Hrabal. In addition to the linear life, there is a series of four interludes during which the audience is transported to European capitals by means of a simple contraption operated by a strolling player. These trips become increasingly outlandish and in the case of Moscow explosive. This is physical theatre at its very best and fans will be in raptures, especially over a beautiful wedding scene during which the stage is eventually overcome by innumerable, carefully illuminated wedding dresses. Philip Fisher Dylan Thomas: Return Journey
This occasion nearly finished off Bob Kingdom. The actor has been playing Stan Laurel for a fortnight and was very clearly ailing when he appeared at the lectern to deliver his Dylan Thomas performance. He claims that after twenty years on the circuit, he is finally going tobe retiring Dylan Thomas: Return Journey. It is hard to believe that this is true but at the end of the show, his producer Richard Jordan made a presentation to mark the first farewell. Unlike his Dylanite rival at Venue 13, Kingdom looks the part, at least at a distance. After twenty years, it is hardly surprising that give or take the odd cough and a little hoarseness, the production is slick. The material somehow manages to ignore Thomas' best known work Under Milk Wood. It does cover the poetry, lecture material from the USA and, best of al,l the short stories. Kingdom is at his best reciting poems such as A Prayer for My Father and animating short stories. A fair proportion of the 80 minutes is taken up with two, Return Journey, after which the performance is entitled and the equally appropriate A Story. Both say so much about the man and his times. A Story recalls a day trip by the village men to which the young Thomas gets a backdoor invitation. This is filled with comic characters who could easily be close relatives of some of the Llaregub favourites. Return Journey is a poignant tale of the man's return to boyhood haunts, fourteen years on. It is sad to think that Dylan Thomas: Return Journey will never make its own Return Journey to Edinburgh after its impending tour. Fingers crossed - enjoy it next year! Philip Fisher Come Again - The World of
Peter Cook and Dudley Moore Chris Bartlett and Nick Awde have spent a great deal of time between them criticising the work of others. Now they have fallen for that fatal disease of theatre critics, the belief that they can write a better play than those that they regularly rip apart. Come Again may not be perfect but it is certainly well above average Edinburgh fare and downhill with a following breeze, might just make it on to a small West End stage, if anyone has the inclination to take it there. The formula of taking a popular comedy show from 30 to 40 years ago and turning it into a nostalgic play has proved popular over the last couple of years. We have seen Tommy Cooper, the Carry On team, the Goons, Morecambe and Wise and Kenneth Horne, so why not Peter Cook and Dudley Moore? This play is more than just a rehash of comic routines. It is structured around a 1982 television interview between the presumably fictional northerner Tony Ferguson, who could as easily have been called Michael Parkinson, and Dud. Before long though, to the astonishment of the interviewee, Peter Cook emerges from the audience and takes over the show. That was both his charm and his weakness. In just over an hour, we find out how Dud from Dagenham and upper-class Pete became one of the most successful comic duos of the Sixties following their initial meeting as part of the Beyond the Fringe team. The relationship between them is distinctly odd and get close to sado-masochistic, at least in a mental sense. While Dudley Moore struggled to make the most of his talents and use them to acquire riches and tall blondes, Peter Cook was almost the opposite, lazily happy to drink and chain-smoke himself to an early grave one making fun of his little, club-footed pal. Eventually, while the usually laid-back Cook could see no problem with his inability to turn up on stage either on time or sober, it drove Moore to break the relationship. This might have been the best decision of his life since it led him to Hollywood and film stardom in 10 and Arthur. Come Again succeeds not only in its aim to be a double bio-play but also in giving its audience a lot of laughs as it does so. In particular, Scott Handy, who is better known for his RSC performances than comedy, makes an excellent Peter Cook and is well supported by Kevin Bishop as Moore. Philip Fisher |
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