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Fringe 2005 Reviews (58)
Hush
By Samantha Wright
Pleasance Dome
****
Hush announces the arrival of Canadian Samantha Wright as a
really promising new playwright. This claustrophobic two-hander dissects
a marriage at the point where the wife is nine months pregnant with
the couple's first child.
In some ways, it links a slice of life portrayal of marriage with a
Tale of the Unexpected that Roald Dahl might have been tempted
to pen.
Griff Savage, played by Alex Palme, should be a proud father-to-be,
happily painting the impending arrival's bedroom. In fact, he is on
the edge of an alcohol-fuelled breakdown that threatens his family and
his sanity.
Juliet Cowan's Lydia is a normal, capable woman persevering with her
life as she carries her child and supports her husband.
The first part of the play is naturalistic as Lydia bursts in on the
catatonic Griff and rather mildly berates him for his lack of responsibility.
After a scene of brinkmanship that is brought to an abrupt close, there
is suddenly a well-engineered switch to a meeting between father and
unborn son. This is equally unsettling but reveals that the neurotic
almost-dad is having doubts about the not-quite-child's paternity.
The chilling final scene brings about a showdown between husband and
wife that has enough reality underlying it to be terrifying.
In the hands of director Donnacadh O'Briain, this sometimes unlikely
tale reveals much manifest truth about the insecurities of parents as
a birth approaches. Both Alex Palmer and Juliet Cowan, who manages to
convince as the child in addition to his mother, are utterly believable.
For those who are unable to get to Edinburgh, Hush transfers
to the Arcola Theatre from early October.
Philip Fisher
Parade
Book by Alfred Uhry, music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown, co-conceived
by Hal Prince
Giudecca Productions
Komedia Southside
*****
This is not your typical Fringe production. There's a cast of 22 and
an orchestra of 13, all professionals. Members of the cast's credits
include Jesus Christ Superstar (tour), Henry V and Marat/Sade
(RSC), Oklahoma! (RNT), Oliver! (London Palladium), Joseph
(West End), Miss Saigon (West End), Starlight Express
(West End), Les Miserables (West End), Phantom (West End)
and Ragtime (Piccadilly). It is also the Tony Award winning show's
UK premiere. The woman next to me said at the end that you wouldn't
get better in the West End and, apart from the fact that the set design
and lighting plot are necessarily limited by the resources of a Fringe
venue and the time constraints of having to fit in with a packed programme
of shows in the same venue, she was right.
Whether or not it will make it into the West End depends more on the
availablility of money and a suitable theatre than the quality of the
show itself. That the show itself (forgetting this particular production
for the moment) hasn't made it to London is surprising: one would have
thought that a Tony Award winner (1999 Best Book for a Musical and Best
Original Score, plus seven nominations, including Best Musical) was
a pretty fair bet for a West End outing.
On the other hand, perhaps producers are out off by the fact that it
is a pretty bleak show in terms of its subject matter, with an ending
that leaves a very bad taste in the mouth. Not, I hasten to add, in
theatrical terms but in terms rather of the story on which it is based.
It is a true story, the trial of Jewish factory manager Leo Frank in
Atlanmta, Georgia, in 1913 where, as the publicity succinctly puts it,
the murder of a young girl ignites dormant prejudice as media frenzy
incites a community to revenge.
In fact, it goes beyond that: it also shows the cynical manipulation
of the justice system for personal political ends and the red neck bigotry
of self-styled Christians. There are echoes of The Crucible,
showing that more than 200 years after the events of Salem (and forty
years before the House Committee on Un-American Activities) bigotry-fuelled
hysteria was a very potent force. Perhaps there are overtones here in
these days of Homeland Security in the US and government reaction to
the bombs of 7/7 in the UK.
There is also a sub-theme dealing with the relationship between Frank
and his wife Louise, who laments at one point that he is making her
"feel as useless as you always have."
It begins quietly enough and, to be honest, there was nothing to distinguish
it from a host of other American musicals (for it is in the American
rather than European idiom) until the song Big News, at which
point it really takes off and Jason Robert Brown's music takes on a
harder edge. From that point on it holds the audience in an ever-tightening
grip until, at the end, they rose in a standing ovation, something which,
I am told, has happened after every performance.
Standing ovations are not something we associate with the Fringe but
this was well deserved. The performances are excellent. It is very much
an ensemble piece so it would be invidious to single out any individual
performer: all play to the highest standard. It began previewing on
5th August, opened on 9th and has played every day of the Festival without
a break - and without losing any energy or commitment from the company,
if the performance I saw (the twentieth) was typical.
It would be a great shame, when many lesser shows are already gearing
up for London runs, if London audiences are denied the opportunity to
see it. West End? Well, quality is not the only factor which governs
a West End transfer, but producers would be well advised to take a long
look!
Peter Lathan
Living Pretty
By Ray Brown
Normal Productions in association with the Leicester Haymarket
Theatre Workshop
****
Living Pretty is the story of Alfred Williams, who came to England
from Jamaica in the fifties and ended up living in Kirkstall, Leeds,
where he died in 1997. Ray Brown, who wrote and directed Living Pretty,
became a neighbour and friend, and wrote his biography.
Living Pretty allows Alfred Williams to tell his own story,
from his childhood through his immigration to Britain, his experiences
of racism and his settling down, to learning of the cancer which was
to kill him. He potters around the allotment which was the centre of
his life in retirement and simply talks to the audience.
What comes across to us is a picture of a man of wisdom, courage, gentle
humour and, above all, dignity, all suffused with the love of the writer,
to whom he was "like a brother and a father", for him.
Everal A Walsh plays Williams as a child, a man in the prime of his
life and an old man, with equal facility, and he is accompanied onstage
by Litty Eziefula who quietly sings or hums snatches of songs which
underscore the text, acting as a living soundtrack, reinforcing and
adding to the emotional impact.
At the end of an hour we come away feeling enriched by our contact
with this man.
Peter Lathan
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