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Fringe 2006 Reviews (3)
Did
You Used to be R.D. Laing?
By Mike Maran
Mike Maran/Elevator East to Edinburgh
Valvona & Crolla
****
Taking place in the air-conditioned back room of Elm Row's Italian
delicatessen, this play features live music by pianist David Milligan
and an engaging performance by Mike Maran. It's the story of renowned
Glaswegian psychiatrist R. D. Laing, whose contribution to modern mental
medicine seems to have involved a lot of listening and understanding
of his patients. The man's compassion and caring nature come through
well over the course of the show, and, although the target audience
probably skews slightly older than the fringe average, those in search
of a civilized and, dare I say, educational evening's entertainment
will not be disappointed.
Special kudos to Maran for directing himself in this production in
a manner which exhibited clear focus and a complete lack of self-indulgence
- traits one feels fortunate to find when the same person is responsible
for script, acting, and direction.
Rachel Lynn Brody
Breaking The Pope
By Colin Martin
Borderline Theatre Company
Baby Belly
***
A well put together show about the Irish Magdalaine houses, this does
not tread new ground but what it does cover, it covers well. Solid performances
from the three 'fallen women,' with particular kudos to Layla Amir-Soleymani
for her dynamic and emotionally varied portrayal of Claire. The most
interesting thing about the show is the venue and the way writer/director
Carlton Martin uses the chapel-like setting to its best advantage.
Rachel Lynn Brody
Newsrevue
C, Chambers Street, Edinburgh
****
The world's longest running live comedy from the Canal Cafe in London
once again visits Edinburgh with highlights from its regular shows over
the past year. This year it has moved to a different performance space,
from the proscenium stage in the basement at Chambers Street to a thrust
configuration on the top floor, which does give it a more intimate feel.
If anyone hasn't seen this group before, it covers the same satirical
ground as shows like Have I Got News For You on BBC television
and The News Quiz on BBC Radio 4, but in the form of sketches
and songs, the latter taking the form of new lyrics about current events
set to existing songs in a wide variety of musical styles. However Newsrevue
takes its humour far beyond anything that would be allowed on the public
airwaves.
At its best, the writing in Newsrevue is superb, biting, revealing
and hilarious; at its worst, it is cruel without being funny or offensive,
bordering on school playground humour. This year's show contains a lot
about Blair, Prescott, Blunkett and Brown, plus the 'war on terror'
and suicide bombers, but surprisingly little about Bush. Perhaps they
think that every joke about Bush has already been done, or the man himself
is funnier than anything they could invent. Sometimes the jokes are
taken past where they are most effective, as though a 'quicky' has been
stretched into a sketch with the laughs diminishing as the sketch goes
on, but most pieces hit their mark and produce a lot of laughs from
at least part of the audience.
We are treated to hoodies selling titles as well as drugs, a wonderful
version of I Want To Break Free about wanting to leave the mobile
network 3 because of not being able to get a signal anywhere, Prescott
singing a Blur song about his house in the country (with the wonderful
line 'I got morning glory 'cos I live like a Tory'), a version of Trinny
and Susannah (trying to help out Ruth Kelly) who are even more smug
and self-obsessed than the real thing, a Marks and Spencer-style advert
for David Cameron, a merciless attack on TV adverts and anyone who falls
for their claims and a TV 'phone-in to decide which child is allowed
to survive when a school building collapses. The whole show is wrapped
up as 'tragedy entertains you' in a dig at the content of a lot of modern
TV shows, to the tune of a song made famous by Robbie Williams.
On the other hand there are gags about disabled people, Moslems, Blunkett's
blindness, homosexuality in the Lib Dems and Mrs McCartney's wooden
leg that are at least balancing precariously on, if not crossing, that
fine line of taste.
As always, the performers - Andrew Spiers, Ben Wilson, Gemma Arrowsmith
and Jessica Ransom - are superb and exhaustingly energetic for the full
hour; musical director Pete Smith joins everything seamlessly and there
is great singing, acting and dancing with some excellent choreography
from Jack Rebaldi. Director Gemma Gross has kept the frenetic pace of
past shows that delivers new gags constantly, hardly giving the audience
a chance to breath between laughs.
This is a must in Edinburgh for any fans of satire, but please don't
be like around a quarter of the audience on the night I went and arrive
late as you will not only annoy the rest of the audience but are sure
to miss a few moments of comedy gold.
David Chadderton
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