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Fringe 2006 Reviews (5)
End of the Rainbow
By Peter Quilter
Assembly Theatre, Marshall Cordell and Ross Mollison
Assembly Hall
*****
End of the Rainbow charts the Judy Garland's final weeks as
she lives at London's Ritz Hotel and performs at The Talk of the Town.
In most ways this is hardly a Fringe production. Caroline O'Connor won
a best actress award for her performance in the show in Australia and
the production values are of high quality commercial theatre.
Given the quality of the performances, the design, lighting, sound
and so on, in Fringe terms End of the Rainbow could only be a
five star show, and it has to be said that it scores very highly in
commercial theatre terms too.
O'Connor's performance is superb: she is Garland, and, although
she does dominate the stage, her fellow cast members - Jonathan Gavin
as accompanist Anthony Chapman and Michael Cormick as Garland's final
husband Mickey Deans - more than hold their own. The audience gave them
a standing ovation at the end, something for which the Fringe is not
noted.
Peter Lathan
Moon The Loon
Festival Highlights
Pleasance
****
Moon the Loon deals with the troubled life of Keith Moon, drummer
of The Who, his desperate need to be the centre of attention, and the
problems this causes for his wife Kim, his daughter and assistant Neil.
"I've spent half my life trying to escape being ordinary,"
he tells Kim, who longs to spend some time as just an ordinary family.
Centring around an incident when he was asked to open a new disco,
when he accidentally kills Neil, and a single session with a psychiatrist
to which he is sent by the band, the play is structurally quite complex,
comprising straight narrative, direct addressing of the audience, flashback
and glimpses of what is going on in his head. This could be confusing,
given the technical limitations the typically Fringe ten minute get-in
imposes, but the piece is well written and the actors accomplished and
it actually works very well.
The portrait that emerges is of a man who is driven and totally self-centred
but strangely likable. A good piece of writing, well performed by a
cast of three.
Peter Lathan
Whisky Galore - a Musical
Based on the novel by Compton Mackenzie
Book by Shona McKee McNeil, music and lyrics by Ian Hammond Brown
Cutting Edge Productions (Scotland)
Augustine's
*****
I first read Mackenzie's novel as a boy in the 50s and loved it but
have not looked at it since so I was interested to see whether it will
still give the same pleasure and how it would convert to a musical.
I wasn't disappointed. This production is great fun and a wonderfully
entertaining way to spend just over an hour in the company of some delightfully
odd characters. For those who don't know the story, it is wartime on
the Scottish island of Great Toddy (appropriate name!) and there is
a whisky drought which is having a terrible effect on a cast of characters
who include, among others, McPhee who collapses and dies; the islanders
believe, because of the lack of the water of life, the priest, the dour
"Wee Free" Mrs Campbell and her dominated son George; Macroon
who won't allow his daughter Perggy to marry a foreigner (Sgt Fred Odd,
who is stationed on the island), and Waggett, in charge of the local
Home Guard.
Condensing a novel to a full-length play is difficult enough, but to
get it down to seventy minutes, including a dozen musical numbers, while
still retaining the important bits of the plot and the characters, is
a major achievement.
It is well written and well performed, with the cast providing instrumental
accompaniment as well as singing. Well worth catching as a piece of
sheer entertainment amid the seriousness of much of the Fringe.
Peter Lathan
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