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Fringe 2006 Reviews (19)
Black Watch
By Gregory Burke
Traverse 4, The University of Edinburgh Drill Hall
*****
This should really be a 6* play. This is not to show disrespect to
those must-see shows that get the top score but to recognise that if
one sees one new show as good as Black Watch in a year that is
cause to feel joy.
Black Watch also sees the coming of age of the infant National
Theatre of Scotland, co-producers with the Traverse, and a victory for
the whole team there led by Vicky Featherstone and the director of this
play, John Tiffany.
Every critic in town is talking enthusiastically about this very Scottish
play about a regiment with a 300 year history but no future. Far more
though, this is an all-embracing view of what it means to fight in Iraq
today.
This play has everything. It combines the best qualities of a multi-layered
novel, an action movie, the songs and movement of musicals, the analysis
of TV documentaries and the ubiquitous "Experience" so popular
in museums.
After a breakneck run through the history of the Black Watch, measured
in battles won and costumes worn, the main focus is on a small group
of serving soldiers. They are interviewed by a researcher for a play,
played by Paul Higgins who also transforms into their hard-nosed sergeant.
These men have all left the "Gallant Forty Twa" after the
horrors of life in Iraq. These are brought to chilling life for an audience
seated in traverse in an old Drill Hall.
The sights and sounds of war can never have been so realistically portrayed
away from a battlefield and most audience members will feel numbed and
shocked long before the end.
This is thanks to a brilliant soundscape from Gareth Fry, accompanying
a well-balanced structure which mixes the politics of war with the humanity
of the soldiers and tradition of a regiment that still has men whose
families have served for generations. These are nicely spoken for in
contrasting voices by an upper class officer played by Peter Forbes
and the salt of the earth Tommy, Brian Ferguson's Cammie Campbell.
They are part of John Tiffany's well-drilled team both on and off stage,
who maintain pace throughout and look the part, thanks inter alia
to movement expert, Steven Hoggett from Frantic Assembly.
This ambitious play must surely tour after its four weeks on the Fringe
and has the scope to make a fine anti-war movie too. Tickets will not
be easy to obtain but the effort will be richly rewarded.
Philip Fisher
Pumpgirl
By Abbie Spallen
Traverse Theatre
***(*)
One of London's premiere new writing theatres, The Bush, has brought
artistic director Mike Bradwell's production of Abbie Spallen's play
Pumpgirl to the Traverse for the Festival with an all-Northern
Irish cast.
The Pumpgirl of the title is the girl who operates the petrol pump
at the local garage, who is having an affair with a married man, 'No
Helmet' Hammy. She tries to act as one of the lads, but is not respected
at all by them, described at one point as 'the one who walks like John
Wayne and looks like his horse'.
The story is told as a series of monologues delivered directly to the
audience, telling the same story from three different points of view
- those of Pumpgirl, Hammy and Hammy's wife Sinead. This is very similar
to another Irish play premiered in the UK by the Bush ten years ago,
This Lime Tree Bower, written and directed by a 21-year-old pre-Weir
Conor McPherson. Spallen's play uses much shorter monologues and does
not achieve the same lyricism, depth of characterisation or narrative
drive as the McPherson piece.
The actors create the characters well: Orla Fitzgerald plays the the
title character as a grown-up tomboy, James Doran is the slightly seedy
Hammy and Maggie Hayes plays his long-suffering wife Sinead. Bob Bailey's
design is a simple backdrop with a battered petrol pump, which looks
just right and is all that is needed for a play with only verbal action.
We see relationships develop and break down in some gory details, and
there is plenty in here that is funny, sad and shocking. This is a difficult
format to pull off completely though, and there are times when it would
be nice to see some of the things that happen in the story, not just
hear about them in the past tense.
David Chadderton
Strawberries in January
By Evelyne de la Chenelière, in a version by Rona Munro
Traverse
*****
The Traverse has partnered with new writing company Paines Plough to
produce Evelyne de la Chenelière's romantic comedy in an English
translation by Scottish writer Rona Munro.
François runs a small café in Montreal, but he is also
working on a screenplay that uses events from his life, with slight
twists from what really happened. Sophie is his friend, formerly his
fiancée and before that his flatmate. Robert is a professor of
literature who is a regular at the café, and he has a brief affair
with Lea who runs a country B&B and who then comes to Montreal to
look for her old school friend, ending up in François's café.
This is only one of many coincidences that become necessary to come
to a good rom-com resolution, which get gradually more and more ridiculous
- and funny.
The construction of the plot is far more complicated to explain than
to watch. Sometimes we see what happens, sometimes we see François's
screenplay version based on what really happened, sometimes a character
tells us what happened and it comes to life in front of us - even when
they are lying. It looks at both male and female failures and frustrations
in relationships with frightening but hilarious accuracy, and so avoids
falling into the category of whatever the theatrical equivalent of 'chick
lit' or 'chick flick' is.
Roxana Silbert's production is slick and very funny with some great
performances from the cast. Gabriel Quigley shows great comic talent
in her portrayal of Sophie, and Paul Thomas Hickey is also very funny
as François. They are very ably supported by Lesley Hart as Lea
and Phil McKee as Robert.
Emma Williams's design uses tall louvered doors as a backdrop, which
open to change the scene, revealing different scenery behind. There
are some nice, subtle three-dimensional sound effects from sound designer
Colin Pink, although the reverb during the lecture sounds more like
a metal sewer than a lecture hall. There is wonderful moment right at
the end, when what looks as though it is turning into a dual sex scene
actually becomes something completely different in a very ingenious
way.
This is a very entertaining production, shown by the roar of delighted
chatter that started up immediately in the auditorium when the house
lights came on at the end.
David Chadderton
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