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Fringe 2006 Reviews (20)
Diary of a Nobody
By George and Weedon Grossmith
Assembly Rooms
**
It is to be hoped that this review is unrepresentative. For whatever
reason, at the performance under review, Rodney Bewes had a complete
shocker, never getting into either his part or, more damagingly, the
script.
That was a real pity as the idea of the Likely Lad playing Mr Pooter,
the ultimate diarist and arguably, one of the funniest men in the language,
was delectable. The scene was set by a charming cartoon set based on
the Pooter drawing room.
Bewes took us through Pooter's Greatest Hits with the red enamel paint,
the Mansion House Ball and the vicissitudes of young Lupin, both in
love and employment (or the lack of both).
There were inevitably some great laughs but not as many as there should
have been and these divided between the lines from the script and the
actor's numerous asides.
Philip Fisher
Dr. Ledbetter's Experiment
By Tom Swift
Traverse 5, University of Edinburgh Medical Faculty
***
The Traverse likes its site specific jaunts and tends to do them very
well. Often it is possible to unsettle the punters in ways that are
not feasible in the main house.
Only in the bowels of an old university building is it possible to
send a couple of dozen people through the narrowest of tunnels into
a pitch dark room. You will already have gathered that the story of
Dr. Ledbetter is not for the faint hearted.
The titular medico, played by Rory Nolan, is introduced at the scene
of a public execution, which he cannot watch and rails against as an
abomination. His view of Charles Darwin's work is similar and, despite
the entreaties of his wife and patron, played by Rae Hendrie and Damien
Devaney, he sticks to his guns.
However, things begin to change when he is observed at his work. There,
he is revealed for a second time as a reckless womaniser and also as
addicted to a drug that might be opium.
The meat of the plot follows his maddened efforts to discover the secret
of rejuvenation, and the costly results of his experiments.
The story is pretty slim but the impact of the play in and around the
University Medical Faculty is magnified by the setting, especially with
an unusual soundtrack presented by a radio transmission through headphones.
In particular, the chance to see the Anatomical Museum is worth the
admission price alone.
Philip Fisher
Devil's Advocate
By Donald Freed
Assembly Rooms
*
This long two-hander explores the final days of General Noriega, the
former President of Panama. Focus is sharpened by placing him in close
confinement with a priest who might have come straight out of Graham
Greene.
By the time that Ignatius Anthony's Noriega reaches the sanctuary offered
by Archbishop Laboa, he has become a maddened bull of a man and spends
the play's 90 minutes ranting, generally at top volume, only drowned
out by the music played by his American invaders in an attempt to drive
him mad. It certainly had that affect on some audience members who are
not used to hearing Jimi Hendrix's Star Spangled Banner at concert
pitch.
In front of crucifixion imagery, Noriega raves inconsolably, invoking
past demons such as Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin, as he awaits arrest
from the forces invading his country in old George Bush's Operation
Just Cause.
The priest, played by Peter Dineen, is dying and has a history as the
Devil's Advocate, a cross between The Grand Inquisitor and the chair
of the committee that elevates saints.
This unlikely pair build a kind of mutual respect but very little understanding
emerges from the repetitious ramblings of the former leader who knows
that he will be a dead man sooner than his terminally ill bedfellow.
Somehow, despite the efforts of all concerned, no true picture of either
man or their countries emerges, thus negating the presumed purpose of
the play.
Philip Fisher
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