|
Fringe 2006 Reviews (22)
Average Minotaur
By Alex Barr
Greenside
**
In Alex Barr's new play, Mino - the average minotaur of the title -
is apparently a powerful man in modern-day Greece, but he is locked
away from the rest of the world, protected by an impenetrable labyrinth,
the entrance to which is in an empty meter cupboard. Here he lives like
a slob, having his every need supplied to him and watching news and
trashy programmes on a TV helmet shaped like the head of a bull. However
perhaps his manservant, the only person who can navigate the labyrinth,
is using his position more to serve himself than his master. Is Mino
responsible for the evil he allows to be committed around him because
of his ignorance?
The play uses the names from the original Greek myth but brings in
more modern elements, such as mobile 'phones, television and GPS navigation,
and tries to look at issues such as abuse of illegal immigrants, abuse
of power and sibling relationships. However it does not really deal
with these issues in any depth - merely brushes superficially past them.
Mino and his sister Ariadne speak in modern prose, whereas the other
characters speak in a slightly stilted way that tries very hard to be
lyrical and poetic but rarely achieves this.
There are some reasonable performances; the actor playing Mino is on
stage for most of the time and manages to hold it all together, and
the actress playing his housekeeper produces an emotional performance.
The lighting is pretty awful, using just parcans pointed in the general
direction of the stage which light the whole end of the room, not just
the stage, (made worse by the white proscenium arch) and leaves a thick
shadow two thirds of the way up the backcloth.
This play has a few interesting ideas, but its link with the story
of Theseus and the Minotaur seems to be an attempt to give this play
some gravitas and does not add anything to the original story.
At nearly an hour and three quarters, this is not just rather long for
a Fringe production but far too long for the rather thin story it tries
to tell.
David Chadderton
Floating
By Hugh Hughes
Pleasance Courtyard
****
What a nice man! Like a presidential candidate, Hugh Hughes shakes
hands with every audience member at the end of Floating.
This may seem like whimsy but it fits in perfectly with the homely
but friendly tone of this quirky show that sits somewhere on the fence
between theatre and comedy.
Hugh Hughes plays a man called Hugh Hughes, while cheery Sioned Rowlands
plays herself and also other residents of Anglesey, the island from
which HH hails.
For 70 minutes, the pair illustrate the tale of how, commencing on
April 1st 1982 as HH was about to desert the island, Anglesey left its
place next to Wales and went on a jaunty cruise around the Atlantic.
Hughes' delivery is like that of a benign teacher or lecturer and audience
members learn a surprising amount about a wide variety of subjects including
the Welsh language, the Gulf Stream and, of course, Anglesey, almost
through osmosis.
This journey is shown using the lowest tech multimedia imaginable but
tremendous charm and a great deal of preparation. We meet an assortment
of locals including HH's grandmother and his terrifying old schoolteacher
until the final return to Wales and normality.
If the harshness of contemporary life is beginning to get you down,
try refreshing your palate with the good natured silliness of Floating.
Philip Fisher
Radio
By Al Smith
Underbelly
*****
Radio is a remarkably intelligent monologue that bears some
similarity to Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegone stories. It is,
in theory, the rendering of a single letter from the protagonist to
his girl back home in San Francisco.
The packed house was witness to the simple story of one ordinary man
from the American Mid-West. His life and love is paralleled with the
happenings in the country in which he lives.
Charles Jr, played by the writer, was born in the middle of the last
century in the town of Lebanon, which it was subsequently discovered
was the dead centre of the USA.
This is of significance since his father had the kind of intuition
that makes people very rich. He set up in the flag business and got
rich on the back of his location.
He then upped sticks much to the shock of his family and moved to North
Dakota. Mysteriously, Alaska came into the Union and once again he got
rich from centrality. Hawaii added a further dimension and another move
and riches beyond imagination arrived for a flag salesman with Vietnam
making them popular for protest burnings and also funeral corteges.
Radio is about far more than one family's ordinary life and
special luck. Charles Jr wants to be an astronaut and uses his radio
to keep himself abreast of news in his home country and the space race.
The finale of this subtly political piece is very moving as we discover
the final piece of the jigsaw and realise how close to heaven and then
the moon that our hero got in his own space race.
Al Smith has already won plaudits and awards for last year's Enola
and deserves to do so again.
Philip Fisher
Next
page - - - Index
|
