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Fringe 2006 Reviews (41)
Hillary Agonistes
By Nick Salamone
C Central
*****
Nick Salamone is a very talented man who has written what must surely
be one of the best, full-scale new plays in Edinburgh this year. He
also has his fun, Alec Guinness style, playing half a dozen variegated
characters, possibly the best and most amusing of whom is Professor
Stephen Hawking.
Where George Orwell set his dystopia in 1984, Salamone has picked the
United States 25 years later for this tale of the coming of the end
of the world, loosely based on Oedipus Rex.
Nancy Lindelberg as President Clinton (obviously Hillary rather than
her unfaithful husband) has manifold problems, despite the help of two
Scots, Prime Minister Brown and her press secretary, Suzan Crowley's
Morag, who also acts as chorus.
Salamone allows a single conceit, the idea that 65 million people,
1% of the world's inhabitants disappear simultaneously and then follows
it through logically, amusingly and fascinatingly.
Initially, the army suggest a mass alien abduction. Since, according
to statistics totted out by Morag, half of all Americans seem to believe
in little green men, this is less far fetched than it might sound.
The actual explanation, particularly propagated by the Rev Pat Robertson,
is hardly less likely and eventually drags in that renowned Muslim convert,
Chelsea Clinton (Rebecca Metz), who unlike her dad is not one of the
disappeared.
Hillary Agonistes is a well-constructed satire that deserves
to have a life after Edinburgh, both for its ingenuity and the chance
to watch the playwright in all of his different incarnations.
Philip Fisher
Petrol Jesus Nightmare # 5
(In the Time of the Messiah)
By Henry Adam
Traverse 1
**
Henry Adam's last play at Traverse during the Fringe was a claustrophobic
comedy about Scottish drug dealers. Despite the fact that Petrol
Jesus Nightmare is set in a burnt-out house occupied by Israeli
soldiers, there is something of the same atmosphere with too many bickering
people in too small a place.
Slomo and Buddy (James Cunningham and Aleksander Mikic) are beginning
to behave like animals after so long at war and so many atrocities seen.
They are kept in order by their own friendship and their sergeant Yossariat,
played by Joseph Thompson.
He is nicknamed Yossarian in an obvious reference to Catch 22
by one of the two unusual American visitors who wander around the war
zone oblivious to the explosive activity all around.
This is Lewis Howden as a Christian fundamentalist Texan in a cowboy
hat. His fellow traveller, the wife of an extremist right-wing rabb,i
is mad but may on occasion get to deep truths.
In particular Susan Vidler in this part accuses the rich oilman of
attempting to destabilise the region in an effort to discover oil. He
is also a man who at some level believes himself to be the new Messiah.
Petrol Jesus Nightmare # 5 (In the Time of the Messiah) is an
odd and uneven play with a title and set, by Soutra Gilmour, like an
art installation.
It is harsh and does not present easy answers although might be seen
as condemnatory of religious fundamentalists and globalising superpowers.
It also suffers from an awful lot of shouting that surely would be inadvisable
in a war zone.
Philip Fisher
Pop Art
Montezuma's Revenge
Assembly at St George's West
***
Forget Andy Warhol or Peter Blake. This is far more pop than art though
it does look good.
Like The Magnets, who are back in Edinburgh this year, Montezuma's
Revenge are an a capella band who not only sing in a wide range
of keys but provide vocal percussion.
The Dutch band have been going for over twenty years but their visit
to the acoustically friendly St George's West marks an Edinburgh debut.
The five-strong group both sound and look like a boy band, if you ignore
the age profile. The choice of music is firmly middle of the road but
that suited the audience fine. The teamwork, both in song and energetic
dance, is tremendous and fans will be wowed by familiar tunes such as
Prince's "Sign of the Times" and pandering to the locals in
the encore, The Proclaimers' "Sunshine on Leith".
The highlight though was a great rendition of The Jackson Five's "Girl
I Want You Back", used to serenade a teen in the front row, much
to the delight of her family and friends.
Philip Fisher
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