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Fringe 2006 Reviews (57)
Political Animal
Baby Belly
***
Andy Zaltzman, the comedian and host in this political comedy, is witty
and funny. He divided the time between his gags and those of his two
guests, two stand-up comics who differ from one night to the other.
On the evening I attended Nick Doody and Russel Brand made their appearance.
The jokes were amusing and some even thought provoking. When the audience
was asked where we shall start, it was suggested 'Antarctica'. Zaltzman's
amusement was clear though as a seasoned comedian he seemed at home
with any continent. Despite audience requests to cover Israel he did
not indulge in the run of the mill anti-Israeli jokes which would no
doubt find receptive audience.
The old days of the BBC Green Book of what cannot be made fun of are
well dead and buried. God, Iraq and 7/7 were all legitimate sources
for fun and ridicule in the Zaltzman and Doody repertoire.
I enjoyed Nick Doody's performance so much that I made sure I saw his
solo show Nick Doody - Before He Kills Again, which was fun,
but the jokes delivered on the Political Animal Show featured
the best of his show.
Rivka Jacobson
The Allotment
By Andy Barrett
New Perspective Theatre Company
Pleasance
***(*)
A trio of asylum seekers, two male and a young female, are brought
together to work on an allotment by Mandy (Portia Booroff), an eccentric
and neurotic MA mature student, who proposes to use the three as part
of her research and dissertation on Occupational Therapy.
The allotment is owned by Fadila (Julia Munrow), herself an asylum
seeker well established in the UK who is too busy to cultivate the allotment
and therefore happy for Mandy and her team to turn it into a yielding
vegetable patch.
In an onion- peeling process, each of the five characters uncover something
of his/her past. Trauma has many shades and impacts the characters in
different ways. They are all there to learn to cope with their past.
Siya, a Kurdish Iraqi (Guy Rhys), a maths teacher in Iraq, has been
waiting for three years for the Home Office's decision to grant him
asylum. He is short tempered and eagerly waits to see his wife and daughter
from who he was separated in Spain in the course of his clandestine
journey to the UK. Nenad (Julian Rivett) hails from the former Yugoslavia.
He uses the allotment to grow 'poppies' and is happy to go back home,
while Warsan (Bobbie Hussein) a delightful young woman from Ethiopia
who tries to progress from inability to communicate in English to fluency
in the language. She not only cultivates her plot in the allotment and
contributes to the group, but also tries to adjust to her newly acquired
world where poetry and dreams are not strangers to her daily life in
a country granting her refuge.
Booroff's performance was particularly good. She often provided comic
relief by her tireless attempts to apply text-book definitions to each
and every statement and act of the members of the group.
The Allotment is a commendable attempt to examine and deal sensitively
and humorously with a social and political 'hot potato'.
Rivka Jacobson
The Convent
Jo Strømgren Koopani
Aurora Nova
*****
Thunder and storm are the prelude to the tempestuous relationship between
three nuns. At the Convent deprivation of food and other comforts denudes
the dark emotions of the three Sisters.
Catholicism furnishes not only the location but also the skeletal symbolism
which goes beyond Christianity into the raw emotions of selfishness,
collusion, abuse of power and betrayal mingled with manipulated superstitions.
The language of communication sounds like a mangled version of German
and more general North European dialects. Though it is incomprehensible
in a linguistic sense, together with mime and dance the characters convey
brilliantly the depth of emotions and the built-up tension, suspicion
and bullying which leads to murder in a small community where sisterly
solidarity may have been expected.
The bread, the body of Christ, is the object that tears this trinity
apart. Susanne, the eldest, momentarily acts as a Mother Superior but
very quickly reveals herself to be a tyrannical and cruel individual
who loves to abuse her power. Bernie, initially the caring and sharing
member of the trio gradually learns to turn the tables to her advantage
in the face of abuse and deprivation from food.
All three actresses - Guri Glans, Gunhild Aubertopdal and Ulla Marie
Broch - deserve applause. Their performances are exceptionally exquisite.
Despite the growing menacing tension between the protagonists, humorous
mime provides occasional light relief to the embracing sounds of Mozart
and Ruedi Krebs.
This is one of those plays that make the theatre an exceptional experience.
Rivka Jacobson
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