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Fringe 2006 Reviews (62)
Black Comedy
By Peter Shaffer
Dreamwalk Productions
C Venues
***
A cute, funny satire about upper-crust Londoners in a blackout. The
device of reversing lighting states so the audience sees the opposite
to what the characters see works well, and the performances are on the
whole endearing. In the end, however, the blackout gimmick is no excuse
for a the increasingly grasping plot.
Rachel Lynn Brody
Mickey Mouse is Dead
By Justin Sherin
Spankin Yanks
Pleasance Baby Grand
****
A fine way to end my 2006 Fringe, the last performance of Mickey
Mouse is Dead took place earlier this afternoon. Sherin's script
leaves a little to be desired in the realm of resolution, but this examination
of suspicion and finger-pointing on the Disney lot in the 50s sports
some airtight performances and a gripping plot. Kudos to Spankin' Yanks
for taking a dingy little room at the back of the Pleasance Courtyard
and turning it into a real pressure cooker. Anthony Manna and James
Lloyd Reynolds hold the audience in the palm of their hands.
Rachel Lynn Brody
I Have Been Here Before
By J.B Priestley
Edinburgh Theatre Arts
St Ninian's Hall
****
I have been here before, / But when or how I cannot tell; / I know
the grass beyond the door, / The sweet keen smell, / The sighing sound,
the lights around the shore.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti's "Sudden Light"
Seasoned actors bring more then just the text to the stage, they bring
the story, and this production of J.B Priestley's play, I Have Been
Here Before, highlights the difference between amateur dramatics
and professional theatre. Though the Edinburgh Theatre Arts only produce
on average two professional productions per year, they understand that
it is not quantity but quality that matters.
I Have Been Here Before (1937, inspired by P.D Ouspensky's theory
of eternal reoccurrence from A New Model of the Universe) uses
the three act structure to tell this story about déjà
vu, time, and our personal responsibly to use this time wisely.
The play asks poetic and philosophical questions about our own destiny
and the power we personally have to evoke change in our lives. When
Dr. Görtler, the exiled German residing in England at a historically
sensitive time, (played with consistence by Stuart Mitchell), states
that he is, "…not afraid to think of reality", he is
not only referring to Walter Ormund's (played sympathetically by John
McLinden) large intake of alcohol, but is also making a comment on the
social times.
Dr. Görtler's function in the play is a little similar to that
of the Inspector in An Inspector Calls (1944) - that being to
expose the truth about the other character's actions, or, in Dr. Görtler's
case, their possible truths, which he is privy to through his claims
of recurring premonitions experienced in his dreams. As he records these
visions in his notebook, he feels compelled to track the three figures.
Walter Ormund, the highly stressed workaholic, Janet Ormund (played
by Suzie Le Morven), the emotionally withdrawn wife, played with both
strength and melancholy, and Oliver Farrant (David McCallum), the younger
man who works for Walter Ormund. He tracks them down at the Black Bull
Inn in Yorkshire. For all Dr. Görtler prophecies, he is still the
unwelcome messenger for the most part and eventually is asked to leave
by the proprietor Sally Pratt, (played by Edith Peers). His leaving
brings the mystical collapse of these relationships and here is where
the rhythm of the play shifts.
The three act structure in I Have Been Here Before provides
some level of predictability in the story. There is a lack of any powerfully
dramatic surprises in the play: for example, when Walter Ormund finds
the compassion to let his unhappy wife go. However, what is interesting
about this part of the play is the message that we can intervene in
our own destiny and change our path and those of others.
The production is conservative in taste and style, staying true to
the original text; however the theme of time never ages. We are a culture
obsessed with time and the excruciating fear that we are all running
out of it. I Have Been Here Before, though set in the 1930s,
is as prominent a story now as in the early part of the twentieth century,
if not more. I enjoyed watching and listening to I Have Been Here
Before, and I often scribbled down random pearls of universal wisdom,
from the characters' dialogue. For example, Janet Ormund stated that,
"… we all depened on each other", which sounds obvious,
but which also resonates. Once we acknowledge that we all have an effect
on each other then we begin to understand Dr. Görtler principal
of recurrence and intervention.
Production and execution of I Have Been Here Before are at a
very high standard; nevertheless the text is extremely dense in places
and the characters often converse more then they need to, explaining
more then they should. But perhaps this is more of an indication of
my own expectations of storytelling. This production is ideal for an
older more mature audience, after all, as Ormund explains, "We
learn but always too late."
Lennie Varvarides
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