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Fringe 2006 Reviews (72)
Man and God
Written and Directed by Chris Bush
White Rose Theatre
Baby Belly
**
What would happen the day that God decided to address the world and
reaffirm his existence to the human race? This play seeks to explore
the concept in a comedic manner.
Will Seaward's God appears as a bumbling and somewhat baffled figure;
too lost in his own scriptures and his desire to remind people of his
presence, to see how out of touch with humanity he really is. At his
side stand the angels Gabriel and Michael, cast as budding PR executives
trying to cajole and gently steer the beleaguered Almighty into a modern
way of thinking.
The premise is interesting enough, and a bevy of philosophical points
are raised and then gently poked fun at, while neatly concluding some
genuinely funny answers. Unfortunately the story loses its way at midpoint
when God makes his address, and a false God intercepts his broadcast,
leaving the audience with a wealth of questions which are never properly
answered, the whole palaver trundling on in the hope these will be forgotten.
The final third of the play is something of a farcical mess that becomes
self-contradictory and begins to make less and less sense.
This derailing of the story is a shame, as the actors do their very
best to run with the story and manage to pull the threads together as
best as they can. With a more definite narrative it could have been
something far more interesting.
Graeme Strachan
Caviar and Chips
VIP Theatre Company
Baby Belly
****(*)
In addition to the usual types of production, sometimes a play defies
all attempts to nail down exactly what it is trying to be and succeeds
exactly for this reason. Caviar and Chips is definitely more
than the sum of its parts, a three-woman show put on by Millie Reeves,
Brigitte Voutsa and Marianna Burelli.
On the surface, the story is unremarkable; three young girls go to
a seaside town to take refuge from the troubles of their lives, each
hiding closely guarded secrets. But the plot is just an excuse for the
three incredibly versatile actors to showcase their talents in a myriad
of different ways. They sing dance, affect voices and mannerisms to
portray a host of characters, from obnoxious boyfriends to Cuban white
slavers and doddery old women. The witty charm and clever dialogue compliment
each new turn along the way until unfortunately the roller coaster of
laughs and fun comes to a slightly unsatisfactory, but nonetheless hysterical
close.
Graeme Strachan
Hamlet: The Gloomy Prince
Wright Mark! Productions
Sweet Grassmarket
***
Making Shakespeare interesting to children is usually a recipe for
disaster, which is rather the point in this case. The play takes the
form of a presentation for a potential school workshop, with the two
leads attempting to showcase the presentation despite tensions, old
arguments and women problems hampering them at every turn.
The production works because the concept, although bizarre, is sound.
Both actors are amusing, if slightly unbelievable, and manage to raise
laughs more or less consistently throughout.
The main criticism that must be levelled at the production is that
it never entirely manages to decide if it's a farce or a comedy drama.
Seeing as the comedy takes one of two forms, either the bickering of
the leads or the fun being poked at Hamlet itself, of these the
jokes about the text are actually far better. As a result, the piece
comes across as a slightly uncomfortable halfway house, where it should
probably have tended away from the dramatics of the two leads, and gone
for more of a witty dig at the Bard.
Graeme Strachan
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