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Fringe 2006 Reviews (74)
Everyone Should Have A Gun
Written and Directed by Philip Stokes
Horizon Arts
Zoo
****
A dark and nondescript room with no exit, two girls joined at the waist
by lengths of elasticated cord, speak vaguely about their confinement.
Strange explosive noises interrupt their reverie of insults and arguments
as they ponder the meaning of their imprisonment and struggle to remember
how their current situation came to pass.
It's virtually impossible to write about this play without undermining
the concepts behind it and the simple but elusive messages on display.
The deeper meaning is such that it will either become very quickly apparent,
or will remain confusing and troubling up until the revelatory final
seconds.
The two leads, Hayley Shillito and Laura Taylor, dressed in identical
black clothing and looking vaguely sinister, prance and stalk round
each other in s stylised choreography, twisting the ropes between them
and taking great pains to distract, and confuse as they talk in purposefully
confusing hints and metaphors. The two actresses' ominous physical similarities
ends with their differing hair colours and the attitude towards each
other as they struggle for dominance and for affection from one another
as the voices and horrors they hear from outside their prison become
more and more clear.
The title however is confusing, and becomes something of a red herring,
as it is the one point that is never fully explained, nor does it quite
fit into the rest of the concepts. Otherwise this is a hauntingly beautiful
spectacle both moving and touching.
Graeme Strachan
Dark Lantern
Red Card Theatre
Calton Theatre Café Bar
****
There is an inherent difficulty, when writing about the Holocaust,
that the depth of horror involved with the subject will overwhelm the
narrative that is built around it. Dark Lantern sidesteps this
problem by treating the events themselves as perfunctory and concentrating
on the personalities at play.
It tells the story of Lorenzo, an Italian Jew and ex-guerrilla soldier
who has survived the war and a long imprisonment in the death camps,
to find himself years later trying to write about his experiences. Throughout
his attempts, he is haunted by the voices of his fellow survivors and
other characters from his life both alive and dead.
This one-man show is masterfully acted as he casts about the stage
in a carefully constructed web of thoughts, stories and arguments recounted
in a stream of different voices. The half-dozen faces from his past
weave stories of suffering and hope, with a select few moments of gentle
humour thrown into the mixture to show that the spirit can endure in
time of hardship.
The play is constructed in such a way as to disregard the need for
a conventional structure, and the action subtly shows this. The world
of Lorenzo at his desk, literally freezes as he is led into his memories,
his tie and pencil remain in place hovering in mid air until he returns
to them.
The effect is powerful and thought provoking, managing to remain full
of meaning whilst remaining refreshingly free of manipulative sentiment.
Graeme Strachan
Hansel and Gretel
Captain Theatre
Rocket @ Roxy Art House
***
If there's one thing that the Fringe tends to bring out, it's experimental
playwriting, where the traditional styles of narrative are eschewed
in favour of telling a story through different means.
Hansel and Gretel attempts to achieve such a design by means
of an disjointed set of movements and statements which together paint
a story.
A brother and sister reminisce about their feelings for each other
and the ironies of being named Hansel and Gretel, leading from concepts
of love and incest through to more existential matters and the meanings
that lie in names.
The play is a curious exercise in repetition and the altering of it,
whereby small amounts of material are used more than once allowing the
perception of the meaning to be significantly changed as a result. The
looping narrative attempts to change, leading to more changes and distances
but ultimately back to one another again.
The performance, although avant-garde, feels a little clichéd
and as a result the piece feels far more of an exercise in style than
an emotive performance. The two leads convey a significant amount within
their continually re-used lines, allowing the progression of a chronological
timeframe within the loops of action and dialogue. The final close comes
unexpectedly but does manage to bring with it a sense of completion;
as such it becomes an interesting exploration of themes and narrative.
Graeme Strachan
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