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The
Edinburgh Fringe
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Fringe 2006 Reviews (82)It's a Girl Ruth Rogers directs this musical comedy about five pregnant women in a small English town, who try to prevent the building of a nuclear waste dump in their local area. The play never halts to take itself too seriously, glossing over the occasional seriousness of its subject matter with a smattering of silliness and song. The subsidiary characters, all played by the five leads, are drawn as caricatures, more so the less time they appear on stage. The play is a light-hearted piece of fluff, with no real intention other than to make the audience laugh, and this does it credit as it could easily have fallen into pat moralistic territory had it taken itself too seriously Graeme StrachanWasted Myra Hindley, the infamous 'Moors Murderess' died in prison in 2002 from heart complications and yet controversy still surrounds the life and death of Britain's longest serving female prisoner. Four years later, writer/director Henry Filloux-Bennet has approached the material with an attempt to explore the possible mindset of Hindley both in the past and shortly before her death. The play takes place in a variety of different locations and times, beginning with , and frequently returning to, Gemma Goggin's portrayal of the aged Hindley in prison who narrates to the audience and ties together much of the material. In addition, news reports, court scenes and various monologues from friends and relatives of Hindley take up a significant portion of the play. The meat of the performance comes in the recreated scenes of Hindley and Ian Brady at home, as he philosophises on the natures of death, will and power. The narrative style of the play is such that it works almost more as a documentary-drama rather than a traditional play, the individual scenes often amounting to little other than flavouring the overall tone of the production. While never attempting to tell the audience what to think, the play does ask questions: should Hindley have been in jail so long, and why did this ever happen? The true genius of this play is its ability to still shock and terrify through subtle means. At one point, threatening to play the tape of Lesley Ann Downey's murder, the stage fade to darkness and a crackling static noise echoes out only to drift into the beginning of a piece of classical music. And there is an unexpected appearance of Ian Brady, in the modern day. Morgan Thomas is terrifying as he manages to alter his earlier performance without losing any of the barely suppressed psychosis. So absolutely convincing was his performance, that I felt genuinely uncomfortable being so close to him, as he stared unblinkingly into the stands and mocked the world that still fears him. Despite the lack of direction at points, I think this play stands as a highlight of the festival, a genuinely frightening look into one of the last century's most brutal crimes and the people who brought it about. Graeme Strachan The Screwtape Letters CS Lewis is best known for his thinly veiled Christian allegory, The Chronicles of Narnia. However his deliciously twisted look into the machinations of Hell's bureaucracy is worthy of far greater praise. The epistolary novel covering the tutelage of a young Demon called Wormwood under his master Screwtape, has been adapted into a fully rounded stage play. This could hardly have been more effectively done, with the characters mentioned fleetingly in the book allowed to converse and react with one another and, in doing so, re-iterate the philosophies and wit of the original text. David Robinson takes the titular role of Screwtape, acting as a teacher and a mentor to young Wormwood, while he sets in motion the attempted destruction of a typical man in 1930s England. The near constant presence of Screwtape in the play is as piercing as in the book, with the wordplay between himself and his pupils Wormwood and Slubgob being both quick-witted and absolutely underplayed. The performances are well honed, with Screwtape himself standing out as an embodiment of snide evil. The story is changed somewhat interestingly, as the failure of Wormwood to corrupt his soul becomes reflected rather on Screwtape than himself, adding an extra level of impetus to the events and an undercurrent of ulterior motives. The characters of Slubgob and Grabslatter secretary are also interesting additions from the text, giving the play a mixture of personalities without which it could easily have become dry and dull. Graeme Strachan A Midsummer Night's Dream There couldn't have been a more perfect location for Shakespeare's most unreal and magical play than the beautiful architecture of Rosselyn Chapel and its surrounding grounds. With the ancient setting giving proceedings an atmosphere of mystical unreality, the story of misplaced love, fairy kings and queens and the mischievous Puck flourishes with an energy all too easy to lose oneself in. Beginning in the grassy yards outside in the chapel grounds, the tale flows seamlessly together, with the actors flitting to and from the buildings and in between the trees and bushes, before continuing inside the building itself. The performance itself is masterfully conducted, with the actors seamlessly moving between their different roles in the twin tales of the four lovers and the labourer players, all the while with Fraser C. Sivewright's gleefully energetic Puck peeking in on events from between the supporting columns and pews. Under Bruce Strachan's direction, the company also succeeded in interpreting the more flippant material simply and effectively, especially the play within the play, which was uproariously funny and would have warranted seeing the piece on its own. All in all, this performance is one of the best versions of any Shakespearean text I have had the good fortune to experience, a joy to behold from beginning to end, upon the most beautiful stage imaginable. Graeme Strachan
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