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Fringe 2007 Reviews (7)
Extropia
Flying Carpet Theatre
Pleasance
***
As dystopian futures go, the one seen in Extropia isn't the
worst. Fusing together a mish-mash of Kafka, Orwell and Huxley with
a dash and a half of absurdist comedy; the play shows the human race
living an existence of predictable routine, based around productivity
and efficiency, the worst fear imaginable being a drop in the work-rate,
leading to such catastrophies as there not being enough shoes made that
day.
The play concerns itself with one worker, August 08, who wakes at night
and hears a pattern in the sound of the rainfall. He then begins to
hear such patterns elsewhere and these 'rhythmed sounds' send him into
ecstacies which he tries to share with his colleagues. In doing so he
gains the attention of his superiors, who try to stamp out this errant
behaviour. All of this is performed to sound effects produced entirely
by Michael McQuiken through a ramshackle set of instruments and objects,
from the rear of the stage.
The cast work well together, elevating the levels of physical theatre
in close-keeping with the complex dance-like rhythms of the ambient
mind-music. Leaving the audience often breathless as the feats of movement
and sound, the show also has an element of slapstick comedy to it, which
aleviated any complications which came from the thin story.
An all round solid piece of entertainment.
Graeme Strachan
The Butler Did It
Afternoon Delight Theatre Company
Roman Eagle Lodge
***
Revived after last year's apparent sell-out, The Butler Did It
is a charming farce set in an English country home where somebody gets
murdered. The murder is, however, only the vehicle to move the rest
of the story forward. The real entertainment in this production comes
from the sense of familiarity of each of the characters, all of whom
are sharp parodies of tropes found in the genre's classics.
Opening and closing with a cleverly-worded tune, The Butler Did
It takes advantage of audience's expectations and a thoroughly modern
sense of humour, with cracks about the differences in language between
American and British English as well as the chances of two-headed offspring
resulting from the union of two cousins.
The company's name about says it all: The Butler Did It is a
delightful way to spend an afternoon.
Rachel Lynn Brody
Modern Cautionary Tales for
Children
By Murray Lachlan Young
Gilded Balloon Teviot
***(*)
Kicking off his show in a bathrobe and towel, Murray Lachlan Young
enters and starts drawing the children in his audience into introductions
and conversation. Who likes dancing? Who likes ponies? What are their
names? Reassuring us that the show hasn't started yet, Young runs his
pre-show till he has the children on side.
Not that it takes long.
Young is charming and affable, and as he launches the ususpecting audience
into a series of rapid-fire amusing poems and one or two classics (the
story of Sucker Thumb will delight any ex-kids who've heard of Shockheaded
Peter) using kids pulled from the audience.
The only failing of this, Young's first 'poetry cycle specifically
for children', is that occasionally he relies too much on getting the
answer he wants from his audience to lead into the next piece. This
resulted, on the day I attended, in one or two somewhat tenuous links
between sections - for example, when Young asked what was so interesting
about poop only to get snagged into a debate with 6-year-old Ellen,
who declared there was 'nothing' interesting about poop, and furthermore,
that he was 'a big weirdo.'
Pint-sized hecklers aside, Young's enthusiasm and humour are infectious,
and Modern Cautionary Tales for Children is precisely the kind
of children's theatre one wishes there was more of.
Rachel Lynn Brody
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