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Fringe 2007 Reviews (18)
Dye Young / Stay Pretty
Written and directed by Adrian Berry
Gilded Balloon Teviot
****
In 1976 pregnant Jill from Wolverhampton heads off to New York, determined
to meet her heroine Debbie Harry. She's got enough money to get there
and last a couple of days, but not enough for her return ticket. But
she doesn't care: she is determined to realise her dream before having
to settle down in the West Midlands. And she does: she meets Debbie
Harry in CBGBs, the Mecca of punk, but it wasn't quite - thanks to an
excess of magic mushrooms - the meeting she hoped for.
Beth Medley tells the story, relating it to the music and the attitudes
of the day, which sounds a bit dull but it's far from it. She's a good
storyteller and the script has twists and turns enough to keep it rattling
along at a good pace. She keeps us amused, often laughing out loud,
and involved in the life and dreams of this ordinary (but in some ways
extraordinary) young girl.
There are, it must be said, one or two places where the script sags
a bit but overall it's a very entertaining hour spent in the company
of one of the icons of the seventies through the eyes of one of her
worshippers.
Peter Lathan
The Art of Swimming
By Lynda Radley
Playgroup
Traverse 2
**
The Art of Swimming is a small piece of Irish story telling,
as the writer, Lynda Radley, rolls up her trouser legs to represent
a pioneering female swimmer. The date is 1927 and the protagonist Mercedes
Gleitze, the first British woman to swim the English Channel.
Accompanied by Michael John McCarthy who creates a soundscape on accordion
and laptop, Miss Radley re-creates the swim and paints a portrait of
the German-born woman who made it.
Without rushing, the performer tells us of how she fell upon Miss Gleitze's
story in a Cork library and we hear about her own life as well as her
subject's in a play that lasts just under an hour.
The highlights, or low lights as they take place in semi-darkness,
are when we join the swimmer on here 15¼ hour trip from Northern
France in the wake of seven previous attempts all of which failed.
The effort and exhaustion are conveyed well and one has to rejoice
when solid ground is finally reached.
There is then the irony of a hoax swim soon after that throws Miss
G's achievement into doubt. She was forced to repeat the feat with numerous
witnesses in chilly October waters and then failed but did enough to
satisfy the doubters.
The Art of Swimming is an unexciting but worthy piece of story
telling that quietly promotes feminism and highlights a figure who should
not be forgotten.
Philip Fisher
Tony! The Blair Musical
by Chris Bush
C Chambers Street
****(*)
Welcome to the Blair years as seen through the eyes of Tony and his
guitar.
Chris Bush and Ian McCluskey's slick, witty score and lyrics take a
wry look at the Blair years and their legacy, from TB's visions of Diana,
to his Eva Peron fantasies, via four former Conservative party leaders
and accompanied by his motley crew of spin doctors, sidekicks and the
ever-constant Cherie.
James Duckworth's Tony Blair is uncannily real - anyone can pull off
Tony's public school moot hand gestures, but Duckworth's spot-on pronunciation,
charm and charisma (not to mention the full head of hair) take us right
back to those heady, hopeful days of 1997. There's not a weak link in
this young, vibrant cast - Mike Slater's Gordon Brown is simultaneously
dour but sympathetic and humorous and Jethro Compton's Mandelson and
Ed Duncan Smith's (surely not?!) Alastair Campbell are by turns sly,
smug and finally philisophical as they, too, come to learn that while
"there's no I in team, there's no me in Tony". The doubling
choices are inspired - Alex Stevens' yee-hah Bush and slobbering Prescott
bring the house down, and Ellie Cox sings her Cherie/Diana combination
beautifully (though a less sympathetic, more mad-haired Cherie might
have brought a bit more contrast and humour to the female dynamic).
This show is everything the Edinburgh Fringe Festival should be - well-written
and compellingly directed and performed - a showcase oozing young, vibrant
intelligence, talent and wit. Do not miss it.
Louise Hill
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