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Fringe 2007 Reviews (34)
Escaping Hamlet
By Natalia Capra
Teatro dei Borgia/Compagnia delle Formiche and Andy Jordan Productions
The Udderbelly
*
Escaping Hamlet is billed as "Hamlet as you have never
seen it before", and there's a reason for that. If you have never
seen Hamlet before, this piece will tell you nothing about it,
and if you have, it will add nothing to your understanding of the play.
It would be easy to get a bad case of Emperor's New Clothes Syndrome
from the first five minutes of this production. The costumes and staging
are bold and brash, hinting (along with Ophelia's red slippers and Somewhere
Over the Rainbow on a loop) at grand interpretive designs. But Natalia
Capra's script is weak and rambling, and Gianpiero Borgia's direction
lacks both coherence and confidence. With enough panache, they might
have pulled it off, at least in style if not substance, but the cast
look understandably ill-at-ease - no one, including them, seems to know
quite what the piece is trying to say beyond the rather trite suggestion
that everyone in Denmark is drunk and wants to run away to the theatre.
It is no coincidence that the only actor who seems confident with the
purpose of her role is Jessica Sedler as Kate, the only character not
lifted from the original play.
Radical reworkings of Shakespeare can be astounding - Northern Stage's
Romeo and Juliet, Ian McKellan's Richard III. This mish-mash
is a masterclass in how not to rehash Shakespeare, full of sound and
fury, but what it signifies is anyone's guess.
Louise Hill
The Spoils
By Steven Dykes and Paul Englishby
Shady Dolls Theatre Company
C Chambers Street
***
"Men stand in the storm of the front ranks. Women do their duty
quietly."
A young army official is given the lowly task of interrogating the
low-ranking secretaries of a defeated regime. What can they possibly
have to say of any significance, and what means will he use to prise
secrets from women well-practised - of necessity - in the art of concealment
and deception?
Steven Dykes' and Paul Englishby's collaboration has produced a strange
dark tale of the public and private compromises and sacrifices of war,
ably performed by the Shady Dolls' cast of five. At the moment, the
performance gives the impression of meticulous direction from which
the performances have not yet been liberated, and this is not helped
by a slightly laboured central device which requires Clark Devlin's
character to keep switching a tape on and off. However, if their London
production of Homestead is anything to go by, director and cast
should have it in them to pull off a more compelling performance as
the festival progresses.
Louise Hill
Marry Me A Little
Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Conceived and developed by Craig Lucas & Norman René
Edward's Theatre Company
Quaker Meeting House
***(*)
Marry Me A Little is a musical revue put together in 1980 using
songs cut from Stephen Sondheim's shows or songs that he wrote for shows
that were never produced. It is staged without any linking dialogue
using two characters, known only as 'woman' and 'man', who both live
alone in the same apartment block.
There is no particular story to the show; the two characters meditate
on their feelings about love, relationships, meeting people and spending
Saturday night alone through duets and occasional solos originally written
for shows such as Follies, A Little Night Music, Company,
Saturday Night, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
and Anyone Can Whistle. The title song, however, was restored
to Company several years ago.
Young performers Nikki Pocklington and Wayne Rogers, whilst they are
obviously not professional singers, do a great job of putting across
these varied songs, many of which are far from simple. Pocklington in
particular shows that she has a great voice with a lot of potential.
Carole Ashcroft's direction manoeuvres the two performers effectively
around a rather cluttered space that simultaneously represents both
apartments. Music is provided throughout by pianist Steven Billinger.
A show told entirely through the lyrics of songs that were not written
to go together and with no real story to link them takes a bit of effort
from the audience to follow, but there are some great songs here from
the master of musical theatre competently performed by a young and talented
cast.
David Chadderton
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