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Fringe 2007 Reviews (42)
An Audience with Adrienne
By Adrian Howells
Traverse 5
****
An Audience with Adrienne is 90 minutes spent in the living
room of a drag queen of that name. Or is it?
What we know:
- You get an ice lolly on entry (a favourite Adrienne word)
- The sofas that you get to sit on make this site specific work the
comfiest in town.
- Adrienne is a charming tranny who happily opens up every aspect
of his/her life
- She involves her guests in discussions on sensitive subjects e.g.
cross-dressing and bullying
- There are games to play with prizes (my team lost ignominiously)
- There is a video featuring A's family talking about his sexual nature
and cross dressing
What we don't know:
- Is this a real exposé or a cleverly scripted piece of theatre?
- Is Adrian really a talented actor?
- Are all of the variations on the theme prepared thoroughly or ad
libbed like mad?
If An Audience with Adrienne is some 45 year old gay bloke opening
himself up self-indulgently, it is quite an entertaining evening. However,
if it is a piece of made theatre, it is something rather special. Decide
for yourselves.
Philip Fisher
Life in a Marital Institution
By James Braly
Assembly @ George Street
**
James Braly's monologue about marriage tells the tale of his life with
Susan, the woman who won his heart by correcting his poetry and lost
it by "self-weaning" their children and reading books about
leprecauns in bed.
As a performer, Braly lacks presence, but his anecdotes are interesting
and witty enough to sustain the audience's interest. My problem is that
this is a piece which requires audience sympathy, or at least empathy,
to succeed, and the self-conscious, pseudo-intellectual, angst-peddling
stuff of which Braly's piece is made doesn't bring me close (although
I did feel a bit of a pang for Susan).
Louise Hill
Danceforms
The 37th International Choreographers' Showcase
Rocket @ Roxy Art House
****
Danceforms brings together choreographers from the Philippines,
Finland, Germany, Holland, the United States, Columbia, Serbia and Israel,
although many of them are currently working in the US. There are thirteen
pieces in the programme but not all appear in each performance.
It is, as you can imagine from the subtitle, a very mixed bag, comprising
mainly solo pieces although there is a couple of duets and one trio.
The styles, too, vary, from the angular, jerky, mainly floor-based movements
of Alvin Erasga Tolentino's Amongst, danced by Alison Denham,
to the lyrical For People with Wings, choreographed and danced
by Nejla Yatkin, to the balletic Sardonyx by Ivo van Zwieten,
danced by Critian Laverde König. Some seem (comparatively) conventional,
whilst others do push at the boundaries, for example Hagit Yakira's
Somewhere between a self and an other, danced by Yakira herself
and Yarit Dor.
There is, as they say, something for everyone (everyone, that is, who
has an interest in contemporary dance) and a sufficient variety of different
approaches to prick the interest and make you want to see more of styles
which are new to you.
Unfortunately it only ran for five days so later Fringegoers will not
have the chance to sample a fascinating array of dance styles.
Peter Lathan
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