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Fringe 2007 Reviews (52)
I, Lear
By Andrew Jones and Ciaran Murtagh
The Black Sheep
Assembly @ St George's West
***
The Black Sheep have decided that Fringe theatregoers will enjoy a
little escapism with a show that ridicules theatre. This strange-looking
duo take snippets from many genres and send them up, before bringing
the whole together in an extended sketch version of William K. (sic)
Shakespeare's tale of a foolish old man and a mannish fool.
In the early sketches, we get everything from Antigone to Tennessee
Williams, Chekhov to Dickens and a rather subtle Alan Bennett as the
boys have a lot of fun, generally demonstrating the shouting school
of dramatic acting. They are at their best in a wonderful spoof of Sherlock
Holmes in which Watson is even denser than usual.
The show is also educational as the value of marmite, squirty cream,
humps and Lord Lloyd Webber are more than ably demonstrated.
The undoubted highlight though is the Lear, which somehow catches
the spirit of the original, while getting more laughs from this critic
than the whole of the rest put together.
Philip Fisher
Tir Nan Og
By Dave Anderson
Oran MorE! at Assembly
Assembly Rooms
****
This sister piece to A Walk in the Park, which involves the
same company, is a real delight. The pleasure is in seeing a packed
mini-musical beautifully performed by a team of four all of whom contribute
in different ways.
The plot isn't always easy to divine but it follows the mythical journey
of a drunken sailor around the world. Her final destination is the land
of Tir Nan Og, a paradise.
Pauline Knowles sings and acts her way into the role of a drunken sailor
who is like a latter-day Jonah. She is forever in trouble through a
charming 45 minutes packed with a wide variety of music that favours
jazz but also includes a jaunty sea shanty.
All four company members sing but the main vocal support for Miss Knowles
comes from Jennifer Rhodes, who has a lovely voice and also plays the
flute, while the versatile Alan Tall plays at least half a dozen musical
instruments.
Writer Dave Anderson who composed the music for last year's National
Theatre of Scotland sensation Black Watch, joins them from the
keyboards.
Rosie Kellagher's production looks attractive and fits a vast amount
into a short time, showcasing its talented team and combining gentle
humour with enjoyable music and some touching moments.
Philip Fisher
Dai (Enough)
Written and performed by Iris Bahr
Bernie Kukoff, Jonathan Pollard, Jon Cutler in association with Paul
Lucas Productions
Pleasance
*****
Iris Bahr's outstanding solo performance touches the marrow of the
Israeli multicultural society, embracing the humour that helps the country
face the often tragic reality.
The scene is set in a Tel Aviv café, where Bahr amusingly portrays
the British-Syrian journalist, Christiane Saloniki, reporting a piece
on Israeli society minutes before a loud bang and total blackout put
an abrupt end to a brief encounter.
The café is the backdrop to ten other characters, with a freeze
frame of an eerie loud bang from an almost tangible yet invisible suicide
bomber, followed by a total blackout. The pain of that reality is astonishingly
real.
Bahr moves seamlessly from one character to the next. Humour, accentuated
gestures and monologues are delivered effortlessly with a vocabulary
and an accent to match. We meet different characters, among whom there
is Svetlana, a Russian prostitute who proudly confesses that for $50
only she managed to have forged her way to a 'Jewish ID' in order to
work in Israel. There is also Alma Yalin, a caricature of an Israeli
desperate to sound 'American' and keen to dismiss Israel as a 'third
varld country' - who cannot understand why anyone would want to live
'in thees country'. Only in Israel on a visit to her sick mother, she
cannot 'vait to get out'. Like all the others, she exits in a bang.
There is Uzi, a Zionist and former general whose accent and body language
are comically reminiscent of Ariel Sharon. (Uzi has lost a son in Lebanon).
There is also Shuli, an orthodox West Bank settler from Queens who explains
why the Jews have the right to the land of milk and honey. Her monologue
makes the audience sit up and listen, bringing the listeners to the
verge of a strange understanding, though not necessarily accepting her
point of view. Finally, there is the sophisticated Nijma Aziz, a Palestinian
Statistician, level-headed and liberal in her views. Her battle is not
with the Israelis but with her son who has been radicalised by Islamic
extremists. She agreed to meet her son in the very same coffee shop.
"Dai" is a Hebrew word which expresses exasperation and desire
to put an end to a situation or a reality; it is in fact an plea to
stop.
Bahr highlights the complex mixture of this rainbow of cultures which
makes up so much of Israel. She also unmasks the human faces behind
the statistics of the victims of suicide bombers by making them uncannily
familiar. There is a silent thunder demanding in the name of all the
living, regardless of background and religion or sexual inclination,
that we all unite and say 'Enough' to the indiscriminate taking of innocent
lives.
Rivka Jacobson
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