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Fringe 2007 Reviews (59)
The Container
By Clare Bayley
Nimble Fish/Underbelly/Escalator East To Edinburgh/Creative Partnerships
Thames Gateway
In a Container near the Udderbelly
****
Site specific work can cover up weaknesses in text but, in this case,
there is little doubt that Clare Bayley's script would work perfectly
well in a normal theatre.
However, cramming twenty audience members into the back of a decommissioned
lorry container in the dark certainly enhances and enriches the experience.
All that is missing is the smell that must inevitably be strong when
your five companions are refugees smuggling their way across Europe
and into England, where the streets might still be paved with gold and
all people kind.
The early stages do little more than set the scene and introduce us
to representative types. We have a very mean, rich Afghan businessman,
an excitable Kurd who may harbour secrets, two women, aunt and obedient
slave niece from Africa and latterly, a young widow whose sickness is
due to pregnancy.
The group has little in common expect bad histories that have provoked
desperation, a desire to settle in England and a faith in that country
which will almost certainly prove unjustified.
There is a sixth character, their Turkish "agent" a man who
looks like Alexei Sayle and rips off his guests claiming to do so on
behalf of the driver.
Tom Wright directs his talented ensemble cast well in the narrow, dark
space and demonstrates why the best site specific work is always worth
seeing.
This is powerful and at times very moving theatre that to an extent
gives its audience a taste of the terrors that would-be immigrants suffer
on a constant basis. Not for the faint hearted or claustrophobic but
The Container is recommended for everyone else.
Philip Fisher
Johnson
& Boswell - Late But Live
By Stewart Lee
Blue Box
Traverse 1
***
This hour-long late night show in Traverse 1 seeks to attract two very
different audiences. Writer Stewart Lee is a comedian and was one of
the creators of Jerry Springer the Opera. Dr Samuel Johnson was
a lexicographer and wit, while James Boswell made his name as the biographer
of the Doctor and as a writer of journals.
Johnson & Boswell Late But Live therefore combines contemporary
comedy with a look at the two gentlemen's visit to the Scottish Islands
in 1773.
Miles Jupp, playing Boswell in gorgeous threads, warms us up aided
by the pipes and drums of Neil Maclure and Mr Mac.
The core of the evening though is in the relationship of the two literary
greats and in particular their trip North, documented by each in a book.
The best moments are those in which the pair bicker or where their
versions of events differ so much as to be laughable. Where the upper
class gent from Edinburgh likes to sensationalise, Simon Munnery's good
doctor (minus any kind of Lichfield accent) plays dramas down.
The finale, on board a low budget sailing vessel with detritus everywhere,
is most amusing and allowed audience members, including your critic,
to chuck rubbish at the comedians. Would that every show offered such
an opportunity.
Philip Fisher
Famished
By Alex Genn-Bash and Lex Genn
Dastardly Productions
C Chambers Street
*****
Never before have the genres of Victorian Comedy and Zombie Thriller
been combined with such aplomb as in Famished. Billed as 'A Victorian
Musical Comedy…with Zombies,' the show delivers hearty helpings
on both fronts.
Riotous lyrics which lampoon the social mores of the Victorian age
are sung by the cast, who look like they're having a whale of a time.
In what appears to be the only real mustache on stage, Will Allen's
performance as Dr Lucien Corvus is reminiscent of characters from HBO's
Deadwood; Izzy Harris as the wealthy Amelia Avery tacks just
the right amount of charm and haughty naivete to her character. As Henry
Forbes, the hapless explorer who brings the zombie plague back to London,
Steven Shapland gets little opportunity to shine before he's bitten,
but his strident performance sets the scene for what's the come. Solid
performances from the rest of the cast give the piece real shape and
verve.
Composer and musical director Jake Morley has successfully created
a score which glorifies and satirises the typical score of a big-time
musical. Famished has all the hallmarks of great musical theatre,
with lovelorn duets, up-tempo dance numbers, and even a send-up of a
hit from a classic.
At present, Famished feels a bit like a cross between a musical
and a sketch show; it's easy to see where the broad brush-strokes that
make up the plot could easily be expanded into a full-length West End
spectacular, the likes of which hasn't been seen since The Rocky
Horror Show.
Rachel Lynn Brody
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