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Fringe 2007 Reviews (61)
A Third of the Way Done
By BAD ASH
BAD ASH Productions
Bedlam Theatre
***(*)
The Fringe has a way of making theatre seem a little more free market,
a little less about taking the time to let a piece of creative entertainment
wash slowly over you. It's an atmosphere in which shows like A Third
of the Way Done tend to lose out, with audience members wanting
the payoff to come as quickly as possible after the initial setup.
This, however, is a show in which the songs and poems presented to
the audience are chock-full of slow-growing teenage angst; it
takes time to appreciate their depth and creativity. Left to the early
minutes of the show, this could easily translate to a quickly-dismissed
helping of melodrama, when actually there are keen, honest, and insightful
observations being made here.
It's not until the show is, well, a third or so through that one realises
this raw and open approach of these two storytellers. It's during a
poem about imagining the life you could have with someone you've just
met that the pathos of aborted romance becomes so thick in the air that
it hurts, a bit, to listen to.
I can't quite put my finger on what it is that makes A Third…
stick, like a sticky little gummy worm toy on the wall, to the inside
of my skull. But it does stick.
Rachel Lynn Brody
Galois de Gaulle
EUTC and Hi5 Theatre Company
Bedlam Theatre
**(*)
Mathematics and revolution might seem like unlikely bedfellows; in
this play presented by EUTC, they never quite snuggle up comfortably
with one another. The story of Everiste Galois and his dual role as
maths-obsessed genius and anti-royalist rabble-rouser spans the time
between his school teacher's discovery of his talents through to his
eventual demise as a martyr in an unsuccessful revolution.
While the ideas are indeed interesting ones, Galois' journey seems
slightly too complex to fit into the short span of time EUTC has to
tell the tale. There were a number of moments when, as an audience member,
the performers seemed rushed - speeding through clips from Galois' life
at breakneck speed without giving the characters, dialogues, or situations
a chance to breathe.
Elizabeth Campbell and Henry Peters provide amusing background on the
socio-political realities of French society, keeping the audience appraised
of critical developments outside Galois' day to day life.
A shorter cut of the script, or a longer amount of time spent enacting
it, might have given viewers time to take the complexities of Galois'
journey to heart.
Rachel Lynn Brody
Damascus
By David Greig
Traverse Theatre Company
Traverse Theatre
*****
From the moment the lights come up on Elena (Dolya Gavanski), the sultry
chanteuse in a Damascine hotel bar, Damascus sucks the audience
in. With the seductive power only a glittering city can muster, Damascus
pushes us, like the characters who inhabit its scenes, to question the
assumptions we make and the supposed 'facts' we base them on.
Greig weaves his story artfully, dropping hints and clues into Elena's
narration. We follow her observations through the tale of visiting businessman
Paul (Paul Higgins) and frustrated, idealist teacher Muna (Nathalie
Armin) as they negotiate cultural and personal divides. The theme of
language's power to unite and divide is perhaps best summed up in a
misunderstanding that takes place late in the production, but is expertly
explored throughout the piece.
Director Philip Howard has guided the cast seamlessly through Greig's
vision of Damascus as a city divorced from truth but still bound up
in history. To create a coherent whole out of so many contradictions
is admirable and inspiring.
Those two adjectives describe most, if not all of the work done on
this production. From performances to set to sound design to the feeling
in the pit of an audience member's stomach as they leave the theatre
after the performance, there is nothing about Damascus that would be
better if done differently.
Rachel Lynn Brody
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