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Fringe 2007 Reviews (71)
Mephistopheles Smith
By Richard O'Brien
Janus Theatre Company
Augustine's
*
The cast gets a star for being able to carry tunes, but other than
this there's not much one can be positive about in this production.
Roxanne Palmer, as one of the Devilettes, has a Molly-Shannon-esque
appeal and is the only one who seems to be having fun.
Rachel Lyn Brody
The Turing Test
An Opera by Julian Wagstaff
Edinburgh Studio Opera
Augustine's
***(*)
Ostensibly, The Turing Test is an opera about the race among
scientists to create a machine displaying human intelligence. Operas,
however, are not about machines; they are about human passions. This
short chamber opera concerns a group of people seeking to create perfection
in a machine, while their own lives are driven by all too human flaws.
By juxtaposing these two essential elements of the 21st century, The
Turing Test asks us to consider what it means to be human. Central
to the theme is the question: what is the meaning of life? The answer
is: the meaning of life is only revealed in the way you live your life.
Julian Wagstaff has written The Turning Test as part of his
PhD at Edinburgh University. He is one of those young composers with
new ideas for regenerating a conservative art. The Turing Test
straddles the past and the future, pushing the boundaries of the form
in subject matter, structure and tonality, while managing still to satisfy
traditionalists. It is an ambitious piece of work, certainly for a five-day
run in a small venue created only for the duration of the Edinburgh
Festival where ambient conditions, dressing-room space, turn-around
times, inadequate lighting and technical support all too often impinge
on performance values.
The plot-line is simple: a research assistant is trapped between two
scientists, one a womaniser, the other an alcoholic. She betrays herself
for both of them and in doing so faces ruin. It is a cautionary tale
embedded in the realities of contemporary academic necessity. It is
lack of funding that drives her to fake her research results and the
lack of research results that drives her professor to alcohol.
The cast of very competent young singers has been skilfully and perceptively
directed by Chris Neil to inhabit the characters' impulses moment by
moment as they struggle with their unfulfilled desires and acts of (self-)
betrayal. Wagstaff's music, beautifully performed, and Neil's incisive
direction blend seamlessly to embody the theme and encourage the performers
cast off hesitation and soar through the trials and passions of life
and performance.
Jackie Fletcher
The Lion Spirit
Aska Japanese Drum Troupe
Assembly@St George's West
*****
The Lion Spirit must be one of the most invigorating shows in
this year's Edinburgh Festival. The rhythm's of the traditional Japanese
drums are soon pulsating through mind and body, resonating in the spirit
and transforming the audience of solitary and festival-weary individuals
into an enlivened community of clapping, cheering and bouncing participants.
If you assume that drumming might be a listening activity, then you
are mistaken. This is spectacular in every sense of the word. It is
a piece of physical theatre par excellence.
If you imagine a traditional art form might be strictly for the dull,
you are equally mistaken. Think of all the celebrated rock n'roll drummers
of the last forty years and the Aska drummers will make all of them
in comparison look like a load of Bambis.
These five young drummers embody the music. In mind and body and spirit
they are one with the music. The impulses spring from the soles of their
feet, ripple the muscles, oscillate the batons until they seem to bend
and blur, pound on the drum skins and in the blood and engage their
entire beings. And they make it all seem so effortless. They are grinning
and shouting and enjoying themselves so very much, it is impossible
not to be drawn in to their charismatic individuality as well as their
ensemble spirit.
Traditional flutes and stringed instruments balance out the musical
programme so that we are carried off into sweeter spiritual realms.
Japanese monks used to believe (and perhaps still do) that the sound
of flutes could put one into a trance, and I think it might very well
be true. It is a transcendental element complementing the earthiness
of the drums.
The costumes are superb, a typical Japanese aesthetic, and the all-to-brief
appearance of the lion spirit himself an additional treat. The 'lion
spirit' is a traditional kabuki character, sporting a magnificent mane
of hair that sweeps the floor like a bride's train and robes as beautiful
and sumptuous as the heart can desire. The performer's skill is judged
on the swinging movements of the mane, circling it round and round spectacularly.
I'm going back to see The Lion Spirit again and taking all
my friends. Please give yourselves a treat and join us.
Jackie Fletcher
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