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Fringe 2007 Reviews (85)
Find Me
By Olwyn Wymark
Basement Theatre
C soco
**
"Find me!" is the cry of young Verity, an autistic little
girl whom we watch growing up from 3 to 33.
I could find Verity OK: she's the only one in a dress, the only one
not wearing black, the only one who doesn't become another character
at some stage. In fact, she was also the only one who didn't change:
she was the same at 33 as she was at 3, which was decidedly odd, to
say the least. It was the others - parents, siblings, teacher, doctors,
social workers etc. etc. - that I couldn't find. They kept changing:
in one scene, for example, father would be male, in another female,
in another another female - but always wearing a blue tie. Why swap?
The play is about Verity, about her sense of being lost, about the way
she is lost to society because society doesn't know how to treat her.
This production moved the focus away from Verity and pushed us into
confusion. I could have see the sense of it if we had had numerous Verities,
each representing a different facet of her condition, but in fact she
was the one constant - too constant.
The continual role-swapping was not the only thing I found difficult
to accept. The company describe the piece as being physical theatre,
and indeed there is one beautifully realised piece of physical theatre
which, unfortunately, seemed to stop short, but for the rest I'm afraid
bare feet, black clothing and standing on stage with your head down
as the audience come in do not physical theatre make.
Peter Lathan
Cowboys & Indians (Dot
not Feather)
Kingswell Productions
The Counting House
***
Free comedy at the Fringe can be such a hit or miss affair, with much
of it falling flat. Thankfully this was not the case with Craig Ricci
Shaynak's one man satire on the state of American homeland security
and paranoia. Portraying a Border Patrol guard, he leads the audience
in the manner of an instructional meeting as he makes sharp jibes at
the inherent racism and stupidity that lies within much of contradictory
messages which come from American society, its foreign policy and views
on other counrtries.
The show was well contained with a air of friendliness, Shaynak certainly
knows how to keep his audience at ease, handling both hecklers and latecomers
with a smile and a jibe, the only letdown being a slightly unpolished
feel to the piece, which may in fact have simply been down to the location
and the constant barging in of patrons. This still remains a very funny
and enjoyable piece of comedy and worth seeing.
Graeme Strachan
Dead Living
Jack Productions
Gilded Balloon Teviot
***
Based upon the book A Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier,
this play looks at the concept of an ante-chamber beside heaven where
the souls of mankind wait until everyone who knew them on earth is dead.
Exploring the concept of the afterlife through the eyes of a dead writer,
content to publish a weekly newspaper in the ever-changing City. Simultaneously
this is also the take of two men working in the Arctic, looking for
untainted water supplies from which to make Coca-cola. It transpires
that hese two worlds and stories are linked by the emergence of a new
disease called 'The Blinks' and we follow the events as the effects
of the plague are seen on both sides.
The curious thing about this piece is that the company have chosen
to try and represent the different realities by altering the styles
of the play: the ante-world is dramatised through a mixture of physical
theatre, repetition and voicework, whilst the real world is accomplished
with more standard props and straight acting. The effect isn't seamless
and at times it becomes very obvious how mismatched both sides of the
story are, with many obvious questions left unanswered. Much of this
is dependent on the source, but with an adaptation such as this a greater
level of verisimilitude would be expected.
There is little enough to fault in the performance itself, as the actors
have a grace and ability of movement, more than shared by their acting
skills. Ehile this helps the production, it still serves to underline
the flaws in the script making what could have been a very worthy piece
merely average.
Graeme Strachan
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