|
Fringe 2008 Reviews (5)
21: 13
Dancing Brick
C soco
***
Surreal, physical theatre exploration of the barriers of language between
an English boy and Italian girl who find themselves stranded on a train
platform waiting for the 21:13 train. Thomas Eccleshare and Valentina
Ceschi form the 'newest company from the Jacques Lecoq school', Dancing
Brick. Interspersed in their wait on the train station some charming
and quirky scenes such as swimming whilst balanced on the other's shoulders,
emerging from suitcases, throwing and catching imaginary balls, buying
tickets for a train, miming the star constellations and eating and sharing
tangerines. What makes this piece touchingly memorable is the appeal
and humour of the two performers - worth seeing for their fresh faced
talent, imagination and charm.
Cecily Boys
Jonny Woo - International
Woman of Mr E
Bistrotheque Productions
The Gilded Balloon Teviot
**
'Soho star' Jonny Woo performs his surreal poetry with both comic highlights
and dark undertones. Themes from his life emerge in pieces such as 'Pretty
Polly Pill Popping', 'Sports Kit Trannie', 'Riding Bareback' and 'Organ
Failure in A&E'. Woo certainly comes alive when he transforms into
'Lily White', his alter ego, the aforementioned Sports Kit Trannie and
wears his high heals, yellow stockings and gold lame swimsuit with aplomb.
His rhymes and rhythms are almost haunting and well performed, even
reverberating in your head long after you have left. However if transvestite
poetry and drag queen flair are not your cup of tea, then this will
leave you thoroughly displaced.
Cecily Boys
The New Electric Ballroom
By Enda Walsh
Druid
Traverse 1
****
Although there are some similarities to the work of Martin McDonagh,
Enda Walsh's new play for the Druid Company in Galway is far closer
to a cross between Samuel Beckett and - well - Enda Walsh.
In stylistic terms, The New Electric Ballroom is like a re-run
of his last play, Walworth Farce, soon to open at the National,
following an award-winning run at the Traverse last year.
In a grey and pink kitchen of what could be a nuclear bunker, three
sisters, Chekhovian in their unhappiness, spend their time re-telling
the events that condemned them to a life without love.
Val Lilley and Rosaleen Linehan as Clara and Breda had high hopes as
teenagers. Both had set their sights on the rocker who headlined The
New Electric Ballroom, a mere ten miles cycle from home.
Sadly, his promiscuity meant that for each, happiness was barely even
fleeting. Again and again, with small rearrangements and developments,
the tale is spun out and perfected, more like some Catholic ritual than
the story of two sisters seeking a moment of bliss in a club dressing
room or car park.
Their younger sister Ada (Catherine Walsh) fares little better, having
made it to 40 unkissed. The joker in the pack is a fishmonger Patsy,
played with great wit by Mikel Murphy. He unreels a number of extremely
funny if totally inconsequential stories about town life, before being
ritually washed and reborn, giving the play a terminal twist and offering
hope.
Though it only lasts 80 minutes, Walsh packs The New Electric Ballroom
with pathos and poetry, the latter often streamed out with a machine
gun rhythm. He directs himself and draws good performances from each
of his talented team of actors.
This thought provoking and moving story of the elusive search for love
must surely have an afterlife in London or New York. In the meantime,
it is bound to win some awards in Edinburgh.
Philip Fisher
Next
page - - - Index
|
