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Fringe 2008 Reviews (102)
The Jabberwock
Scarlet Blade Theatre
C Central
****
Jabberwocky, the short piece of nonsense verse from Lewis Carroll's
Alice Through The Looking Glass is not the most common choice
of subject for an hour long play, being a short narrative of some thirty
lines or so, and being primarily an excuse to discuss the meanings of
language, it nevertheless has been transformed into a frenetic piece
of high-octane fantasy. By taking the poem as a basis and playing the
story out in the mind of a disturbed man being goaded and led through
events by his friends, Scarlet Blade have built a structured musing
on obsession and madness, all the while interspersing the plot with
moments of finely choreographed sword play and fist-fighting.
With company members cited as having worked with some major Hollywood
fight directors, it's little wonder that the level of physicality on
display is of such a high level. With the momentum and continued action
held up throughout as the cast members rally and hammer at each other
with little held back, it brings a level of genuine excitement that
is rare in dramatic theatre.
Besides the combat, the imagery and ingenuity present continued to
surprise with the abstract conjurations of the Bandersnatch and the
Tumtum tree building into new levels of the bizarre, all the while with
the Jabberwock himself loping and cringing around the stage with a boundless
energy. Even more surprising was that, despite such physical-theatre
leanings, the narrative contained in the production didn't suffer as
a result, with the winkingly metaphysical approach to the subject letting
them carve a new slant into a an established piece of English writing
and create a twist on it which ought to be taken as a significant addition
to the mythology. Certainly not for the faint of heart or young children,
but a brilliant production nonetheless.
Graeme Strachan
Literally
Paul Parry
Zoo
***
The correct use of the English language is an important thing to Paul
Parry, as his show is testimony not only to his obsession over making
sure that people use words like 'Literally' in the correct context but
also that he has the ability to find good comedy in such a banal and
dry subject. Charting the growth of his crusade from the first time
that he got the idea, through his journey from A to Bee, (literally
from Norway to America) and his further concessions to obeying the literal
truth of several common sayings and onwards to his comedy performance
at the Fringe.
Parry manages to make what could, in lesser hands, have been a dull
and ungainly PowerPoint presentation, into a charming and laugh-out
loud funny journey through his life. While it certainly kept the audience
entertained, as well as informed and occasionally corrected, it also
managed to keep the premise afloat for far longer than I would have
though possible. It's not a perfect stand-up act, as the frequent asides
and concessions to the facts mean that the stories occasionally shut
off in dead ends, or are simply dropped as Parry takes the story off
in another direction. A more tightly constructed tale would have worked
better, but that's not to say that it isn't a very entertaining and
enjoyable way to literally spend and hour with a smile on your face.
Graeme Strachan
Hitler Alone
Paul Webster
Inlingua Edinburgh, Hanover Street
****
Hitler isn't supposed to be human. It's a fact, so powerfully drilled
into people of my generation that it almost goes without saying. He's
a bogeyman, a horror-story monster for all ages, child-friendly as a
funny moustached bulging-eyed tyrant to laugh at, and terrifying and
horrific to adults who understand the full scope of the evil wrought
across the world in his name and by his word. He isn't supposed to be
human.
Which is why Paul Webster's one man portrayal of the most hated man
in history is more terrifying than any nightmare monster, precisely
because of the very real humanity he injects into every fibre of his
tour de force performance. From the first startling moment when
he storms into the room with a bang, yelling and raging against the
inability of his generals to hold back the waves of Russian troops swarming
through Berlin towards his Führerbunker, it's impossible to take
your eyes off of him.
He leads the audience on a long meandering journey through his musings,
from the wistful regrets of his youth and his failures to ally himself
with Britain and Stalin, to raging with barely concealed rabid animosity
towards the failures and treacheries which led to his downfall. What
emerges, instead of a monster, is a very real human being with hopes
and aspirations, all too fragile and real beneath the facade of charm
and ambitious deliberation which brought him to power and nearly to
dominate the entire globe. Subtly curbing his performance in at the
edges to prevent it becoming a caricature, Webster layers his Adolf
with enough depth to convince all present that they are genuinely in
the presence of a real man. Then taking snippets of known fact, and
hedging it with decisive choices on the unknown, for example choosing
to show Hitler still saddened and tearful at the suicide of his beloved
niece and one-time lover, instead of the darker but equally likely possibility
that she was murdered. At which point the theatre gives way to a window
onto something far worse, an introspective view of a warped view on
reality that not only creates sympathy but at times even understanding.
This alone makes Hitler Alone a show that ought to be required
viewing for anyone who thinks they understand the concept of evil.
Graeme Strachan
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