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Fringe 2008 Reviews (22)
Discipline & Punish
SUDS Theatre Company
C SoCo
***
It's a little surprising to find that SUDS, a company more than familiar
with solid period theatre, have instead chosen to create an abstract
modern piece which jumps through time and place in a constantly shifting
tonal metaphor. Having taken its title and inspiration from Foucault's
seminal philosophical treatise on penal institutions and the place of
criminal punishment in society, their new play opts to forgo a direct
interpretation and instead work on the themes alone. The piece gives
us six strangers entering a room, furnished only with a table and a
large sign proclaiming that any talking or attempts to leave will be
punished, and to wait for the bells. We are never given any explanations
here, as the setting is merely a jumping off point from which the cast
members leap into other roles in a series of vignettes.
The piece is well written and performed well, as you'd expect from
the company, but the minimalist staging and the change of direction
feels ill at ease and, as the play continues, with the captives ever
more horrified and institutionalised by the scenes they unwillingly
are acting out, the different aspects of the piece begin to jar one
another. The result is an interesting performance but one which ultimately
feels lacking despite the work which has been put in.
Graeme Strachan
Jason Byrne: Cats Under Mats
having Chats with Bats
Jason Byrne
Assembly Hall
****
Returning to the Edinburgh stage for this twelth year, Byrne shows
that he wears the festival stage like a comfortable shoe. The best stage
comedians are the ones who can react to the ebb and flow of the audience
at a moment's notice; he manages to fluit between the lamentably hilarious
attempts to sexually satify his long-suffering dragon of a wife, to
his relationships with his children and the unusual events of his day
to day life told with a gusto and wit that amaze. As usual there isn't
much of a plan to the act, and in fact much of the time was spent gently
jibing members of the front row. The spontaneity of the comic turns
are such that it's likely he could make comedy out of filling out a
tax return and have the audience begging for more. The genius of his
act is that very little of it relies on any form of punchline or gimmick
and instead simply on his own charm and likable character. The show
did slow down slightly towards the end but that's understandable on
the first night of his booking, otherwise there is little stop in a
man who is turning into one of the best names in new comedy.
Graeme Strachan
Abbas Tactus
Splintered Glass Productions
C SoCo
**(*)
What influence does a Father have on his child's life? Abbas Tactus;
literally 'A father's touch', follows the lives of five children from
their early schooldays up until their adulthood contrasting the effects
and events that their male parent's influence has on each, at the same
time showing us the ways in which they interact with each another's
lives. Looking at the effects of broken homes and the influence of parental
love isn't new to the Fringe which is why it needs to be handled with
some freshness or a unique spin to be inventive and interesting, Sadly
Splintered Glass' production comes off rather as being heavy-handed,
obvious and ultimately too big for its boots.
The real trouble is that there are too many things going on in the
play. The continual cutting between characters means that most are barely
on stage enough to allow us to get to know them. It also means that
some of their narrative threads simply tail off into nothing and are
never emphasised enough. The main story thrust of Thomas, the orphaned
loner, and his attempts to woo a childhood friend, come off more as
contrived as we never get enough of his own situation to explain his
mindset. Instead the early parts of the play set up the problems his
antagonistic male classmates have and, by underpinning their own foibles
with genuine sympathy, it leaves our lead as a fecklessly arrogant and
childish cypher with no real drive or depth we ever get to see. Considering
the good work done by the actors, it's a pity the script throttles the
narrative so badly, as with a longer running time, with more space to
develop, it would have made far more of an impact.
Graeme Strachan
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