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Fringe 2008 Reviews (23)
Caught on Tape
Putney Players
Zoo Southside
**(*)
Is three weeks enough to write and develop a complete Fringe play?
This American troupe have set themselves that very task, recording comments
from people on the nature of love. Having recorded a series of people's
thoughts on the nature of different types of Love and the effects it
has upon us, the many-handed cast flit between roles, manipulating the
few props around to better suit each individual theme with a mixture
of physical theatre and dialogue.
The trouble with the piece is that it feels forced at points, and the
lack of fidelity to any particular style and the occasional incoherence
of the point betrays an amateur quality that undermines the enthusiasm
of the energetic performers. Which is not to say it is without merit,
the guffaw inducing conversation made up entirely of lines from love
songs is a definite highlight but the reach does exceed its grasp, as
the moments of darker poetry and the now almost inevitable reference
to the 9/11 attacks that seems to be obligatory in every young American
Fringe production, seem to fall both outwith the show's concept and
feel tonally wrong.
A good start for a company that seems to have their heart in the right
place, but need to give themselves a little more time.
Graeme Strachan
The Yellow Wallpaper
WhiteSpace Theatre
Rocket @ Demarco Roxy Art House
***
It's difficult to make wallpaper frightening. Which should have been
an indication that this wasn't going to be easy. To their credit, WhiteSpace
theatre have put their all into this adaptation of Charlotte Gilbert's
Gothic horror story about a young woman confined to a small room by
her physician husband. Over the course of the play, the confinement
and her own mental problems left after a difficult pregnancy, collude
to tip her over the edge into insanity while her baffled spouse and
sister look on afraid and unable to help.
The play manages to bring out the notion of her burgeoning madness
through the use of a silent figure garbed from head to toe in the same
pattern as the wallpaper. This would be fine, indeed the effect is quite
one of the best features of the play, as the girl and the animated wallpaper
interact more and more as the piece continues. Unfortunately the figure
is evident and blatant almost from the outset and acts more as a distraction
than a help to the story. By showing its hand too soon, the production
destroys the sense of build up that should have occured and this just
makes the whole affair drag on.
Added to this, the rest of the cast, while acting capably, really have
little to do. In fact, after the third time the Doctor appears to tell
his wife to hurry up and recover, you begin to wish he'd either change
his mind or stay away and let things pay out. Had there been more of
the hinted, almost sinister attraction between him and the sister, it
might have rounded the piece out better, but instead they remain largely
pointless additions to what becomes a drawn-out piece that with this
cast and design could easily have been so much more.
Graeme Strachan
Plague! The Musical
Bubonic Productions
C
****
It's rare for a new company to come along with an astoundingly good
production, but evidently the six years that this musical has been worked
on has paid off. The story of poor Clive, a young man off to make his
fortune in London as an actor in the midst of the unpleasantness, is
an absolute riot. After being robbed and beaten senseless he falls in
with some deranged but kindly undertakers and falls in love with the
local alchemist's daughter. However somewhere in the background a breed
of mutant gangster rats are plotting the downfall of the entire city
and they have their eyes on Clive for their nefarious schemes. Needless
to say this is all tied together with a wry wit making light of the
situation.
Breakthrough musicals are dependent on the songs as much as the action,
as a mediocre story can often be saved by some great pieces of music.
At the same time a good story can be ruined if the accompanying score
doesn't get the audience's feet tapping. In this case it's a definite
success, as the songs performed by the company are some of the best
I've heard from a musical in years. Like the plot, they are silly to
the point of absurdity and yet all falling well within the play's own
skewed internal logic. The music is let down slightly by the lack of
cast microphones which leaves some of the weaker singers drowned out
by both the music and those with more gusto. However this is the only
complaint, as the production carries the audience along on a wave of
pestilent mirth and gallows humour that had them in absolute stitches.
It's a fair bet to say that this is going to become a festival regular,
and if there is any justice a popular musical in its own right.
Graeme Strachan
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