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Fringe 2008 Reviews (38)
Heartbreak Soup
By Laura Lindow
The Empty Space and Laura Lindow
Pleasance Courtyard
*****
Heartbreak Soup is listed in the Fringe programme as a children's
show, but don't let that put you off. At the performance I saw, the
audience of mainly adults whooped and cheered at the end - and this
was for a show that starts at 11.30 in the morning.
And they were perfectly justified, for this is a funny yet deeply moving
piece about an 11 year old boy waiting in a hospital bed for a heart
transplant. Performed by two actors - Scott Turnbull as Cuddy (the boy)
and Chris Price as Dan - it takes your emotions by the hand and leads
them all over the place: laughter and tears and everything in between.
The set is clever: a hospital bed with many multi-coloured drawers
beneath, each of which contains a memory. There's a very simple puppet,
manipulated by the boys, which is remarkably expressive.
Turnbull and Price convince, respectively, as an 11 year old and a
12 year old.
Like all of the best children's theatre, Hearbreak Soup has
as much to say to adults as it has to kids. Forget the label: this is
not good children's theatre: it's just good theatre.
Peter Lathan
Boys of The Empire
Glenn Chandler Presents
C
*****
At St Ethelred's School for Boys there's no chance of Johnny Foreigner
getting one over on the pupils from the Fourth. That is, not unless
he offers Pike a thrashing, who would very easily take him up on it.
Throwing political correctness to the wind, these seven performers
skip, saunter and grin their way round a story of school boy adventure
and British empire building. With one of the funniest shadow play pieces
and a hilarious script, this is a comic delight and what one might call
a 'pink performance' through and through. Everything you could want
in an energetic and creative Fringe show (despite one of the actors
continually corpsing) this is sure to be a sell-out show - get a ticket
if you can.
Cecily Boys
The Army of Reason
Weaver Hughes Ensemble
Pleasance Dome
***(*)
This is a play of three parts. The first part begins with an interview
between a journalist and a playwright about the latter's new piece which
attacks religion and ends with his murder. The second part shows the
result - civil war between the Army of Reason and the religious - and
ends with betryal revealed. The third shows a scene from the play itself.
The subject is one which is very relevant, given the rise of religious
fundamentalism, and reference is, in fact, made to the riots over Gurpreet
Kaur Bhatti's Behzti in Birmingham, but here the reference is
not to any one religion (although the journalist is a Christian) but
to religion in genera. Indeed, reference could equally as well have
been made to reactions to Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses
or to Jerry Springer the Opera. It makes for powerful theatre,
particularly as it is well performed.
However it has a major weakness: the third part does not sit well with
the other two. It is unexpected (not necessarily a bad thing) but allows
the play as a whole to just fade away. Yes, it shows that the fundamentalist
reaction was over-the-top, for it isn't a particularly good play, but
structurally it weakens the whole, for the climax is reached at the
end of the second scene so the audience is left feeling dissatisfied.
Such a shame, for the premise is full of possibilities and the performances
strong and compelling.
Peter Lathan
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