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The
Edinburgh Fringe
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Fringe 2008 Reviews (43)There's Something in the Fridge
That Wants to Kill Me! There are seven women in this play and they are all Isabelle Gregson, for this is a one-woman show. There's the British Isabelle, the French Isabelle (who speaks fluent French), the Spanish Isabelle (who speaks fluent Spanish), the American Isabelle, the anorexic Isabelle, the sex-addicted Isabelle and the food-addicted Isabelle. Although this is a play - and a very amusing and interesting one - it is also, as she says, "the dramatisation of my colourful life". What a life - and what a character! All of these Isabelles are part of her - the prim French woman, the earthy Spaniard, the peep-show performer - every one represents what she has gone through at one stage or another. In a way it would seem that, by performing this show, she is exorcising personal demons. In doing so, she entertains the audience mightily. A very enjoyable and illuminating fifty minutes. Peter Lathan Caruso and the Quake
In under an hour, Andrew G.Marshall conjures up a picture of horror during the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. He does so through the eyes of the legendary tenor Enrico Caruso, played by Placido Domingo-lookalike Ignacio Jarquin under the direction of Miranda Henderson. It is hard for the great Caruso to accept that after a natural disaster, he is no more important than the next man. This is emphasised when the opera house disintegrates, taking $20,000 of costumes with it. Accompanied by his Sancho Panza, an English valet called Gilbert, he tries to escape but struggles. The play is particularly strong on his humanity and the power of his voice in every sense. When a little child has lost its mother, he reunites them by singing and gathering a crowd. Finally, with the help of a signed photo from President Theodore Roosevelt, the chance of moving on appears, but even then must be viewed in the light of a greater tragedy in a city where corrupt politicians have denuded the emergency services of the wherewithal to react when fires begin to take over. Ignacio Jarquin is a good, sympathetic actor and, as a bonus, proves capable singing that may not quite be like Caruso but is certainly very pleasant. Philip Fisher The Factory I am not sure that The Factory can really be called theatre, not if we think that theatre is about sitting and watching a play performed in front of us. What we can say about it is that this site-specific, totally immersive piece is a harrowing experience for both cast and audience. It examines the "journey towards death taken by the millions of victims who perished in the Gas Chambers at Auschwitz" but we, the audience, are not shown this journey: we experience it for ourselves. With the cast intermingling with us, we are sworn and shouted at and led first into a large garage-like space in the new Pleasance Undergrand. Then we are bullied, screamed at and taken through increasingly small spaces into a tiny underground room, the actual gas chamber itself. Throughout the play goes on around and amongst us. We aren't allowed to sit or relax: we are subjected to (almost) all the same indignities as the prisoners. Fifty minutes long, this horrifying recreation of man's greatest inhumanity to man, the Holocaust, is like nothing else you will experience in Edinburgh or elsewhere. It is the logical culmination of Steve Lambert's work which began with Ashes to Ashes at the 1999 Fringe (another five star piece). It is far from easy viewing (wrong word!) and those who are claustrophobic or who have delicate ears will suffer somewhat, but everyone should experience it. Peter Lathan |
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