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Fringe 2008 Reviews (45)
Off Her Trolley
Written and performed by Eleanor Bennet
The Vault
***
It sounds a bit grim - a one-woman show about carers for the elderly
in private care homes - but Eleanor Bennet manages to find humour as
well as care and compassion. There's the slightly rather scatty central
figure, a not terribly bright NVQ student and Jenny, the niece of one
of the residents. Each has a distinct character and tone, so the piece
swings through a whole gamut of emotions.
Bennet's performance is excellent but I did find the going upstage,
turning her back to the audience and changing items of costume to indicate
a change of character did slow it down somewhat. There's enough in her
different voices and body language to carry the changes and the piece
would definitely benefit from speeding up slightly.
Still, it is a good piece of work and, as one whose mother spent the
last two years of her life in residential care, it rang many bells for
me!
Peter Lathan
Clockheart Boy
Dumbshow
C
****
To say that this is a children's show or even a family show is grossly
inaccurate. The majority of the audience was adult. Clockheart Boy
speaks in a universal language.
The professor has lost his daughter. His friends, who take on names
that illuminate their position in the household such as "Peepers"
who is the eyes of the group and "Brolly" who has a functioning
umbrella on his helmet, spend years helping "The Professor"
look for his lost daughter. Everyone has a job. Amazingly, at one point,
they band together to form a telescope.
Although this fable or parable has the look and feel of a children's
show, it is very maturely written by Sam Gayon, directed by Hester Bond
and Nicola Cutcher, and devised and performed by a company of 12 or
13 performers from Dumbshow/Top of the World ; the joy ever present.
Music composed and performed by Rollo Clarke is perfect, it helps move
the plot along and never get in the way or draws attention to itself.
This is warm and fuzzy theatre at its best; simple and sound.
Catherine Lamm
Asmakam: The Quest
SB.dance
InvASIAn Festival
clubWEST@Quintencenary Hall
****(*)
How can you reconcile two entirely opposing parts of your identity?
This is the quandary with which many young Asians are faced when brought
up in a Western country. As Shalini Bhalla explains, Indian at home,
English at school, the crunch comes when adolescence ends and as an
adult you are faced with difficult choices. Parents expect you to marry
a good Indian boy, but the English part of you longs for independence
and a career.
In an interdisciplinary production embracing Bharata Natyam (Indian
classical dance), Bollywood dance and Western contemporary dance, two
dancers express the complexity of an Asian/English identity in the 21st
century. Shalini Bhalla and Payal Ahuja have both trained from infancy
in classical Indian dance forms. They are a remarkably talented duo.
Eleanore Duggan provides a beautiful soundscore of intermingled western
and Indian music, and, in one scene, haunting vocals.
Inspired by a novel, Amulya Malladi's The Mango Tree, Shalini
Bhalla recognised that her own experiences were shared by many Asian
women and decided it was time to tell her own story through the medium
of dance. The spoken text has none of the vocal tricks of trained actors,
so that her words maintain an engagingly honest tone. The dancing is
superb.
Jackie Fletcher
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