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Fringe 2008 Reviews (61)
The Censor
By Anthony Neilson
UWS Productions
The Vault
****
It is fascinating to see Anthony Neilson's short play with the hindsight
of his subsequent work. When The Censor was first produced, with
audience and actors on the stage at the Royal Court, it appeared to
be a sexual comedy shocker. It still is but the trip through the mind
of a "repressed, anally-retentive apparatchik" also foresees
later plays like Realism.
A young company under the direction of Morna Burdon does well with
this claustrophobic play, helped of necessity by the small space at
the Vault.
Eric Robertson is The Censor, the lowest of the low, given films that
have the same statistical chance of prosecution as subsequent public
release. He is used to ordering cuts but for some reason, agrees to
meet a pornographer, Miss Fontaine played by Julia Jack.
Whether she exists or is a fantasy might be open to question but, soon
enough, the filmmaker begins to wage war, justifying her film by suggesting
that the underlying meaning supports the excesses.
By the end, a man who has failed his wife (Hayley McGill) and is cuckolded
by her, gets relief thanks to a dose of Freudian psychoanalysis gratuitously
and practical assistance given by his nemesis.
This enjoyable small scale production catches the essence of the work
and inaugurates a new company that shows great promise.
Philip Fisher
Shut Up! Listen!
Theatre Company 'SU'
Sweet ECA
****(*)
Does anyone actually listen anymore? It's a pertinent question in our
stressful 21st century when people are in too much of a hurry to pay
attention. In Shut Up! Listen! five almost identical people are
stressed to the hilt, desperate for someone to listen to their frustrations,
to give them validation and recognition. Initially, their antics are
funny; their compulsions ridiculous. They talk and talk incessantly,
beg for a listener, buttonhole audience members, but eventually turn
on each other, vie for attention and lose control and any vestiges of
civilized behaviour vanish. The aggression builds to a peak and they
go berserk as the adrenaline overwhelms them.
This is a powerful 45 minutes that has a frightening edge to it as
these people, like caged animals, seek an increasingly violent outlet
for their anxieties. It is frightening because it is recognisable and
so close to the bone.
Jackie Fletcher
Lost in the Wind
Lost Spectacles
Zoo
*****
What makes Lost in the Wind such an utterly enchanting journey
into the realms of pure magic? It is the way that this cast of five
charms us into putting our own imaginations to work, transforming everyday
objects and bringing them to life. This is theatre at its best, when
audience and actors join together to create the illusion. An old hat
and a couple of plastic tubes become a lover waltzing with his sweetheart.
A tiny puppet scales the side of a box as if it were a tall building
and flies away, soaring through the sky like a superhero with cape billowing
in the wind. The cast battle with rain and snow and gale force winds
and every moment is magical. For an all too brief hour, we are enrapt
and take childish delight in the illusion. The final scene is a veritable
coup de théâtre.
Lost in the Wind is a blend of mime, puppetry, clowning, physical
and object theatre with a musical score than enhances the beauty of
the illusion. It is inventive and funny and engages us with some profound
human emotions. If it is a theatrical journey into a fantasy world,
the show is about travelling in a much deeper sense of the word. The
central character, a man with a suitcase and half-eaten map, is lost
and searching for something elusive. On the way he encounters frustrations
and setbacks, strange people to whom he is antagonistic. Perhaps it
is his narrow-minded pursuit of the unachievable that renders him a
sad and solitary figure defeated by elemental forces beyond his control.
There is surely an analogy with our contemporary world, replete with
stress and vain strivings. Lost in the Wind, in its own charming
way, shows us a way forward, by encouraging us to use our imagination,
to look around us and see beauty and magic and pleasure in simple things.
Lost Spectacles is a strong ensemble of very talented young actors
who aim to rediscover the magic of theatre. Lost in the Wind
is their debut show and I hope we will see much more of their work in
the near future.
Jackie Fletcher
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