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Fringe 2008 Reviews (64)
Bury the Dead
The American High School Theatre Festival
Rocket at Roxburghe Hotel
*
Twenty-five young actors from the Drama Department of Notre Dame High
School find themselves on a battlefield from World War I. Six dead soldiers
do not want to be buried. All having good reasons not to lie down and
be buried. Fellow soldiers can't convince them. Superior officers can't
order them. So the American army brings over spouses and relatives to
convince them. Still, they won't be buried.
The commitment of the actors is uniform. As high school productions
go, this is not bad. Unfortunately, the talent is widely diversified.
A few of the actors have great potential. There are maybe a half dozen
of the actors that have done more than memorized their lines and blocking.
The clue is the requisite hand on hip or flailing of hands. Acting rather
than reacting.
Catherine Lamm
Greenstick Boy
Greenstick Productions
Assembly Rooms
***
We've all had childhood friends that we're grown apart from, even if
we are still in touch with. Such is the case with M and D, Maggie Cronin's
reflection on the relationships that involve friends, not lovers. M
has great successes in her life which leave her comfortable and mature.
D has done the downward spiral of the heroin addict, a life so totally
consumed by the drug that everything else comes in second. Yet this
love between these two people is sustained over the course of widely
divergent lives.
There is no doubt that the actress is talented. The production is extremely
focused and polished. But this is just one of a long line of self-reflective
pieces.
Catherine Lamm
Another Paradise
Kali Theatre
InvASIAN Festival
clubWEST
**
When the creator of a future identity and security system finds that
the system has a glitch in it, everyone's identity is rearranged. And
those whose identities are erased are banished to Coventry (yee gads)!
This is an interesting idea that deserves a more serious approach without
loosing the comedic aspects; a few more teeth to it. We are all fascinated
about what future the computer world has in store for us. External tracking
through iris or fingerprint identification or chips planted in our heads
that take the place of mobile phones or requiring DNA tests before marriage
to make sure you have not come from the same petire dish.
Another Paradise is light fluff at best and, although the actors
seem to be quite committed to the script and direction, it never really
gets much past the kind of thing done at school or by small, community
theatres.
Catherine Lamm
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