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Fringe 2008 Reviews (72)
The Cholmondeleys and The
Featherstonehaughs present Dancing on Your Grave featuring Corpse De
Ballet
Assembly Rooms
***
Deadpan might be a good way of summing up this motley quintet of funeral
cabaret artists. With a look that could have been styled on the inmates
of a Victorian mortuary, they present a variety of grimly themed (but
surprisingly jaunty) music hall ditties, without a single member ever
cracking a smile.
Steve Blake and Nigel Burch’s songs are bone dry in their delivery,
taking the murky world of death and the afterlife for their inspiration.
Their fondness for the delights of double-rhyme (‘I thought life
was hard with a torso, but death is harder more-so’) and triple-rhyme
(my favourite being ‘palaver’ and ‘cadaver’) is
reminiscent of Tom Lehrer with a ghoulish twist.
Lea Anderson who founded the Cholmondeleys (Chumlees) and Featherstonehaughs
(Fanshaws) 25 years ago, creates a choreography that is slick and witty,
at its darkest humour in Maho Ihara’s brilliant balletic suicide
solo. The Corpse de Ballet, three dancers, frame Blake and Burch’s
banjo-accompanied songs with alternating episodes of motion and eccentric
tableaux. This is a show with more raise-an-eyebrow wit than laugh a
minute hilarity but there are also surprising moments of genuine warmth,
carried by the sentiment that we’re all in the same boat when it
comes to death. The Spiegeltent might lend a bit more atmosphere to
an act like this but for an afternoon’s entertainment it doesn’t
go far wrong.
Lucy Ribchester
Behind the Mirror
Theatre Ad Infinitum
Pleasance Courtyard
*****
What do you do when your mirror image despises you, slips through the
glass divide, beats you up and carries off your girlfriend? Do you stand
by helplessly and watch as your lustful alter ego has his evil
way with her, or do you step through the looking-glass like a knight
in shining armour to rescue the damsel who actually doesn't seem to
be suffering too much distress?
Theatre Ad Infinitum's trio of Lecoq-trained actors tackle this plot
with gusto to create a mercilessly energetic, hilariously funny, fast-paced
piece of Marx Brothers style action. On a deeper level, this could be
seen as a metaphor for a simple, ordinary and insecure man, battling
with his inner urges, but who needs metaphors when you have such wonderful,
whacky and perfectly executed physical comedy?
Behind the Mirror is simple, yet rich in details that perfect
the gags. The sound effects made by the actors themselves, like the
squeaking of dental floss as it passes back and forth between our hero's
teeth, are the finishing touches to the jokes. The gibberish language
spoken by the lovers is both endearing and funny. Lurking behind the
surface simplicity, there is a wealth of clever invention that never
fails to delight and surprise. The movement is superb and brings all
the antics of cartoon characters to life in flesh and blood.
Theatre Ad Infinitum re-invents the great and very ancient traditions
of mime and clowning. The actors are masters at an age-old and universal
gestural language of comedy in innovative and invigorating new forms
that should engage young and old across the globe in a very human comedy.
Jackie Fletcher
The Lark
American High School Theatre
Roxy @ Demarco Roxy Art House
**
This misguided production of Jean Anouilh's version of the life and
trial of Joan of Arc struggles with inexperienced young actors and particularly
incoherent diction. From the incomprehensively fast speaker who opens
the play, the errant lighting leaving the audience in light and the
actors on a completely dark stage, not to mention the phonetic pronunciation
of 'Warwick' throughout, this is not to be recommended. Despite the
best efforts of the cast the static direction fails to achieve Anouilh's
characteristic conflict between idealism and realism. Of course it doesn't
help that the rest of the cast stand at the back of the stage throughout,
looking bored. One couldn't help watching this and wish this dedicated
cast had been given a more lively play to put their energy into.
Cecily Boys
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