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Fringe 2008 Reviews (99)
Beth Becomes Her
Beth Black
Baby Belly
***(*)
Beth Black comes to the festival this year with an occasionally painfully
truthful account of her struggles with gender confusion, lesbianism
and trans-sexual surgery. But more than that, it's also a touchingly
close and friendly account of her bitter sweet life. Covering in graphic
detail the pains she went through, including abortions and suicide attempts,
no subject is too taboo for the show, but, along with a refreshingly
cavalier attitude to taste and decency, there is a lot of hope injected
into the harrowing accounts of loneliness and depression.
The downside of all this is that while the show is broad and funny,
it feels a tad fast-paced and, despite the honesty on display, there
are a thousand questions the audience are left with. That aside, this
is a great piece of self-deprecating humour and a story that is likely
to have few parallels, and is certainly a one-of-a-kind show.
Graeme Strachan
The Idiot Colony
RedCape Theatre
Pleasance Dome, King Dome
****
Three women in clinical white enter the stage with their hair combed
forward over their faces. While the character in the centre may be called
Joy ('as in happiness', she explains) these three women have been brought
to this place through suffering. Set in the 1950s inside the hair salon
of a psychiatric institute, the women are handed pills they have no
choice but to swallow and regimented to bed by loud bells. As the piece
unfolds we hear of Joy's extra-marital affair with a black American
GI and Mary's childhood of abuse by her piano teacher. The programme
tells us that, under the 1913 Mental Deficiency Act, a woman deemed
to have an irremediable 'moral deficiency' coupled with a 'criminal
or vicious propensity' could, with the signature of two GPs (not psychiatrists)
and a relative, be 'confined indefinitely'. And in situations where
women posed a social embarrassment this legislation was conveniently
manipulated. Subsequently these women have spent their entire adulthood
deemed mentally unhealthy and locked away.
RedCape Theatre paint a haunting picture of these vulnerable women,
bathed by unforgiving nurses with rough hands, 'shhh-d' by their fellow
inmates when their story gets too painful and questioned by dispassionate
doctors who really don't want to listen. Told with beauty and with poignancy,
even the lighting creates a lasting impression. However be warned that
the pieces performed downstage and on the floor are increasingly difficult
to see due to the audience raking and therefore end up being for the
viewing pleasure of the front two rows only. This is a fascinating piece
with perfect performers but queue early and sit at the front if you
wish to see the whole thing.
Cecily Boys
Aurora Borealis
Dance Base and Lazzi Experimental Arts Unit
Dance Base
**(*)
On a transcontinental flight over the Arctic Circle, David W. W Johnstone
had an unforgettable experience of the Northern Lights which he attempts
to share with audiences. Unfortunately, his 35 minute attempt to re-create
the response to the phenomenon is eminently forgettable.
Johnstone's company, Lazzi, is billed as 'experimental' arts, but it's
difficult to see what might be the experiment in this piece of theatre.
Three performers run through an acting-by numbers version of sadness,
despair, self-doubt ('I don't like how I look in a mirror') and on to
wonder and happiness. It's a bit like a modern version of one of those
18th century acting handbooks with pictures of statues illustrating
different emotional states. Suddenly, they all like themselves, appreciate
their reflection and try to include the audience.
The curtain in the dance studio is pulled back revealing a full-wall
mirror in which the audience can see themselves as well as the action
and the actors and it's tempting to watch the audience responses because
the actors have no presence. This might pass for 'experimental' work
in a small pond, where the arts and audiences are predominantly conventional,
but at present it remains a series of clichés that needs to go
back to the workshop for a rigorous dissection.
Jackie Fletcher
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