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Fringe 2009 Reviews (56)
Alistair McGowan: The One
and The Many
Off The Kerb Productions
Assembly @ Assembly Hall
****
Returning to Edinburgh after a break of thirteen years Alistair McGowan's
fantastic talent stands alone in his one man show. And yet it is peopled
by so many - we hear Julian Clary, Prince Charles, Jo Brand to name
but a few, let alone more footballers than you can remember. Such is
McGowan's vocal precision that he can even go through his characters
by degrees, as if he were a singer practicing his scales.
Along side this is McGowan's great warmth and humour, observing sections
from his own life, including his love of cats, his mother's collecting
habits and his great enjoyment in returning to Edinburgh. A great set
and, as ever, an astonishingly talented man.
Sacha Voit
Rhod Gilbert and the Cat that
Looked Like Nicholas Lyndhurst
Pleasance Courtyard
****
The far from snappy title, Rhod Gilbert and the Cat that Looked
Like Nicholas Lyndhurst, takes a long time to explain. It doesn't
really matter, but to give Wales' top comedian credit, he gets there
in a satisfying final flourish.
Rhod Gilbert is now a TV star but still obviously relishes his time
on the Fringe, lager as always in hand as he chats but more often rails
against the constant vicissitudes of his life.
Gilbert ignores the many highlights of the last year, exemplified by
his presence at Pleasance 1 in front of 400 delighted fans every night
(and fiery argument with the Prince of Wales at the Royal variety show).
His aggressive style works far better in a bigger space and there is
no doubt that the stand-up has hit the big time and deserves it.
His topics seem diverse but determinedly inconsequential. Battles with
inanimate objects and those who sell them are always favourites. This
year, he had the misfortune to need a new washing machine and Hoover,
much to the amusement of the audience.
His friends also persuaded the Welshman to try Anger Management and
hypnosis but, thank goodness, they fuelled his comedy rather than killing
it. And the Cat? If anyone cares, this was a childhood memory chosen
to frustrate a gent in Canterbury.
Rhod Gilbert and the Cat that Looked Like Nicholas Lyndhurst
is by far the best show that the popular comedian has ever delivered
in Edinburgh. If you can't get in, put the promised DVD on your Christmas
list.
Philip Fisher
A Midsummer Night's Dream
By William Shakespeare
Beijing Film Academy
McEwan Hall
***
Throughout this visually stunning Dream there's a nagging sense that
the Beijing Film Academy are trying to put one over on us; to distract
us with twinkly lights and tumbly fights in the hope that we won't notice
the many holes in their adaptation.
Shakespeare's faeries are downgraded to adolescent online gamers, his
human characters to programmed game sprites and his Athens to a multiplayer
online fantasy world à la World of Warcraft. The apparent
logic behind this is that we mortals are about as significant to the
faeries as, say, The Sims are to us. And what's the first thing you
do when you get bored playing The Sims? Depending on your personality,
either set them on fire - or meddle in their love lives.
So far, so logical, and further ponderings on the subject are shoved
swiftly to the back burner by an onslaught of visual artistry. Ting
Luo's costumes are elaborate and otherworldly; a catalogue of ghostly
pale pleats and ruffles, rendered only faintly ridiculous by the addition
of LED rope lights. Multimedia designer Dawei Lu's bespoke animated
projections are astounding, a constantly growing, changing backdrop
that takes account and advantage of McEwan Hall's staggering décor
and architecture. The action, too, has a distinctly BFA flavour, with
plenty of enjoyably daft martial-arts-flick "for this insult you
must die!" moments.
It's spectacular enough to render the language barrier a non-issue,
though Oberon/Ola (Nan Zhang) does often switch into English to deliver
exposition of the videogame plot mechanics. It's in these explanatory
scenes with Puck/Perquie (Jiang Shimeng), now a hacker, that it becomes
briefly apparent that things don't really make sense. It's never properly
explained, for example, why the Love-in-Idleness virus, which alters
the emotional parameters of the in-game AI, also affects Titania/Titata
(Yabin Wang), a human player.
Within the boundaries of the auditorium, this is as comic and transporting
as every good Dream should be. But once you're out the door,
thinking it over without the distraction of the production itself, it
begins to look more like highly polished, sparkly nonsense.
Matt Boothman
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