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The
Edinburgh Fringe
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Fringe 2009 Reviews (61)Words of Honour The Mafia, la Cosa Nostro, the Sicilian mob; a shadowy society of corruption that has existed in Sicily for nearly three hundred years. Such a rich and interesting topic is surely one guaranteed to make a top notch show at the festival? Well yes and no; as Jermyn Street Theatre's show proves, nothing can be quite so clear cut. Covering the origins of the Mafia and its working in a one hour piece is never going to be fully comprehensive but the performance here manages to be both mystifyingly in-depth and shockingly superficial. Whilst the performance of the two leads cannot be faulted, their renditions of a whole host of different characters and symbolic mouthpieces are bravely accomplished and polished, the coverage of the Mafia is too fragmented to be wholly compelling. Traipsing through the history of the families and 'Men of Honour' at breakneck speed, it becomes unclear at times who is talking and to what end. Adding to that the occasionally dry subject, this feels almost like a lecture by an eccentric professor rather than a piece of entertainment. As a result Words of Honour is a hugely informative and intelligent hour of theatre that will be of interest to anyone already familiar with the subject but bafflingly impregnable to almost anyone else. Graeme Strachan Last Night Things Happened A boy awakens stripped naked and about to be butchered for meat by a group of back-alley meat-sellers. Upon realising he is alive they cheerfully send him on his way and this begins the strange adventure. The Boy doesn't know how he arrived at this point, has no memory of the night before and wants desperately to find his way home. The play is a strange and fragmented tale much in the vein of Alice in Wonderland or Pinocchio, as the lost and confused boy stumbles from pillar to post meeting a series of increasingly bizarre characters. From the electrically fused married couple to a monstrously obese man, each adds a skewed view of reality and manages to throw a few thought-provoking nibbles of wisdom the lad's way before helping him in some small manner. The effect is one that is both whimsical and unsettling, shifting from dramatic monologues to some odd humour and back without warning. Unfortunately the whole is a disjointed mess, as the fragments, whilst individually well written and acted with some skill, are each an island unto themselves and there is precious little cohesion to the story as a result. When the end finally arrives it's clear that the individual stories were designed to allude to the inevitability of the final moments but never quite manage to do so. From a company with a varied and interesting history of experimenting with different types of production this has to be one of their least accomplished plays; a laudable attempt at the vague and elusive worlds of whimsy but in definite need of more direct and cohesive writing. Graeme Strachan Catch Having brought the plight of Russian mail-order brides to the festival, the girls who brought the hit show Skolka to the festival two years ago have returned with the follow-up show Catch. Whilst the previous play was a heart-rending exploration of the reasons behind three young women's motivation to try and find a British husband through an Internet dating site; the sequel neatly inverts the concept and gives us the perspective of two men seeking out such brides. Emmy Sainsbury and Susan Momoko Hingley play the men in question, as widower Spralsey and Alan the banker respectively. It flows wonderfully and although it is a spiritual sequel to Skolka there is no need to have seen the original for it to resound with meaning. It's an ingeniously formed play that opens with the two men, each decked out in Edwardian 3-piece suits and top-hats; casting lines into the audience to the strains of From Russia with Love. This unique opening gambit obliquely acts as a metaphor for the entire production as both a criticism of the old-fashioned mindsets that form the mens' endeavour and the futile and random nature of it all. Carrying the story of the very different suitors' journey from internet trawling to Russian bride-finding holiday, the players act out the parts with equal measure of sympathy and scorn. Each man is lonely and looking for love for different reasons but each is incapable of finding companionship at home through their own inadequacies. The play manages to turn the audiences feelings for the two men on their heads throughout the production, as the horribly exploitative nature of the enterprise is painfully clear, yet the measure of gentle care that is given to portraying the sad loneliness and needs of Spralsey and Alan is touchingly clear throughout. The only downside of the piece is that the very nature of the story means that it isn't quite as affecting as the story of the brides, as the men are never entirely sympathetic as characters and the decision not to skewer them with harsh criticism makes it hard to judge them with anything other than a offhand pity. Despite that, this is a brilliantly clever show constructed and performed with a full measure of theatrical mastery and it's clear that Pin the Tale have a grand career ahead of them. Graeme Strachan |
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