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Fringe 2009 Reviews (73)
The Man Who Planted Trees
By Jean Giono
Puppet State Theatre Company
Scottish Storytelling Centre
*****
This show has become a regular feature in the Fringe programme of the
Scottish Storytelling Centre, selling out and winning awards for the
last two years.
The show is based on Jean Giono's story about a poor shepherd in France
who dedicated his life to planting thousands of trees in a fairly desolate
area, completely transforming the landscape and the lives of the people
who lived there, without ever seeking reward or recognition. Puppet
State frames this with banter between storyteller Jean, played by Richard
Medrington, and a puppet dog simply called Dog, operated and voiced
by Rick Conte.
This wonderfully-moving story is told beautifully by Medrington with
the aid of simple but nicely-designed props, puppets and sets by Ailie
Cohen, who also directs, and an evocative soundscape from Barney Strachan.
The audience even gets to experience the smells of the French countryside
(nice ones) and a bit of mist and rain. The conversations between Jean
and Dog that link the story together are superb bits of comic business
that are absolutely hilarious for children and adults, with Medrington
as the straight man to Dog's great gags.
This really is a show that appeals to all ages and is still a major
highlight of the Fringe that can certainly withstand repeated viewings
and still seem as fresh, funny and moving as ever.
David Chadderton
Adriano Adewale: Sound Journey
Created, composed and performed by Adriano Adewale
Augustines
***
Adriano Adewale has previously visited the Fringe as part of guitarist
Antonio Forcione's quartet, filling a large part of the stage with his
amazing array of percussive musical toys. Both have solo shows this
year, but while Forcione is content with a conventional structure in
which he introduces a series of numbers as he plays them, Adewale has
created a music and movement piece in conjunction with movement director
Kate Flatt and dramaturg Andrea de Almeida.
There are some elements that are recognisable from his shows with Forcione,
such as his amazing tuned instrument made from plastic drain piping
that he plays by hitting with a flip-flop, and the use of water dripping
from a plastic bottle in an atmospheric piece about the rain forest.
He gets some incredible sounds out of just a tambourine during one number,
sounding like a whole percussion orchestra by himself, and there is
a great piece in which he creates the sounds of three different characters.
Other pieces are less successful or drag on a bit: his movement piece
wearing a jacket covered in jangly bottle tops is initially interesting
but quickly becomes repetitive.
Adewale is a very talented musician and has some unusual and fascinating
pieces and instruments. His playful sense of humour that he has displayed
sometimes in his concerts with Forcione only rarely is allowed to creep
into this show which takes itself a little too seriously.
David Chadderton
The Fall of Man
Red Shift Theatre Company
Pleasance Courtyard
***
Milton's poetry is interspersed between scenes which chart and rise
and fall of three things: an extra-marital relationship, the married
guy's penis and his au pair's interest in him.
In a hectic fringe atmosphere, the experience of entering a theatre
and seeing a woman asleep in a bed comes as something of a relief, but
it is only the calm before the storm.
The first words break through the abrasively percussive score playing
in the background: "Get out!" The story begins, as if in a
flashback, although this is never really made clear. We see the couple's
relationship develop, their lust fizzle out, their love, if ever it
was present, escape, and we realise that all they were doing is trying
to escape their humdrum existences – he trying to inject some life
into his conventional marriage and job, and she trying to improve her
lot in life.
The costume states the unstated – the suspense is never set up:
we know what happened to Adam and Eve – why will this be anyy different?
The strong stories – biblical and real life – work on their
own terms. The marriage of Milton and the story of the Fall of Man doesn't.
Or at least, I didn't get it. If he was Adam and she Eve, then what
was the role of the man's wife (who never appears in the performance,
but is a strong presence, nevertheless)? The male actor takes on the
role of Satan at times, which also confuses things.
The connections are tenuous. "That first battle" comes after
their first kiss. If it was a battle of conscience, then all I can say
is Holloway buys into the predestination argument in this production.
And if the characters having an affair are doing it as a means of escape,
is the humdrum existence being likened to paradise? If so, I'd want
to escape.
References to death in Milton's poetry are applied equally to her periods
and his orgasm.
Satan lifts a light, and addresses it as heaven, then uses it to survey
the terrain on which intends to deploy his forces – the lover's
bed, colouring it with the same light, confusing the boundaries.
Adam's address to Eve, "Sole partner, and sole part, of all these
joys …" in which Adam underlines the need to respect the one
thing God has asked them not to do, in this context becomes an "ode
to a buttock". Is the guy touting for anal sex? To quote Milton,
"horrid confusion heaped upon confusion rose." In the garden
of Eden, Eve gave Adam an apple to eat. In the production, the girl
gave the guy a blow job. All was lost and death was given another reference
point – ejaculation. Where have I heard that before?
"Wisdom which alone is truly fair" cannot have been part
of the conceptual approach to this production which is confused and
fails to hang together. The play ends, as it begun, by going full cycle.
"Get out!" I obeyed. Willingly.
Leon Conrad
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