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The
Edinburgh Fringe
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Fringe 2009 Reviews (74)Knuckleball Knuckleball contains one of the most preposterous premises imaginable and the casting makes matters even worse. Having said that, there are some real strengths in David Levy Horton's transfer from San Francisco, where the play was voted Best of Fest on the Fringe there last year. It starts with an aura of Tracy Letts' grunginess, as a couple indulge their sex drives in an apartment that is littered with girly mags, congealing food and unwashed male underwear. Hidden away are the baseball trophies that become the driving force behind the plot. This is the home of welder Ross, a former college baseball star on the skids, played by Bryan Kaplan. His squeeze is the voluptuous multilingual Trish, Judy Merrick as a rich girl with a history (if not half a dozen different ones). The sex is hot and the couple seem made for each other until Ross raises the question of marriage and then the writer decides to play cat and mouse with his audience, as Trish becomes evasive over a rejection and Ross irrationally alternates between understanding and violent anger. It takes time and a lot of Jack Daniels before Trish finally fesses up to a problem that it would be unfair to give away. Suffice to say that this seems as unlikely to Ross as it does to the rest of us. The pair then blow hot and cold almost by numbers, which can be hard to take as temper tantrums need consistency to seem anything other than playwrights' whims. The actors work really hard and give their all but ultimately, this is a play that sacrifices credibility to cute plotting. Philip Fisher Snatch Paradise
The remarkably prolific Van Badham has seemingly given up her committed political plays for lighter satires with underlying messages. Her 2009 offering is a portrait of the pop music business that takes more than a few sideswipes at the business end of the exploitation of teenage fans and also considers the celebrity industry more widely. One novelty is that an all female cast not only transforms itself into a girl group, a kind of Australian Atomic Kitten, but also, though only on screen, a boy band. The fiendish mastermind behind both brands is Margaux Kramm, played by Lucy Miller as a cynical monster. Indeed, having created Shannon Dooley's D-Star K, a Ronan Keating with an everything problem, she then manufactures a fight and subsequent imprisonment. As the play opens, poor D-Star is in a coma after an attack while behind bars, much to the consternation of his Posh-style fiancée, the voracious Lola Valente, given just the right mix of ignorance and belligerence by Sophie Cook. The plotting is silly but it does allow audiences to contemplate the place of celebrity in society and the manufacture of talentless pop groups by impresarios on the make. By taking their techniques to extremes, Miss Badham exposes them as at best sinister and at worst evil Doctor Frankenstein characters. The drama is accompanied by first rate musical pastiche composed by Annaliese Szota, who also performs as part of the ensemble. Snatch Paradise is great fun and despite a few excesses, Tanya Denny's production will appeal to anyone interested in the pop phenomenon or fearful of manufactured celebrity. Philip Fisher Burton Richard Burton's life is rich soil for theatrical interest. From poor, Welsh beginnings, luck tapped him on the shoulder and offered a theatrical life. Although he was known quantity in the theatre, his life wasn't splattered all over the media until he crossed paths with Elizabeth Taylor. Their behaviour was far from private and considered scandalous and, therefore, extremely newsworthy. His very theatrical life and flamboyance lends itself to the one-man show. So Burton, the newest production written by Gwynne Edwards and played by Rhodi Miles, is well done. Edwards touches all of the major biographical moments although there is no new information. Miles looks a little like Burton and he has a little of the rhythm of Burton's speech. But anyone expecting a look alike or to hear that very distinct voice will be disappointed. Miles doesn't try for that explosive and crackling breathing pattern or the cultivated Welsh/English accent. Nor does his Burton seem to be affected by the large amount of alcohol that he appears to consume during the performance. But the script is if fluid and the performance masterful. If you hadn't seen Josh Richard's Playing Burton two years ago or eleven years before that, you will find this intriguing, revealing and satisfying. Catherine Lamm |
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