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Fringe 2009 Reviews (87)
Rachel Rose Reid
Louis Hartshorn & Brian Hook
Pleasance Courtyard
**
Rachel Rose Reid is a story teller. Not the children's sort but adult
stories and fables. And here she's mixed with the elaborate stories
a few songs.
Adult stories are to make us think about our history, deal with our
present and dream about and try to plan for our future. But you must
listen very carefully sometimes in order to understand. Such it is here.
Everyone takes something different away with them. This is more the
theatre of thought rather than simple, straightforward entertainment.
And the songs are supposed to act as emphasis or counterpoint.
It is are when it all comes together well. Reid has a few interesting
and charming stories. She has an easy voice to listen to. But it just
doesn't quite come together. Still, her self-confidence is her greatest
asset and makes it easy to listen to her and watch her.
Catherine Lamm
The Tartuffe
By Molière
Belt Up
C Soco
*****
Anarchy rules in this fantastic reinvention of a classic by Belt Up,
last year's winners of the Edinburgh International Festival Award.
The fun starts in the queue, as cast members using their best French
accents chat up audience members and get them in the mood for 75 minutes
of comedy of which they posit Molière would not approve. In fact,
the playwright knew a bit about subversion and would probably have had
a whale of a time watching Belt Up toy with his work.
Dominic Allen's Orgon is the control freak MC who holds the evening
together, as frustrated by his fellow cast members as the family that
doubts the sincerity of his character's new best friend.
Tartuffe, played by Nik Morris, is the phoniest priest imaginable but
still takes in gullible Orgon, despite the best efforts of the household.
It takes a long time but eventually, with the aid of numerous cast
members each playing a specific type in Commedia Dell'Arte fashion and
all rebelling against Allen/Orgon's direction, Tartuffe is unmasked
as a fraud and gets his comeuppance in a magical strobe-lit chase that
would justify the 5* on its own. Then again, so would a clown fight
later on.
There is far more to enjoy in this site specific production in the
round from the use of innocent visitors to supplement the cast through
cod Frenchness, slapstick and clowning to inventive comedy from a period
centuries after the original. However, the plot is never quite forgotten
and the spirit remains, even if the language is updated.
On this showing, Belt Up are one of the hottest theatre companies in
Edinburgh this year and it can only be a matter of time before they
start playing much bigger venues to satisfy the inevitable demand. However,
do try to catch them now, for the joy of this wild performance and to
enjoy a rawness that might disappear with greater respectability.
Philip Fisher
Destination GB
By Lost Banditos
Pleasance Courtyard
**
Destination GB starts promisingly, following a team of hopeless
immigration officers desperate for some victims.
They amuse by their incompetence and move the story on by taking off
for Azerbaijan to learn about life on the other side.
This is a fine concept but once they buy their way into a smuggler's
truck it all falls apart. Suddenly, the five actors try to use random
bits of absurdist comedy to fill the time, none of which is particularly
original or connected more than loosely with their story.
This is a real missed opportunity, as a play that takes the immigration
problem seriously but with humour would be welcome and this might have
been it.
Philip Fisher
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