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Fringe 2009 Reviews (94)
Lysistrata - the Sex Strike
Youth Arts Leicestershire
Quaker Meeting House
*
It helps when performing a classic play that you stick to the best
version of the work. As such it's unfortunate that to start with the
company thought it was a good idea to use the vastly inferior Germaine
Greer feminist polemic in place of Aristophanes' original. So aside
from the glaringly overbearing moments of shameful misandry, terrible
politicising and the failure to address the inherent narrative flaws
the play has always had, the production was only very mildly entertaining.
The play takes place as a production performed by the cleaning staff
of a holiday camp. Deciding to put on a play they choose the Lysistrata.
The action then jumps abruptly into the actual performance and out again
for an unnecessary momentary epilogue at the end. Despite this the cast
try their damnedest to make it work, changing costumes and attempting
to raise it to the level of bawdy comedy, which occasionally works but
can't get past the fact that the production doesn't seem to know if
it's supposed to be pantomime masquerading as theatre, or simply a very
silly play trying to be overtly clever.
Graeme Strachan
The Devoured
BADAC Theatre
Written and Directed by Steve Lambert
Pleasance Courtyard
***
The holocaust has been the subject of more Fringe plays that one cares
to think about, so it makes a change to see someone take a truly original
slant at the subject. In Steve Lambert's solo performance in The
Devoured he explores the effects of survivor guilt whilst telling
a story of one man's suffering.
Running on the spot for almost the entire length of the production,
chanting, yelling and screaming, Lambert bombastically hammers the frustration
and pain of the tale into the audience. As a performance it's a powerhouse
of sheer physical effort, and it's a pity that the impact cannot withstand
the running time. So much so that the few moments of measured silence
leave the audience gasping at the reprieve.
Unfortunately the sheer power and frenetic concussion of the production
is also its greatest problem. It's too difficult to maintain the emotional
turmoil that pushes out from the stage and a bizarre form of shell-shock
begins to set in. This, coupled with Lambert's repetition of almost
every line and the moments when he loops into a minute long cycle of
the same words and actions, usually whilst describing and mimicking
some horrific act, simply are too much. It's also a distracting choice
to pepper almost every sentence of the play with the word 'Fucking'
used almost as punctuation, as it too loses its power with the continual
use. Leaving it a step too far where a modicum of restraint might have
made all of the difference.
Graeme Strachan
Bite-Sized Breakfast (Week
3)
White Room Theatre
Bedlam
****
It is almost unprecedented to see an adult show starting at 10.15 in
the morning. However, that is exactly what is playing at Bedlam throughout
the Fringe.
White Room Theatre have had the excellent idea of putting forward hour-long
programmes of tiny plays, which vary from day to day and supplement
a complimentary croissant, coffee and strawberries.
Out of a total of 20 plays, on the day under review five were showcased,
one of which lasted almost as long as the rest put together.
Thrilling Hostage Melodrama at High Speed with Pineapple by Hadley!
struggles to live up to its title but then any play would. It is a miniature
kidnapping drama featuring a hyperactive crook and a more rational one
and succeeds thanks to a good payoff.
Millie isn't in the programme and is uncredited, which is a
shame, as it is an excellent solo comedy featuring Lisa Bealby as an
upper class tart. She confounds expectations by copulating to Betjeman
and offers a product closer to Joyce Grenfell than Julia Roberts.
Stolen by Samara Hersch features Erika Blaxland playing a good
Catholic girl with a shoplifting fetish. Remarkably for so short a play,
the underlying social problems that have led to this are looked at in
at least reasonable detail.
Waiting for Hashim by Jacqui Baines and Alison Richardson sees
two Chê tee-shirted women competing for right on-ness as they
await a mysterious Palestinian.
Finally, Life as a Springer Show by Tim Smith is exactly that.
A couple share a coffee but find their life decisions made by audience
votes revved up by Jerry Springer. We literally decide who he has slept
with, her future career and what the waiter does with whom.
The acting is fine and the plays witty enough to have mass appeal.
The only question for the company is how many people will roll up to
an event early in the morning? However, on a Monday there was a sell-out
house so maybe Edinburgh exists before lunch after all?
Philip Fisher
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