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Fringe 2010 Reviews (1)
Joe Rowntree: Peaceful Worrier
Gilded Balloon.
***
Aside from tech issues mainly involving the infamous Windows 7, Joe Rowntree's Fringe gets off to a good start. With plenty of energy and physicality this born worrier revisits his noughties nightmares.
It begins light enough, looking at his earlier failures on the London comedy scene. Now every comedian has dying on stage stories, so far, so unoriginal, but this is just the warm-up. It is Rowntree's holiday experiences, complete with gruesome slide show, that make the show, admittedly in quite a macabre voyeuristic way.
Rowntree shares all with the audience, and though coming out of most people's mouths the horror stories would produce tears of sympathy, with Rowntree puncturing the narrative with mischievous asides, it's tears of laughter instead. It could do with a little more coherence and flow, also some of the best stories are near the middle so the end was rather an anticlimax.
A great storyteller whose terrific misfortunes make for terrific comedy.
Seth Ewin
Cirque de Legume
Aurora Nova Productions
Gilded Balloon.
**
The stage by the end looked leek a rhinoceros had been let loose in a greengrocer's, it had all bean rather childish and despite the quantities of edible plant matter everywhere not much to get your teeth into.
The two performers had a basket of veg and buckets of energy, but their relationship was rather vague, one of them being more straight might have helped the dynamic. While there were plenty of good ideas none of the home grown acts produced many wows.
It was rather under cooked, chopped up little acts that hadn't been allowed to marinade together into a nutritious meal, nor did it build up to one particularly delicious main course. The performers needed to flesh out their characters, more conflict or some sort of narrative between them would have helped, to do this they could have been a little more verbal.
A rather tattie show that failed to produce any 24 carrot entertainment.
Seth Ewin
Mysterious Skin
Based on the novel by Scott Hein, adapted by Prince Gomolvias
Em-Lou Productions and Neil Sheppeck
Gilded Balloon.
**
For a gay play this was a very straight adaption of a story that is best known on screen. The actors had to spew forth vast quantities of dialogue in not always convincing American accents, with far too little happening on stage.
This dark disturbing story of abuse was reduced to endless dialogue switching back and forth from two characters sat on one side of the stage to two sat on the other side as the two storylines gradually car-crashed into each other.
Rick Kissack as Neil and Paul Standell as all the supporting male characters were very watchable, partly due to their acting abilities, partly looks. Kissack gave some of the more moving speeches and Standell proved very versatile in his Alec Guinness style role.
The other actors did less to liven the piece up, but the real flaws lay with the direction, no real imagination had gone into this adaption, even really interesting stories don't carry themselves, and this is the stage so characters need to do more than look broody and spout away at the audience.
Seth Ewin
While You Lie
By Sam Holcroft
Traverse 2.
*****
While You Lie demonstrates that Sam Holcroft is one of the best young writers in Britain today. It is an incredibly powerful and at times deeply disturbing view of post-modern feminism in an era where male dominance has still not disappeared.
Its central figure is Ana, played with great skill and compassion, under the direction of Zinnie Harris, by Claire Lams. She is a highly intelligent Eastern European graduate, who is obliged to work as a secretary in Scotland.
As a result, she suffers from seriously low self-esteem and this leads to a break-up with her boyfriend Edward, Andrew Scott-Ramsay as a man with his own share of problems.
Following a remarkably frank speech in which Ana outlines the female dilemma today, she starts dating (ironic euphemism) her unattractive boss, Steven McNicoll's Chris.
He in turn must begin to neglect his heavily pregnant wife, played by ever-reliable Festival favourite Pauline Knowles. This has unfortunate consequences for their unseen but apparently traumatised five-year-old.
To add a global perspective, the quartet is circled by Leo Wringer's suave plastic surgeon. Ike symbolises (and unscrupulously raises funds for) his African homeland. He also ends the play with a cover-your-eyes moment that leads to symbolic closure and hope.
A word of praise too for set designer Alex Lowde, whose creation looks like an art installation but works like a dream.
While You Lie not only shows four troubled people making their own lives hell but puts it into a wider perspective. As such, even though it may seem overly schematic, this is a must-see play.
Philip Fisher
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