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Fringe 2010 Reviews (19)
I, Claudia
By Kristen Thomson
Theatre Tours International
Assembly Rooms.
*
This is one of those performances that you either get or you don’t. Kristen Thomson takes us into a world of her own in a story loosely based around a brattish Canadian girl aged 12¾.
Like all four of the main characters, Claudia is played by her creator, beneath a mask. She is the victim of a broken home so hides in the janitor’s room at school every Tuesday.
There she lives out fantasies about her father and his new almost-wife, as well as Grandpa. There is very little story, which makes the characterisation vital. Therefore if you can’t get on with the two main figures, Claudia and the Bulgonian (sic) janitor, this will be a grudge buy.
Philip Fisher
Baby Wants Candy
Assembly Hall.
****
Baby Wants Candy has become a successful franchise and even on a midweek afternoon can fill a large theatre. This is a testimony to the pleasure quotient generated by a company spending its fifth August in Edinburgh.
BWC are supreme improvisers, creating an hour-long musical each day based around a title chosen from those shouted out by members of the audience. This means that each show is unique and, as they emphasise, entirely unprepared.
On this occasion, they worked up The Day the Gingers Ruled the World into a comedy thriller that kept a delighted crowd on the edge of their seats to the final moments of redheaded power.
A cast of six plus four musicians proved adept at creating a reasonable book, catchy songs and witty lyrics, which is why we love them.
It is hard to believe but you will probably leave the theatre humming the theme song each time, having had a good time and ignored the inevitable mishits that are a function of the truncated development process.
Philip Fisher
Of Women and Horses I Have Known
By Susanna Hislop
Slip of Steel
Underbelly.
**
Jean Hislop bred champion race horse Brigadier Gerard in the 1970s. She also stabbed her husband, was hooked on gin and became the first woman to appear in Private Eye's 'Shit of the Week' column. Of Women and Horses I Have Known pieces together the fragments of her life that explain why she became the formidable women and 'monster' to those around her.
The story is exciting and there are some memorable moments in the performance. Among the unusually large fringe show cast (there are 8 actors in total) Susanna Hislop (Jean) gives an energetic recreation of the eccentric Jean Hislop. Susanna Hislop is in fact her granddaughter.
There is also a particularly spectacular scene in which Brigadier Gerard races towards the finish line and the audience is swept up into the crowd and onto the horse's back.
However, the rest of the show is a little flat. The opening scene initiates some confusion as it is unclear whether the characters are dead or alive. They appear to be in some kind of Hislop family limbo yet are capable of receiving telephone calls and can scatter Jean's ashes.
Unfortunately loud music from the venue next door is extremely distracting and at sporadic points in the narrative galloping sound effects are played through the loud speakers. This is more anoying than atmospheric.
Overall the show offers an interesting story yet lacks clarity and pace.
Alison Burns
Little Black Bastard
By Noel Tovey
Glenn Elston and the Australian Shakespeare Company
Gilded Balloon.
****
Noel Tovey, celebrated Australian talent, grew up in the most challenging environment, even for a boy whose father was an African-American known as the Original Coon Singer and an alcoholic mother. He realized at an early age that dancing was his salvation and ticket out of his abusive poverty. Surviving the physical and sexual abuse of several guardians and strangers, he found himself comfortable with his homosexuality even though it landed him in jail. Not only does he rise above his circumstances but we are convinced that he has earned and deserves his successes.
But this is a story of Tovey’s successes in the performing arts. Little Black Bastard is Tovey’s journey. Mr Tovey is warm, sympathetic and most engaging. We see little of the fear or anger in his retelling. He is accessible and comfortable with his audience while retaining his honest naivety.
Catherine Lamm
The house lights came up and the audience was absorbed in a poignant silence. Little Black Bastard is a one man show which has the power to reduce the audience to tears.
Noel Tovey tells his life story of growing up in Melbourne’s slums in the 1930s. Faced with a constant battering of life's most trying, soul destroying and evil situations and eventually hitting rock bottom, Tovey describes realising his potential as a principal dancer with Sadler’s Wells Opera Ballet and putting his life back on track. To do this he fought racism, homophobia and neglect.
On the stage there is one man, one chair and an exceptional history. Clever lighting locks him in Pentridge Jail, forces him to Park Junction and to face the private and painful memories of his childhood.
Tovey's delivery is absorbing and gripping.
This play is not to be missed. But don't let the 11.45am time slot fool you - this is one of the saddest autobiographical stories at the festival.
Alison Burns
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