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Fringe 2010 Reviews (26)
Richard Herring: Christ on a Bike – The Second Coming
Avalon Promotions Ltd
Assembly George Street.
***
Jesus Christ! You might exclaim, as Richard Herring turns his sarcastic and cutting eyes onto the subject of religion, or more specifically, the validity of Christianity in it's worship of Jesus.
With segments ranging from a critical deconstruction of the ten commandments to pointing out deliberate mistakes in the Bible, it's business as usual for Herring who manages to keep the audience chirping with mirth at his gags and quick-witted humour.
Not quite so successful are the bookending pair of lengthy comedic stories about a bicycle race. These overlong and only occasionally funny turns slow down the rest of the show and feel like time-filling in a show which already feels like it's bogged down. The overall impression is that unlike The Headmaster's Son and Hitler's Moustache, there simply isn't enough material here for Herring to work with, instead there is a distinct impression that this is more of a polemic, with Herring spending more than his usual amount of time ranting and pontificating.
Despite this, Herring still manages to turn what would have, in lesser hands, have simply sounded like an arrogant tirade into a genuinely funny and intelligent pondering of the nature of religion and the flaws in the standard practices of Christianity. Bless him.
Graeme Strachan
Art
By Yasmina Reza
Peters Productions
Sweet Grassmarket.
****
Art, that most elusive and curious definition of the intangible. What defines art and what drives people to become obsessed with it features heavily in this version of Yasmina Reza's brilliant French play. When self-styled connoisseur; Serge pays 200,000 Francs on an ostensibly white painting it incurs the wrath of his best friend Mark. In turn Mark enlists the help of mutual friend Evan to discover the reasons behind the purchase it leads into a farcical series of arguments between the trio building up to a climactic confrontation where all three must face up to their own prejudices and inner turmoil.
It's a popular Fringe piece and Peters Productions have put on a resonating version of the story, building slowly from the innocuous beginnings and through to the marathon of dialogue heavy comedy in the final scene. The laughs come thick and fast, and the general ambiance is one of relaxed realism, if not however one that is particularly French.
The only let down in the play comes from the lack of personality of the three leads who make nowhere near enough effort to really carve a niche out of the action for their own distinct characters. These are archetypes, each assuming a position for comedic effect, instead the players here have gone almost too far the other way in making these men so believable as people that some of the nature of the laughable exaggeration of the piece has been sacrificed in the name of drama.
Graeme Strachan
Aleister Crowley: A Passion for Evil
Purple Media
C Central.
**
Who was Aleister Crowley? This is the question which the play turns upon throughout this one man monologue. The audience is allowed to delve into the mind and past of the famed magician, mountaineer and writer as he prepares to go on stage to a small crowd in order to make ends meet. In the dressing room he begins to ponder the nature of his life and decry the many lies told about him in the media.
Darting about between various periods in his life, the piece has a schizophrenic feel to it, as it’s often difficult to follow exactly what is going on without prior knowledge of Crowley’s exploits. Eschewing the earlier years, the focus is generally on the already famed and reviled man deep-seated in his occult mythos and beliefs.
What is clear is that John Burns has managed to capture the essential flaws in the nature of Crowley, the egotism vying with the madness and his inherent self confidences in his own powers and his status as world changing philosopher. Unfortunately we never really get to feel that we've had more than a glimpse under the surface of the man himself, and instead while an interesting concept, the execution comes across feeling slightly superficial.
Graeme Strachan
Haunted
Dance Box Theatre
Dance Base – National Centre for Dance.
****
Whether the demons in question are Biblical or psychological, an exorcism is a dance for two. In Haunted, Stephen Clapp and Laura Schandelmeier enact a cycle of possession and purging with a mesmerising succession of lifts and balances that evoke both the power struggles and the mutual dependency that the act of exorcism involves.
The duo reign unchallenged over an expanse of darkened dancefloor girdled with a protective ring of salt. They're accompanied by Chloe and Leah Smith and Kofi Dennis – rhythmically and at times hypnotically – using myriad cross-cultural styles, stringed, percussion and vocal instrumentation.
The dance is initially contextualised by Washington Post cuttings read in voiceover, which specify the Catholic exorcism (specifically the real-life incident that inspired the film The Exorcist) as the main point of reference. The production's one major miscalculation is to comically over-produce this, its only prerecorded sound effect, pitch-shifting and recutting the samples like an amateur house DJ.
Beyond that point Haunted is refreshingly open to interpretation; and at only 40 minutes long, it's over long before its artistically recurring motifs can become simply repetitive.
Matt Boothman
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