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Fringe 2010 Reviews (3)
My Romantic History
By DC Jackson
Traverse 2.
**
DC Jackson has written a deliciously funny 30 minute comedy packed with wit and fresh ideas but then extended it to over three times its natural length.
There is nothing very new here but the subject is perennial, dating, love and the relationship between the two.
The first part centres on Iain Robertson's Tom, a man who can take or leave women. The shtick is that we hear his interior monologues as he sleeps with new work colleague Amy and tracks back to his true love, schoolfriend Alison.
Many of the lines are incredibly sharp and the contrast between the voiced and the thought, inevitably hilarious.
Halfway through, we get a repeat seen through the eyes of Amy, Alison O'Donnell - and it really is a repeat, adding little to what we have heard.
The main actors both have strong comic sensibilities, as does the player of many bit parts, Rosalind Sydney.
Director Lyndsey Turner works wonders early on, making great use of low budget props to enhance the comedy but should have suggested some serious pruning to make the most of the playwright's ideas and talent.
Philip Fisher
Laura Solon, The Owl of Steven
Pleasance Courtyard.
***
Remember those 'choose your own adventure' books that became particularly popular in the late eighties? Yes, well so does Laura Solon. Although unlike those adventure books Solon offers little choice when it comes to the narrator and refuses to budge when it comes to the adventure. And it's all just as well really as the trip to Steven Island proves to be an extravagant tale.
After the triumph of Rabbit Faced Story Soup at last year's Edinburgh Festival, Solon takes to the stage this year armed with the elaborate imaginings of her 8-year-old self.
The multi-character narrative introduces the audience to a collection of eccentric, mad and bad characters in a bid to discover the mystery surrounding the island's most famous inhabitant - the owl.
The adventure is exciting and despite simply pacing the stage in a pair of navy shorts and an owl t-shirt the characters are pretty convincing too.
The fifty-somethings who crammed into the busy space bellowed and chuckled to the seamless tale. Yet this show seems to be more charming than hilarious. Solon has a gift for storytelling and while it is mildly amusing it is not side-splitting comedy. Rather, the show offers a classier kind of comedy - the kind of humour which allows the audience to relax and muse over the sarky insults thrown between the Steven Chief Residents than clutch your stomach in fits of laughter.
Laura Solon's The Owl of Steven is an enjoyable hour of subtle laughs in a somewhat 'safe' comedic environment. Yet this show is intelligent, quirky and uplifting. Solon is well worth watching purely for the intricate, brilliant and charismatic story-telling.
Alison Burns
Freefall
By Michael West
Corn Exchange
Traverse 1.
****
Freefall takes a concept to its limit and beyond and along the way, becomes a special piece of theatre.
Eschewing a set and using a kind of rehearsal space instead, Annie Ryan and her five actors recreate an unnamed father's life passing before his eyes, as is supposed to happen in the moments before death.
Their methodology is meticulous, following the principles used with mixed success by Katie Mitchell at the National in London.
Andrew Bennett plays the middle-aged man with marital problems who has a stroke. We then follow him into hospital and from there, enjoy his life recollected in the tranquillity of a comatose state.
The performance is enhanced by haunting music composed by Conor Linehan and eccentric video footage and sound effects, much of it created live, in front of our eyes.
This style of theatre requires the audience to fill often gaping gaps but that is part of the fun.
By the end, almost through osmosis, we feel that we know almost everything about the life and times of the man identified in the programme as 'A', as well as his friends and family.
Freefall is played by a well-drilled ensemble with Declan Conlon as Denis, A's lecherous best friend seen from childhood to middle age especially memorable.
For anyone that loves minimalist detail or likes to look at life through a microscope, Freefall should not be missed.
Philip Fisher
The Not-So-Fatal Death of Grandpa Fredo
By Candice Edmunds and Jamie Harrison
Vox Motus Theatre
Traverse 1.
***
There are some shows that seem simple but must take months of dedicated effort to create that seeming simplicity. Usually, the props will be handmade, the company will excel at physical theatre and there will be a carefully choreographed soundscape.
That just about sums up Glasgow company Vox Motus Theatre's The Not-So-Fatal Death of Grandpa Fredo, at least in terms of form, which in this case is of rather greater importance to the 80 minute show than the content.
The plot is downright silly and the company knows it. Fridtijof Fredo is a Norwegian living in the hick American town of Reliance Falls.
This is the kind of place that the brash Mayor Marilyn, Imogen Toner fears that the world will see as a "creepy redneck backwater peopled by bigots".
The town becomes infamous for its intolerance of Fredo and his grandfather for the simple reason that 89-year-old Grandpa is dead and (badly) cryogenically frozen, awaiting the technological advances that will lead to resurrection.
With the help of a series of country and western songs performed by the actors and lashings of invention, some of it exceedingly funny, the company covers a thin story with loving devotion to their art, which culminates in a hauntingly beautiful closing image.
Philip Fisher
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