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Fringe 2010 Reviews (30)
Keepers
The Plasticine Men
Pleasance Courtyard.
****
Bleakly beautiful, this two-hander charts the existence of Thomas and Thomas, two lighthouse keepers off the coast of 19th century Pembrokeshire. Isolated for months on a tiny rock they are charged with keeping the lamp alight and keeping sailors alive. It’s a beautifully realised piece of physical theatre, as with a trapdoor, a ladder and gently imaginative live acoustics the two actors deftly create a whole lighthouse and the surrounding raging sea.
The relationship between duty bound, rule following Thomas and his vague dreamer of a colleague, more interested in the birds and the waves, crackles with tension. These are detailed, immersive performances and, like the resources in the lighthouse, no movement, gesture or even bite is wasted. There is a dreamlike quality to the staging, emphasising the loneliness and maddening isolation of their Spartan lives. The narrative though is too sparse, and though the two actors work together wonderfully, the tragic final third of the piece struggles somewhat with exposition. Lovely and melancholy, this is dextrous storytelling.
Beth O’Brien
Adam Hills: Mess Around
Off The Kerb Productions
Assembly on The Mound.
****
Spontaneous silliness with the audience has always been a large part of the fun in Adam Hills’ shows, and the audience become the focus in this year’s joyous hour of what he describes as pure “messing around”. Hills’ contention is this; that ordinary people are so much more fascinating than celebrities, or pseudo-celebrities (our familiarity with Shiloh Jolie-Pitt over Nobel prize winner Norman Borlaug is his case in withering point), an idea which allows him to have whatever good natured fun he chooses.
Hills immediately spots a 12 year old boy he thinks looks like Justin Bieber in the front row, bringing him up on stage and tweeting his picture. This leads to a heckle and banter via Twitter, the payoff coming from “Justin Bieber’s” father who grumbled about the quality of the tweeted reply. When Hills teasingly demands to know what he does for a living so he can tell him how to do his job, he reveals himself to be a BBC comedy producer; a punchline you literally couldn’t make up and one upon which Hills capitalises with his usual sharp glee.
Most of the hour is improvised with the crowd, some of whom are such loyal followers he describes one lady in centre front as his stalker, but there is some material to add structure including a wonderful story about appearing at the Royal Variety Performance alongside Lady Gaga which links the whole show together nicely. And, as ever, there is a project to raise money for a charity; this year The Sick Children’s Hospital via the adventures of Honker, a doll made for Hills’ baby daughter by a member of the audience.
Though perhaps not, on this night at least, of the same brilliance as his written shows, this is nonetheless an impressively bold format and an object lesson in unscripted interaction. A witty, wonderful, warm-hearted bear hug of a show.
Beth O’Brien
Antigone
By Sophocles, in a new version by Alexander Wright
Belt Up
C Soco.
*
At their best, Belt Up are wonderful. The young company specialises in deconstructing classics and turning them into modern delights.
Unfortunately, having pulled Antigone apart, they fail to add anything and present 75 very confused minutes that have odd arty flashes to interest but no more.
It does not help that the company’s specially designed den in the House Above is desperately uncomfortable and heated to oven-like temperatures but the loss of the story’s thread is the real issue.
After an initial dirge for which we are requested to stand, the tale very slowly unfolds, interrupted by songs, dance sequences and a symbolic fight between two men, possibly Polynices and Etiocles but then again…
The highpoint of this modern language adaptation is a brief spurt of anger from Francesca Murray-Fuentes in the title role but otherwise, the actors could as easily be discussing a shared hangover.
Philip Fisher
Jewish Chronicles
By Daniel Cainer
C Aquila.
**
This show is the perfect example of why the Fringe brochure now needs a cabaret section. For some reason, rather than advertising it under Music, Daniel Cainer chose Theatre, which it most definitely is not.
His theme is contemporary Judaism seen in miniature but the medium is mixed. In 70 minutes, Cainer delivers half a dozen comic songs, accompanying himself on an over-amplified electronic keyboard.
The music comes into the easy listening category and is probably best compared to more laid back versions of Billy Joel and Tom Robinson, a kind of sing of you’re glad to be Jewish.
The best of the songs, which all religiously rhyme, however cornily, consider his family and its move from Eastern Europe to London. Soon afterwards, his chance of inherited wealth was allegedly stolen by Montague Burton, the clothes magnate.
Other themes include a coke-pushing Mancunian rabbi and the songster’s equally unfaithful parents. Whether this is poetic licence or not is unclear.
Between the songs, Cainer uses what must surely be some of the worst patter in town and explains most of his punch lines before singing them, for the benefit of attendees who are non-Jewish. He also insists on jollying his entirely adult audience along with panto-style cheering and sing-alongs.
Philip Fisher
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