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Fringe 2010 Reviews (35)
When the Sex is Gone
Tommy Bradson & Green Room
Underbelly Cowgate.
****
It's not easy growing up as a hermaphrodite. Which Charlie could tell us, as Charlie was born with both male and female genitalia. As a result Charlie has grown-up in confusion about his/her sexuality and reason for being. It also didn't help that his/her uncle used to impose men's clothes one day and women's the next.
Considering the topic and subject matter, it was clear that this show could have gone either way, much like Charlie his/herself. Luckily the show is more than safe in the hands of Tommy Bradson, who seems as comfortable in heels and a basque as he does in braces and a bowler hat. His comic timing is excellent as he tells the chucklingly woeful story of Charlie and the various careers gone through, from stripping to boxing, always on the lookout for acceptance and above all else love.
Bradson is effortlessly believable in both the male and female guises of Charlie. Made up in full drag, for the first half of proceedings he laments and sings like a lounge singer in 40's Berlin, only to replace this with the bursting energy of the male persona cavorting around the stage like a cockney harlequin. His boundless energy is matched only by the moments of delicate fragility on display as he belts out some impressive musical numbers, accompanied on the piano by Amy Parkinson. The entire affair does slightly lose it's momentum, concentrating on audience interaction more than story. Despite this it's still a great piece and we can only hope that Bradson will return again and possible bring Charlie with him.
Graeme Strachan
Sadie Hasler: Lady Bones
Avalon Promotions Ltd
Pleasance Courtyard.
**
There's a fine line that comedy has to walk, where it becomes frankly just too clever for its own good. In the case of Sadie Hasler's comedic walk through the previously unknown moments in the lives of various famous women, it's definitely a case that the concept has far overblown the offered humour.
Beginning with an introduction from Germaine Greer, Hasler shows herself to be a more than capable impressionist, flitting easily between the likes of Iris Murdoch, Sylvia Plath and bizarrely Myra Hindley, the personalities each stand distinct and well realised. The trouble is that for every moment where the mirth comes thick and fast, there is a damp squib that fails unerringly.
It's one thing to do a perfect rendition of Katherine Hepburn, but having her spew a litany of vaginal euphemisms in and of itself won't make the audience laugh, and the ones that do, probably won't know who is being parodied in the first place.
Graeme Strachan
The Penelopiad
By Margaret Atwood
American High School Theatre Festival
Churchill Theatre.
****
Atwood's tale of Penelope, the long suffering wife of Odysseus, is recounted in some style by this young company, who use a series of human stagings to tell the story of her life and her years of waiting for her returning husband. From the opening moments where Penelope steps forth, bound in bandage and silks, to recount her woes from purgatory, the play is off to a great beginning.
Lauren Fuller's turn as Penelope is convincingly downbeat, with a touch of teenage angst at her jealousy with Helen and her subsequent marginalisation at the hands of her in-laws and the royal nurse. The rest of the actors try their best with their roles and only a few moments come off as less than well done.
While there are a few occurrences of the cast shouting rather than delivering their lines, it comes off well and it's certainly one of the best productions to have come out of the American High School Theatre Festival in some years. With an able set of actors who pour their all into the roles and make the feminist spin on the story come to life.
Graham Strachan
Teenage Riot
By Alexander Devriendt, Joeri Smet and the Company
Ontroerend Goed, Kopergietery Youth Theatre, Drum Theatre Plymouth and Richard Jordan Productions
Traverse 1.
***
Teenage Riot is the successor to the wild and controversial Once and For All We're Gonna Tell You Who We Are So Shut Up and Listen by Belgian company Ontroerend Goed.
Once again, it begs questions about voyeurism and exploitation since the eight cast members are aged from 14 up to no more than 16 or 17.
The youngsters spend most of their 75 minutes of fame hidden in a large, white cube with film of their activities projected on to its front wall.
They do what teenagers will do, expressing insecurities, thinking constantly about sex and beating each other up both physically and mentally.
A lot of their activities, for example repeatedly graffitiing four-letter words, are immature but then they are. More worrying in some ways is the desire to live as adults that the teenagers hanker after.
With loud music and lots of filming, the pace never lets up but belying the view that a picture paints a thousand words, the monologues tell us far more about the speakers than their antics.
In this case, the kids have been given a great deal of freedom and as a consequence, Teenage Riot is both less artistic and less informative than the earlier show.
Even so, it does make another big contribution to the attempts of teens to have their views heard, in the context of a generally uninterested adult society.
Philip Fisher
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