|
Fringe 2010 Reviews (42)
Spring Awakening
Music by Duncan Sheik, Book and Lyrics by Steven Sater, based on the play by Frank Wedekind
One Academy Productions
Pleasance Courtyard.
****
The Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama may not have the budget to replicate a Broadway or West End production but under Andrew Panton, have created a good alternative.
They have the advantage of choosing one of the best rock musicals of all time and, for 90 minutes, keep a packed audience entertained with a strong story of lost innocence plus a series of wonderfully catchy songs and lively well-drilled choreography.
Frank Wedekind’s fin de siècle play has been livened up by its Broadway writing team but the original tale is timeless, which is its great strength. A group of teenagers is coming of age in ignorance, thanks to the repressions of a society that would rather see children beaten than aware of sex.
This will always cause trouble and Stephen Arden’s Melchior, a wannabe nihilist, learns too much too soon. Not only does he indoctrinate his far from bright pal, Byron Martin’s Moritz, but also falls for sweet Wendla, with practically inevitable consequences for Carly Holt’s character.
By the end, two of the leading trio are dead and the third institutionalised, so maybe the parents and teachers were right after all. Knowledge can kill. However that is not the intended message behind a production that celebrates freedom.
The company is excellent, generally stronger on song and dance than acting and it would be no surprise to see several of its members on professional stages before too long, especially Stephen Arden and Carly Holt, both of whom have lovely voices.
Philip Fisher
First Love
By Samuel Beckett
Gare St Lazare Players
Pleasance Courtyard.
***
Stripped and spare, this monologue musing lifted straight from Beckett’s novella is harshly amusing but does little to move. It’s a bleakly comic meander through the nature of love and death and, as expected, the language is rather wonderful; bravely awkward, beautiful and coarse.
Conor Lovett offers a very honest performance, wandering onstage from within the audience to a stage whose wings and backs are deliberately pulled back to expose the detritus behind. I’m not sure it quite achieves the desired effect though; seeing all the branded props from the very well-known sketch group whose show follows is slightly unnerving, and a little distracting. His comic timing and confrontational delivery are excellent but there is not enough in this slim, tawdry tale to grip the imagination, and, despite Lovett’s evident talent and passion, the feeling lingers that the audience could be better served by reading rather than watching this particular piece.
Beth O’Brien
****
In Edinburgh, one sometimes loses sight of the highest standards and it takes actors of the calibre of Conor Lovett to provide a vital wake up call.
Directed by Judy Hegarty Lovett, the actor specialises in delivering staged adaptations of stories or novels by Samuel Beckett.
First Love is a quirky little tale about a quirky little man. He is a misfit who wanders through life avoiding contact with others.
However, he finally meets Lulu or Anna (neither her real name) and after initial reluctance, falls for her and moves into her household, which presents its own surprises.
There isn’t much action so it falls to Lovett to justify the existence of this monologue. He does so with a virtuoso naturalistic performance which is so good that, at times, you believe that he has lost his way before realising that this is merely a means of conveying his character’s almost permanent sense of bewilderment. Strongly recommended
Philip Fisher
Invisible Atom
By Anthony Black
2B Theatre
Hill Street Theatre.
*****
Sweating profusely in a raincoat, Anthony Black has already won a Herald Angel for his unusual monologue.
Black plays Atom, a Canadian who becomes an Everyman making us consider not only what it means to be an individual today but more pressing global issues.
On a personal level, our man is happily married with a baby son, Abe, on whom he dotes. He is already a successful financier, though struggles due to his belief in ethical investment.
However, life changes when, shades of the Twin Towers, his office building collapses killing all of his colleagues except the richly amoral and highly entertaining Big Dan.
This gives the now-impecunious Atom a chance to discover his past. It transpires that he comes from a long line of bastards, giving that word its literal meaning.
This traces back through some serious blackguards to Isaac Newton and his illegitimate son, Adam (Wealth of Nations) Smith, the founder of free market economics which are likely to be a mainstay of our new Government.
Invisible Atom succeeds because it combines scientific and economic meditations with a thrilling search for an elusive father that culminates in the discovery of a very rich, highly unpleasant individual and a final moral dilemma.
This is a finely honed piece of writing, professionally delivered and can be considered as a hidden gem as it does not feature in the Fringe programme.
It plays at Hill Street both at 12.20 and 21.00 throughout the Fringe.
Philip Fisher
Impossible Things Before Breakfast: My Friend Duplicity
By Enda Walsh
Traverse 2.
****
The Impossible Things Before Breakfast series continues to provide high quality short dramas with this mysterious little piece from Enda Walsh.
The first surprise is that having silently played the title role of the gorgeous Penelope in Walsh’s longer Traverse offering, Olga Wehrly can speak.
She plays Jean opposite Niall Buggy’s Fergal, both expertly directed by Vicky Featherstone, with Buggy giving his all, even at 9AM.
Using his trademark poetic language, Walsh makes listeners concentrate as they try to understand the hidden depths of his characters.
They are Irish and, it appears, living in London. Fergal is a writer and by extension a fantasist, who loves gardens, or at least the idea of them.
Why the pair meet is as uncertain to them as to us, although writing could well be a connecting factor and jammy dodgers are not.
My Friend Duplicity is a meditation on what it means to be Irish, a writer and an exile. Familiar ground explored in an unfamiliar but compelling manner.
Philip Fisher
Next page - - - Index
|
