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Fringe 2010 Reviews (47)
Miranda
By Farrukh Dhondy
Tara and Lucid Arts
Assembly Rooms.
***
Miranda contains elements of the sublime and the ridiculous, though viewers might not all agree as to which parts fall under which heading.
On one level, it is the tale of an androgynous Indian dancer, singer and actor (or is that actress?). She comes from a long line of emasculated performers and multi-talented actor, Ankur Bahl does a good job of portraying these skills, and carrying off an exotic costume that might have been borrowed from another Miranda, Carmen.
Overlaid on to this traditional framework, now made popular by Bollywood, is a love story involving a hunky, blond actor. He and Miranda share interests and even better, a career development opportunity.
Sadly, this results from the death of another actress, who coincidentally was playing the heroine from The Tempest.
Our Miranda is delighted to join an English theatre company and despite the warnings of another hunky man, this time black but also an actor, jumps at the dual chance of love and work.
Mystery then impinges so that, despite passing a cursory audition, Miranda finds delays preventing her achievement of either goal. This leads to a strange plot twist, bringing a historical and metaphysical dimension to the play.
Despite the efforts of director Jatinder Verma, the denouement does not live up to the build-up in what showed signs of being a novel Edinburgh hour and might still be worth a look.
Philip Fisher
Junk
By John Retallack based on the Book by Melvyn Burgess
Big Spirit Theatre Co
Augustines.
***
Drugs are bad kids, m’kay? With any issue, the forces of time and public perception can have a vast and changing effect, and the passing of years hasn’t gone particularly well for Melvyn Burgess’ famous drug-addiction novel. Instead of being a slamming indictment of modern drug culture, in the light of more recent pieces on the topic it plays out like a crass 1980s cautionary tale for kids.
When Tar decides to leave his abusive father and reticently meek mother and run away to Bristol, he is followed by his 14 year old girlfriend and the pair quickly fall victim to a drug-filled binge lifestyle resorting to petty crime, dealing and prostitution to fund their anarchist lifestyles. In the midst of this, almost every issue imaginable crops up, from teen pregnancy, underage sex, to overdoses and prison sentences.
Working from the John Retallack adaptation of the novel, Big Spirit Theatre Co have worked hard to infuse a level of exuberant passion into the story. The addition of some physical theatre to represent the crazed parties and hopeless shenanigans of the main characters goes some way to livening up matters but ultimately this feels like preaching to the choir.
Graeme Strachan
The Rimers of Eldritch
By Lanford Wilson
Agf Theatre Company
Vault 45.
****
There was a moment of dismay that hit me in the opening seconds of this production, as the stage lighting began to flit onto characters seemingly at random before quickly, and with moderate welcome, the play stopped to allow a defective unit to be replaced. Thankfully this was an easily overcome problem which could have scuppered the entire production, and to see it readily and unflinchingly overcome gives some credit to the crew and cast for having the guts to stop matters and ensure the audience got what they paid for.
What they received was Lanford Wilson’s bible belt opus about the occasionally confusing and often hypocritical actions of a doomed community faced with a tragedy that they are both unwilling and unable to comprehend or admit to themselves.
The story is told piecemeal in short snippets in an, at first, confusing but ultimately enlightening series of moments that fit together this mysterious tale. It’s clear from the outset that a crime has been committed and fairly soon that someone has died, however enough non sequiturs and red herrings are thrown into the mix to keep matters unclear until the final moments. The actors were uniformly good while working with such a challenging piece, and it was only the pacing and slow beginning, combined with the occasional inaudible dialogue and outright confusing narrative style inherent to the play, that would lessen my recommendation of it. As it stands, it’s a fine piece of solid theatre; just don’t expect to understand what you’re seeing until the very end.
Graeme Strachan
Assassins
By Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman
Sandbach School Theatre
The Royal College of Physicians.
****
Throughout history many people have had various reasons to decide they want to kill a President. In Sondheim’s Assassins we get a brief peek into the minds and motives of the history of these beleaguered killers and failures as the tale recounts every one from John Booth to Reagan’s would be killer John Hinckley, Jr; each adding their own reasons for thinking it would help either themselves, or the world at large.
Sandbach School Theatre perform Sondheim’s most accomplished musical with verve and talent. The bizarrely twisted cabaret of mayhem is constructed with a highly talented cast and crew, only let down by occasionally indecipherable lyrics and a jolting, occasionally bizarre staging, combined with a strange chronology that steps confusingly through the assassins and builds to a more comprehensible finale. Nevertheless it’s a fine production with a lot going for it, and some truly inspiring performances.
Graeme Strachan
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