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Fringe 2010 Reviews (48)
Some Georgeous Accident
By James Kinnaway, adapted by Robert Shaw
inside intelligence
Assembly on the Mound.
**
Susan Steinberg, the femme, and James Link and Richard Fiddes are the great friends that share her. The emotionally irresponsible characters with the cold passion of 1960's elite were the people we saw in the papers going to clubs with rope line out front. But the air was too thin for we commoners. "To forget is to be wiser." This is as arched as a soap can get.
This production is worthy of the material. The four actors, Annarose Cattanach, Luis Egan, Katie Fabel and Ben Warwick, who play multiple characters are obviously talented and make the material and Robert Shaw's uncluttered direction work well.
Mr Kennaway's novel has been chiseled to fit the performance. But these are words to be read; it makes it very hard to engage in the piece when the relationships get lost beneath the words. Like much great writing, this book must be wonderful to read but has not succeeded here.
Catherine Lamm
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog
By Joss Whedon, Zack Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen and Jed Whedon
Guilford High School Theatre Arts & The American High School Theatre Festival
Churchill Theatre.
****
Life isn’t easy when you’re a super villain; especially when all you want is love and social reform and you have the world's strongest hero for a nemesis. Joss Whedon’s hit musical web-series Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog hits the Fringe at the hands of Guilford High School Theatre Arts, never pausing for breath as the comedic tale of Dr. Horrible and his Freeze-ray are brought to the stage with aplomb.
Showcasing some great talent, the production manages to recapture much of the charm of the original, despite so much of that lying with the personalities of the original actors and the madcap style. Michael Sullivan is a standout here with his note-perfect renditions and easy humour more than filling the white wellingtons of Dr. Horrible. Emma McCabe provides a perfectly loveable Penny and David Galante does a great job as the narcissistic meat-head hero Captain Hammer.
Despite the production's budgetary and cast limitations they do well in managing to stage a van heist, many locations and full musical numbers. It’s a credit to them that the audience were most than in their hands when Horrible began to sing his way amongst the crowd towards the end. A great piece of modern musical, well performed and truly entertaining.
Graeme Strachan
Blowers and Bly: Bald Bold and Belligerent
Henry Blofeld and John Bly - Festival Highlights
Venue 150 at EICC.
***
Two dear old chaps grab a drink and begin to chat, and what fun it turns out to be. The combination of Henry Blofeld, the voice of Test Match Special, and Antiques Roadshow host John Blythe make for compelling and enthralling company as they put the world to right by means of anecdotes, jokes and silly stories.
Walking onstage and grabbing a drink, the pair of old gents sit and begin talking to each other as if it’s an unexpected reunion, and for the first part of the show it’s clear that they aren’t really recognising the audience as being there. Ironically it’s only when they begin to veer off script and chat amicably that the pair really begin to shine out, waxing on about such varied events as old friends, strange days at work and meeting members of the Royal family.
Of the two, it’s clear that Blofeld is more at ease on the stage, certainly more happy to improvise and run off at a tangent that the more calm and regimented Blythe who tries, and fails throughout, to keep ‘Blowers’ from becoming lost in reminiscence. A frankly wonderful way to spend an hour feeling like you’re in the company of old friends.
Graeme Strachan
The Master and Margarita
Adapted from the book by Mikhail Bulgakov
Oxford University Dramatic Society
C Soco.
****
There are few venues better to stage a bleak Soviet discourse on the Devil than the burnt out and blackened shell of C Soco's 2A studio. The oppressively dark and flame-scarred space adds an element of apocalyptic dread to proceedings that fits perfectly with the dark and morbid tones of The Master and Margarita.
Based on an adaptation of the famous Russian novel depicting the Devil visiting Moscow to toy with the city's atheist literati and political fools, the play is a deliciously witty and entertaining romp. Stripping the plot down to its barest essentials, this production eschews the majority of the social and political satire of Bulgakov's novel in favour of concentrating on the sweet romance of the titular Master and his paramour Margarita. In doing so, the company have focused the narrative to the point that it allows them to dabble in whimsy and madness.
The actors revel in their roles, from the charismatic and sardonic Satan and his wisecracking cat to the heartbroken and lovelorn Margarita, there isn't a faltering step. Alongside the stellar performances, there are moments of breathtaking physicality and musical accompaniment which add to the blurring of the line between the feeling that what you are seeing isn't all it appears to be and, despite the trappings of theatre, the sense that you've seen something unique and different that might just change you forever.
Graeme Strachan
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