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The
Edinburgh Fringe
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Fringe 2010 Reviews (59)Oi! For England Stepping back to '80s Thatcherite Britain, Oi! For England tells the story of Ammunition, a skinhead punk band, faced with the offer of playing at a local white supremacy rally. The piece centres on the conflicts that occur between the bandmates as they each try to reconcile their consciences with the repercussions. The play also deals with the racism inherent to the group and the local societal problems with racial hate and violence. The majority of the conflict in the play comes between the rage-filled frontman Napper and Finn, the part-Irish guitarist who alone has stuck up a friendship with the landlord's black daughter. Much of the trouble comes from the misplaced anger and sense of hopelessness that the play strives to convey in these disenchanted youths which the actors portray with emotion and passion. It's a well written play that manages to convey a great deal of conflict within the small setting of the band's lockup-cum-practice area. The only downside is the hanging nature of the ending makes the play seem like the pilot for a TV series as there are so many unresolved plot threads. Despite this the story is still engaging and it's a genuine disappointment when you realise that the show is over. Thankfully the band is on hand to play the audience out with one of the several punk rock songs they play during the course of the performance. Graeme Strachan Blackout Immersion is an oft overlooked part of theatre during the Fringe, which is why it's refreshing to have a show where the participants are made to feel precisely that they are part of the experience. Blackout takes a physical approach to this by supplying every member of the audience with an item of period dress to wear as they queue for the show. Donning a trilby and standing in line, I was greeted by a quartet of chirpy young women talking gaily about the upcoming fundraiser we were about to attend. As ginger beer and cake was passed round, out of nowhere an air raid siren broke the good cheer and the audience were hustled sharply into the blacked-out theatre to await the end of the bombing. Where Blackout excels in it's aim is the very real sense of stifling oppression as the continuous thumps of bombs landing never stop during the production. The four women chat and try to make light of the situation, chatting, joking, playing dice and cards with audience members amidst tearful moments of stolen conversation. The play also takes a more standard form as each character takes centre stage in emotionally charged flashbacks to their lives outside of the bomb shelter. Most affecting were the bloody memories of the nurse and a particularly heart wrenching role call made by a school mistress. All in all the performance was thoroughly entertaining and managed to squeeze laughs, tears and a fair bit of participation from even the most cynical members of the audience. A jolly good show all round and one that shows enough innovation to more than prove that Rose Tinted Glass are worth keeping an eye on. Graeme Strachan Dead Pauric is an aging artist; he's obnoxious, angry and quite frankly a bit of an idiot. He is also struggling with his return to Dublin for the first time in 30 years, after a hugely successful career in London, enjoying the fame and accolades afforded him for his groundbreaking artwork. In tow he's dragged his young unsatisfied trophy wife and a head full of neurosis and a heart full of angina. Upon his return he bumps into Fergus, a bitter enemy, and Deirdre, the subject of his first most famous painting; "The Virgin Vagina", who still has an axe to grind with him. The problem with the show is that despite the fact that the dialogue is nicely written, the insults witty and unusual and the acting deftly accomplished, the whole doesn't stand up to the sum of its parts simply because it doesn't make a damned lick of sense. It's one thing to loosely base a piece on a reimagining of Ibsen's final play, When We The Dead Awaken, it's quite another to simply take the concept of a dreamlike and whimsical play wholesale and try to make it make sense in a modern day setting with minimal restructuring. The only characters whose motivations are clear are those of Adele and Fergus, who seem to have wandered into the story from another production entirely. While they embark on a plausible affair spurred on by understandable events and emotions, Pauric simply spends the entire time insulting and offending everyone while reasoning illogically. The worst character of all is Deirdre his muse, who seems to have borne a grudge against him for 30 years. What smacks as cheap in the writing is that no mention of her past is ever delved into. Instead there are constant re-iterations of her anger at Pauric and the lack of closure she had after his leaving. No one ever asks the questions that would pop into any rational person's mind. Add to that the extended running time of the production and the relative lack of forward momentum means that the entire event feels utterly boring despite the actors doing their best. Graeme Strachan
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