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Fringe 2010 Reviews (8)
Shakespeare - The Man from Stratford
By Jonathan Bate
Assembly Hall.
****
Shakespeare - The Man from Stratford is not a Fringe show so much as a West End presentation building momentum for a long and prosperous run.
Simon Callow is one of the great contemporary soloists. Having cut his teeth on Dickens, it is probably a natural step to Shakespeare.
Callow doesn’t do things by halves and has a script penned by eminent Shakespearean Jonathan Bate. He cleverly balances the life of the Bard with extracts from over half of the plays plus a little of the poetry. Indeed, there is even a taste of Kyd and Marlowe for variety.
For almost two hours, in part due to shrewd direction from Tom Cairns which utilises filmed images to enhance the text, Callow has the audience eating out of his hand.
It helps to have a sonorous voice and a great script that starts and ends with Prospero and makes the most of the choicest morsels from the canon.
This is high quality theatre that will sell well in Edinburgh and then undoubtedly adorn the West End for a long time before touring the globe.
Philip Fisher
Jordan
By Anna Reynolds with Moira Buffini
Assembly Rooms.
*****
Jordan is distinguished by a performance from Allie Croker that deserves to win awards. She plays Shirley Jones, not the Broadway star but a woman imprisoned for murdering her much-loved baby son.
As we learn at the end, this is a dramatised version of a true story, which only adds to the sense of tragedy.
Shirley Jones is a simple girl from Morecambe who senses a chance of excitement when she meets biker, Dave. Little does she understand the levels of excitement that living with a psychopath will bring to her life.
The couple move to the south coast and there conceive the child of the title. While this could have been the chance to fulfil her destiny for Shirley, to Dave it is merely an irritating interruption to his sex life, which he almost instantly remedies.
Shirley is devastated, sliced with a flick-knife and deserted in days, but even so, begins a relatively happy time with her son.
However, Dave returns and makes things even worse, assaulting not only mother but infant son. In a moment of suicidal despair, she ineffectually attempts to end her life and first, puts Jordan out of his miserable existence.
This inevitably leads to a trial and prison before an unexpected release but no happy ending.
Under the direction of Alex Sims, Allie Croker gives a heart-rending performance in a powerful play that should be seen as a condemnation of the workings of a society that can allow such things to happen.
Philip Fisher
Reverie
Three’s Company
Pleasance Dome.
***
The world of lucid dreams is a difficult place to stage a play, which is precisely why Three’s Company have managed to excel with their latest fringe offering Reverie.
Comparisons with the recent blockbuster film Inception are unfortunately hard to avoid. However to it’s credit, Reverie is entirely it’s own animal. Following one man’s experiences within his own subconscious, the play spins a tale where the lines between reality and the dreamscape are blurred with tragic and bitter results. After being offered a job where he is paid to dream, James finds himself caught up in a dangerous obsession with his long lost ex-girlfriend and childhood love Holly. After becoming increasingly caught up in these fantasies he begins to disassociate himself from his real life partner Anna and the life they have built with one another in favour of a mixture of old memories and romantic creations of his own.
In a seamlessly moving series of vignettes, the world inside James’ head is presented to the audience as a fluid and ever-changing progression from one hopeless fantasy to another, contrasted with his growing despondency and lack of self care. The cast manage to make the continually shifting realities come to life to the point where it seems not out of place when even a spontaneous rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody crops up out of nowhere to classic comic effect. Although the play ultimately lacks a punch and the ending is mildly predictable, the journey to get there is thoroughly entertaining and the experienced cast make fine travelling companions through the corridors of the unreal.
Graeme Strachan
Bane
By Joe Bone
Whitebone Productions
The GRV.
*****
Bruce Bane is not a man to cross. His modus operandi generally consists of a trio of bullets to the chest and getting to know him is nearly as dangerous an occupation as being his enemy. We meet the dark and dangerous gangster as he is casually interrupting a business deal with a hail of bullets, only to soon learn that his skills may not be enough in the face of a mysterious English assassin out to get him.
In a brilliant parody of the film noir style, Joe Bone has manufactured a brilliantly funny show where he plays a plethora of varying roles in this dark and inverted story, very loosely based on a subversion of Batman. Not that there is ever a mention of a caped crusader, or anything of the like, however the constant sly and subtle references and allusions scattered throughout are a pleasing treat to anyone well versed in their comic book lore.
Bone mugs and mimes his way through the, quite frankly brilliant, twisting tale of discovery brilliantly as Bane delves deep into the mystery. Accompanied to great effect by a constant live soundtrack from Ben Roe, casually spinning out masterful riffs and hooks to great effect throughout, bringing the world of Bane and his travails ever deeper into the minds and cockles of the audience.
Graeme Strachan
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