|
Fringe 2010 Reviews (9)
Virtuous Flock
N10 Productions
C Soco.
****
What would the festival be without grotesque horror? Well frankly it would be downright boring, which is why it feels so refreshing to see a show that so completely leaves the trappings of good taste and common decency outside in the foyer. Virtuous Flock tells the twisted musical tale of a young girl returning from a convent to the family home for her father’s funeral. She is confronted with a trio of the women in his life: his prissy murderous wife, an opera-singing live-in lover and the overtly sexually obliging housemaid. She then turns her hand to vengeance having been driven sadistically mad at the hands of abusive nuns and clergy.
It’s a sadistically bloody romp filled with off-colour jokes and depraved slices of live music. While the story itself is pleasingly debauched and performed with a delicious self abandon, the comedy occasionally does miss the mark, however the rollicking music and enthusiasm of the attractive young cast more than ensures that the audience is kept rapt till the bitter bloody end.
Graeme Strachan
Dyslexia: The Musikal
Belt Buckle Theatre Company
The Spaces on the Mile @ The Radisson.
***
Dyslexia, The Musikal is most certainly a KO production (sorry couldn’t resist that). This was a high-energy company with a vibrant musical score and slick choreography. It is very much tongue in cheek humour with a lightweight plot that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Adrian Blurb (James Robinson) runs a new medical facility with a pioneering treatment to cure dyslexics and offers a £20 million reward if any of the patients can beat him in a spelling bee, but he really is a deceitful entrepreneur. His new conscripts Adam (Tom Walters) and Eva (Monica Zammit) arrive at the facility and inevitably fall in love. Jess Tupid (Katie Waller) turns out to be the niece that Blurb stole her family’s fortune from in order to build up his corrupt empire.
The super hero Big JD, the flamboyant gay icon (Marc Henderson) helps Adam to overcome his problem and defeat Blurb in the final contest. This was an enjoyable hour’s entertainment from a talented cast.
Robin Strapp
Atrium
By James Wilkes
Belt Up
C soco.
***
Welcome to the mind of Malcolm Kinear, who is among many impressive achievements a pathological fictionalist, some might say possessed of a great imagination, others might say a liar. You are made cosy in the living room or atrium of his house, and Malcolm starts to narrate his life story to biographer Simon.
The audience is intimately involved from the beginning. This is Belt Up's forte, and this piece doesn't just add a dash of interaction like every stand-up, it is a central part of the piece. A very organic, unpredictable project which is likely to grow into something quite splendid through its run, although as yet, finding its way. Malcolm, at ease mixing up the two worlds of the stage and audience, has the power with his confidence and comic touch to create something quite unique.
Perhaps the problem was us, the audience, and I admit I was part of that. On my night were quite timid, Malcolm asked for a strip tease and the rather hot volunteer didn't even take his shirt off. Next time I go to The House Above's living room I'm going with an act.
Go along to Malcolm's atrium and be entertained by him being entertained by you.
Seth Ewin
Decky Does a Bronco
By Douglas Maxwell
Gridiron
Traverse Scotland Yard.
*****
Only very special Fringe productions remain vivid a decade later. Indeed, most are forgotten within hours.
A second viewing of Douglas Maxwell’s vivid evocation of childhood in 1980s Scotland proves that it is as good as the recollection suggested.
The new production, under the banner of the Traverse, has lost a little of the randomness and danger, as spectators are obliged to sit in a polite circle a little further from the action than fond memory recalls.
This hardly matters, as the story and polished performances are so strong and radio microphones ensure that audibility is rarely a problem, though rain inevitably can be for an outdoor show.
A tale of 9-year-old boys from Ayrshire playing on the local swings may not sound that enticing but Maxwell has written a Scottish equivalent to Dennis Potter’s marvellous Blue Remembered Hills and with the assistance of original director Ben Harrison and an exciting score from composer Philip Pinsky, invented a night (or 75 minutes) to remember.
Our guide is Martin McCormick’s David, a born narrator. He introduces us to his pals and the swings, which are like an additional character. The performers take viewers right back into the fears and joys of childhood, wrestling and swinging, ambition satisfied by those that can clamber up the swings and then do a “bronco”.
The group’s misfit is Ben Winger’s tubby Decky, the snivelling, unathletic butt of all jokes. He cannot match his friends’ prowess but wants to belong.
This leads to an unforgettable, stunning finale that makes this play far more than merely a replay of the petty rivalries and minor pleasures of young boys.
Wrap up warmly and head back to the playground. You will not be disappointed.
Philip Fisher
Next page - - - Index
|
