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Fringe 2011 Reviews (2)
Coffin Up
The Village Idiots
Pleasance Dome
****
The Village Idiots have built up a reputation over the past few years
for their imaginative mask work and this year's show is no exception
Set in Grimm and Company's funeral parlour, business is not very good
since the sleepy village of Langsley Abbot is the healthiest village
in the UK.
Meanwhile the budding romance between Doug, the undertaker's assistant
and the girl of his dreams blossoms.
But bills are mounting up and each day the postman delivers new demands
and the bailiff has arrived. The Scrooge-like undertaker is forced to
seek desperate measures to keep his business afloat.
There are a myriad of characters in this black comedy each beautifully
crafted including a husband and wife who are jolly joggers but she meets
with an untimely accident and provides new hope for the undertaker.
Things get out of hand as the undertaker becomes greedy and sets about
getting as many clients as possible with disastrous results and there
is an ingenious twist at the end.
With an ingenious set and a clever soundtrack this was a slick, skilful
performance, filled with inventiveness from a highly talented company.
Robin Strapp
Potted Potter
By Dan Clarkson and Jefferson Turner
Seabright Productions
The Pleasance Grand
*****
With the recent release of the last of the Harry Potter films Dan and
Jeff return to the Fringe with their original 2006 production, albeit
updated to include book seven and it is seventy minutes of mad -cap
mayhem.
This dynamic duo perform all seven books at a breathtaking speed and
it's tremendous fun. They play all 300 characters. Well, that's not
quite true as Jeff plays Harry and Dan plays all the rest. The money
to hire the rest of the actors has been spent on the dragon in book
four.
They are both consummate storytellers who develop a delightful rapport
with the audience.
This is pure slapstick comedy, using simple props, puppets and even
a Hoover Junior vacuum cleaner to replace the Nimbus broom - "You
have to get with the times."
The audience are all involved in a giant game of Quidditch as a globe
of the world is used and for the first time in five years a team managed
to get the globe through a hoop, so Slytherin scored ten points much
to the disgust and boos from the Gryffindor crew The losing team were
duly soaked by a water gun.
There is much good-natured ad-libbing and lots of unexpected humour
in this zany parody and it was obvious that the actors were enjoying
this performance as much as the capacity audience.
This was playful, impressive family entertainment. Fight for a ticket
you will not be disappointed.
Robin Strapp
Woyzeck
By Georg Buchner
Oikos Theatre Company
The Zoo Monkey House
****
Written in 1836 Woyzeck is a play about the common man, lust,
betrayal, murder and finally justice and the young cast from Oikos Theatre
embrace these themes with passion and commitment.
They perform in the round with confidence and assurance. Caz Holmes
is the excellent narrator who has a sound affinity with the audience
in retelling this powerful story.
Woyzeck, strongly played by Benny Ainsworth, is a simple soldier living
with his common law wife Marie. They have a child but Marie betrays
Woyzeck for the upright drum major and finally Woyzeck seeks his revenge
on Marie that ends in tragic bloody deaths
Alex Crump-Hail is commendable as the compulsive-obsessive Doctor who
conducts unethical experiments on poor Woyzeck feeding him a diet consisting
only of peas. Woyzeck slowly becomes deranged, plagued with hallucinations
and philosophising about the meaning of nature.
This was an impressive production skilfully directed by Jules Crossley.
Robin Strapp
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