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Fringe 2011 Reviews (10)
Medea
By Euripides, in a version by Stella Duffy
Fraser Cannon Productions and Critical Mass
Assembly George Square
*
Something has gone badly wrong with this version of Euripides play
about a vengeful woman, played by Nadira Janikova.
After learning that her husband is to marry a newer, richer model,
Medea wreaks the kind of terrible revenge that can only happen in mythology.
The acting leaves much to be desired and it can be difficult to understand
what several of the performers are saying, either due to thick accents
or problems with vocal projection.
Economies do not help, as Richard Fry plays not only a rather ignoble
and unheroic Jason but also his future father-in-law Creon and Aegeus
- i.e. all of the male parts. Worse, in the first two, he is indistinguishable.
The movement also all too often looks learned and unnatural, though
song and dance seem to come more easily to this cast than straight acting..
The powerful story with Stella Duffy's modernised language does its
best to overcome these problems but only does so to a degree.
Philip Fisher
The Wheel
By Zinnie Harris
National Theatre of Scotland
Traverse 1
*****
Ever since its first major production Black Watch, the imprimatur
of The National Theatre of Scotland has been an effective guarantee
of unmissable theatre.
The company's work is characterised by thoughtful, imaginative plays
utilising ensemble acting and the best backstage creative teams to maximise
the impact of the text.
The Wheel lives up to that billing and shows every sign of becoming
at least a minor classic.
The work's protagonist Beatriz shares the best facets of those two
legendary Mothers, Courage and Teresa. Catherine Walsh, immaculately
demonstrates all of her character's pain and optimism as she embarks
on a picaresque journey through multiple war zones.
The play opens calmly and happily enough as she prepares to help her
sister, Olga Wehrly's Rosa to enjoy the latter's wedding day, as war
rages between their native Spain and France.
The day is ruined when a group of volunteer soldiers arrives and, after
a kangaroo court, threatens to execute a neighbour.
The fearless heroine saves his life but, in return, gets saddled with
the man's seemingly mute daughter, played by Rebecca Benson. The pair
then embark on a chase to catch the father, who has been exiled.
For most of the remainder of the 1¾ hours, the girl does or
does not perform minor miracles, becoming a figure of wonder and fear.
Along the route, Beatriz inherits a younger, orphaned boy and a baby,
to add to a burden that she bears with innate goodness, if occasional
understandable impatience.
With The Wheel, Zinnie Harris brings back memories of perhaps
her best play, Further than the Furthest Thing, which started
life on the same stage.
Once again, she keeps viewers on their toes as knowledge slowly seeps
through that the wars we are witnessing change from scene to scene.
Spaniards facing French eventually morph into emigrants fleeing the
Nazis and then Cambodians enduring similar terrors with American napalm.
NTS Artistic Director, Vicki Featherstone does her playwright proud
with a typically adventurous staging.
Merle Hensel's set features a bombed-out every-town, while the action
is enhanced by this Company's trademark complementary movement and music
respectively designed by Christine Devaney and Nick Powell.
By the end of the evening, the patience of even the saintly Beatriz
has been tested to the limit and there is a terrible implication that
the cycle of perpetual wars will be repeated forever.
As such, The Wheel is a humane and moving play about the way
in which innocents suffer during conflicts that should be seen as much
for its vital message as the way in which it is packaged and delivered.
Philip Fisher
Wondrous Flitting
By Mark Thomson
Royal Lyceum Theatre
Traverse 2
*
The Royal Lyceum has moved just around the corner to present a studio-sized
production at the Traverse.
Wondrous Flitting gets off to a hilarious start, as tubby, unemployed
Sam played by Grant O'Rourke, waits for some dry ice to float past the
audience before launching into a stream of expletives.
This seems absolutely justified when we realize that his untidy living
room has been riven in two by a flying wall and, even better, this has
apparently come from the Holy House of Loretto, reputedly the home of
the Virgin Mary.
Unfortunately, the play does not then seem to have any direction. For
the next 90 minutes, we follow dull Sam through a series of situations
that are presumably meant to reflect Scottish city living and generate
some laughs along the way.
The novelty of the opening fails to return during a stream of meetings
with, inter alia, Sam's wheelchair-bound Granddad, a couple of 11-year-old
hooligans, junkies, a businesswoman and a church cleaner, as well as
various offstage voices, some of which might just be heavenly.
Every other part is played by either Molly Innes or Liam Brennan, who
each reveal themselves to be talented character actors.
Philip Fisher
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