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Fringe 2011 Reviews (27)
Clockheart Boy
Dumbshow
C Venue
*****
This enchanting show returns to the Fringe once more with its loveable
characters, colourful staging and dark undertones. The Professor is
lost to grief when his only daughter disappears and, together with his
creations, looks everywhere for her. Many years later a boy with no
heart washes up on the beach outside and, given a clockwork heart by
the Professor, enables the household to finally live again.
With a live soundtrack and multifunctional set, all areas of the Professor's
castle are represented as the characters busy themselves in the kitchen,
study, rooftop and scary basement. The show is truly an ensemble piece
and is performed with great energy and passion. Childlike rather than
childish; I defy anyone to not find something to enjoy in this lively,
thoughtful and imaginative production.
Amy Yorston
The Games
Spike Theatre
Zoo Roxy
****
It is to the credit of the company of The Games that they managed
to overcome the obstacles to enjoyment thrown up by the venue. It was
one of those very wet Edinburgh days and the audience clustered in the
foyer only to be told by a real jobsworth member of staff that they
had to line up outside, although "You can wait in the cafe downstairs
but you'll be the last to be called." To their credit, most stayed
put and eventually she allowed us to line up on the stairs. She then
started to collect tickets and hand out programmes but seemed to get
fed up part way through and wandered off with the programmes.
So I'm afraid I can't credit the cast or writer in this review. I did
try to get a programme after the show but there were none around. Oh
yes, and I was told that the lining up outside was because of "Health
and Safety"!
The Games is a "lost play of Aristophanes" and is
introduced by somewhat loony Professor of Classics, interrupted by a
busybody stage manager who constantly tells the Prof how much longer
he has left for this intro.
The play then starts. It is the time of the Olympic Games and the Gods
decide to endow three no-hopers - dreadful poet Stanzas, runt of the
litter Darius and Hermaphrodite, a woman - with the powers to win the
pugilistic, chariot racing and pentathlon competitions respectively.
As the Games are played in the nude, all three are also endowed with
very realistic - and large - prosthetic penises, with Hermaphrodite
having her breasts bound up (because of a cracked rib, she tells the
others).
There's plenty of clowning, appallingly bad poetry and even worse puns
from the cast of three, and it is very, very funny. Each actor plays
a number of parts, each with very amusing exaggerated physicality, and
they sweep us along with the silliness of it all.
Could Aristophanes have written it? Possibly, possibly....
Peter Lathan
Beef
By Rose Williams
Nottingham New Theatre
C soco
****
I have to admit to being surprised to discover that the writer and
cast of Beef are all students, for neither the script nor the
performances give any clue that that's the case, and in a festival that
is annually swamped with obviously studenty shows, that is some achievement.
The last time I felt this was in 2007 with a Cambridge University production
of Gogol's The Overcoat.
The situation is surreal - the run up to a modern day Noah's Flood
- and yet both situation and characters are treated totally realistically,
after an opening in which a preacher, who speaks with a strange accent
which bears little resemblance to any modern accent that I could recognise,
talks of Mark, to whom God revealed the coming cataclysm and who was
responsible for the regeneration of the human race after the Flood.
After this somewhat disconcerting opening, we return to the modern
day and see the build-up to the events he has described.
Those who are to be the remnants of the current human race and the
progenitors of the next slowly gather in Mark's home: his wife (who
was about to leave him), her pregnant sister, a colleague from work,
and various others who have some vague connections with the colleague.
Tensions build as this motley collection of people interact and the
storm and flood outside build.
It's a gripping piece, thanks to both the writing and the performances.
Peter Lathan
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