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The
Edinburgh Fringe
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Fringe 1997 Reviews (2)
The Grassmarket Project Devised and directed by Jeremy Weller, this is a riveting one and a half hours during which the characters' experience of mental illness explodes onto the stage in front of us, grabbing us by the scruff of the neck and plunging us into their world. Aaron has assembled a group of women who have suffered mental breakdown, as the first step in devising a play built on their experiences (a reflection of the way in which the piece was devised). Along with the women there are a couple of professional actors, Peter and Jonathon. As the lights go up, the group is beginning to assemble. It begins quietly with some nicely observed and rather gentle character comedy, as Aaron meets, first, the archytypal female caretaker who's seen it all, and then David, a rather dodgy-looking amateur actor who offers his services along side the pros. This comedy-induced false sense of security is suddenly smashed by an outburst of frightening violence and from then on we are dragged into these women's inner torments - and torments is far from being too strong a word: chairs are smashed, bodies and souls stripped bare, as each person, sufferers and actors alike, play out their experiences. We, the audience, see the world of the mentally ill in all its horror and misery. It could all too easily slip into a kind of perverted voyeurism, but Weller is very conscious of this and faces up to the accusation by accusing - and convicting - Aaron. The dozen or so of us in the audience left in daze, shocked, moved, and - for me, at any rate - with a greater understanding of, and sympathy for, the terrors of the mentally ill. See it! Looking Glass Productions The programme blurb describes this as a dazzling display of the female psyche: penetrating the "wild zone" to the frightening core of woman's multiple personalities. It isn't: it's a mixture of words from some of Shakespeare's female characters, extracts from the Rape of Lucrece (the Shakespeare poem), and physical theatre, and the whole lot doesn't really hang together. The physical theatre aspect is, in fact, quite minor. I don't think this group has quite understood just what physical theatre is. It's certainly more than crawling around the stage and bending bodies into different shapes. The performances varied from the adequate to good, but the lack of any real dramatic tension in the piece, coupled with the rather meaningless use of body shapes (memo to the director: study some contemporary dance), meant that, as a whole, this was an unsatisfying piece. But that's the Fringe! - people have the right to try and to fail. This young company from Brunel University has tried. It didn't come off, but there were good things. At the risk of sounding patronising, keep at it and you'll do a lot better next time. God knows, we've all made mistakes - I can think of some of my early productions which make The Rape of Lucrece look world class! Next page - - - Index |
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