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The
Edinburgh Fringe
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Fringe 1997 Reviews (3)Soup Kitchen Theatre To tackle Greek tragedy requires great courage. To tackle Euripides... well, double that, in spades! Aeschylus and Sophocles are difficult, but the ritual of the Greater Dionysia is still strong (even in the later Sophocles), and the contrast between the formal, lyric chorus and the dramatic dialogue provides the structure around which the director can build his piece. But Euripides is more difficult because he seems much more modern. His chorus takes more part in the action, appearing, at times, as almost another character, and the temptation for the modern director is to simply to assume that he can split the chorus' lines among a number of speakers and treat them as normal characters. It doesn't work. In spite of appearances, in Euripides the chorus still performs the same function as in the work of the earlier writers, commenting on the action and, to a lesser extent, interpreting it in theological or philosophical terms. Remove the ritualistic element from the production and you are left with a chorus which is an embarrassment. If, in addition, you try to give your chorus character(s) some individual characteristics - as the Soup Kitchen director did here - you lessen the effect disastrously. This student company fell into the trap, leaving us with a domestic melodrama, a kind of ancient Grand Guignol, rather than a tragedy played against the background of a cruel universe. The performances reflected this. There was no sense of elemental passion in Medea herself: this English rose was driven by pique, not passion. A brave undertaking, and I spoke to those who had liked it. But it wasn't Euripides. Soup Kitchen Theatre And then there was something completely different, something much more suited to the talents of this young company. Three Piece Suite (a suite of three short new plays, what else?) made an interesting contrast to Medea and suggested that there was more to this company than the first play might have indicated. The first of the three was a nicely comic piece, quite witty in places, in which Cupid (a rather large Cupid!) encourages a shy young man in his chatting up of a rather more aware young lady. Well done, with some nice moments. Given the loss of ritual from their Medea, it was rather interesting to see the that third of the three plays was a very ritualistic piece dealing with the meaning of life, no less! Interesting. Young Pleasance Young Pleasance is a London-based youth theatre company, now finishing its fourth year, with its headquarters in Islington. It is run by Kathryn and Tim Norton (brother and sister) who co-directed The Lightning Man, which Tim wrote. Set in a coastal village in the West Country, the play deals with love, lust and black magic. There are 39 members in the cast, all under 25. What a superb company they are! It is very much an ensemble piece and the standard of performance is very high, with not a weak link anywhere, and the direction, staging, lighting and choreography maintain the same standard. My only performance quibble relates to the sound: at times the eight-piece band tended to drown the singers (and, occasionally, speakers) . The use of some discreet sound reinforcement would have made all the difference. Such a pity, then, that they were let down by a script which is rather too slackly written and music which is less than memorable. The latter was the lesser of the two faults really, for, although no one would come out of the theatre humming any of the songs, they did suit the play. There is, however, a lack of dramatic tension in the script and the audience can see developments - including the ending - coming from a fair distance. K.486 Kafka's The Trial is for ever associated with Steven Berkoff. K.486, a group of students from higher education institutes in Manchester, does use his script and in many ways their production can be seen as homage to him. It is an intensely physical piece and has many Berkovian (I just coined that word: it seems right - Berkoffian doesn't!.) touches. His trapeze is there, but it's used differently from the way it is in his production. And yes, the black and white costumes and set, the bowler hats, even the grimaces are all pure Berkoff, as the reviewer in Three Weeks points out, but this is not, as (s)he suggests, a Berkoff impersonation. In fact, the portrayal of Joseph K himself owes as much to Rik Mayall as to Berkoff! In preparing the production, the company did a series of workshops with inmates of Strangeways Prison in Manchester and what they learned from them helped shape the way the piece developed. The staging is interesting: the acting area is wide but shallow and the trapeze hangs stage right. In the centre is a scaffolding tower on top of which Joseph K stays for the entire performance. All conversations are held with K and his interlocutors facing the audience, with one exception: his lover faces him and even mounts the scaffolding with him. Thus are his isolation and alienation emphasised. This is a production full of energy and commitment, with a talented cast who have a firm vision of what they want to achieve - and by God, they do achieve it! Next page - - - Index |
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