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The
Edinburgh Fringe
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Reviews 12The Kaos Importance of Being Earnest Over the last few years, Kaos has built up quite a name for adventurous productions and a cult following, so I was much looking forward to this show. The fact that it was three-quarters of an hour late starting did, however, take the edge of my anticipation. For any show, not just at the Fringe, to start so late is unforgivable... But this is not the place for that: save it for the Diary! It is a very long time since I either read or saw The Importance of Being Earnest and I had forgotten how funny it is. Its humour transcends its time: it has not dated. Nor has the play itself dated: it is, after all, about human nature, and a hundred years is not enough for that to change significantly! Which is why I am still wondering why Kaos felt it necessary to add so much slapstick. Modern dress is fine, although not necessary, but the sillinesses of the characters do not need signposting. Cecily does not need a silly, squeaky voice and the brain of a six-year old; Jack does not need to adopt silly poses in London to show the difference between his character in town and in the country; and we can see the repressed sexuality of Miss Prism without the need for her to press Dr Chasuble's face into her crotch! And does Lady Bracknell really need to snort a line of coke to show she is part of "high society"? The idea of having characters singing approriate operatic arias or choruses behind certain bits of the action is clever and quite witty. I suspect Wilde might have approved! But the rest of the additions, superbly well done though they were, left me cold, although most of the audience seemed to love them. Clowning, I'm afraid, changes Wilde's needle into a sledgehammer. Adult Child Dead Child I very nearly didn't go to this show. I put it in as something of an afterthought, a token gesture in the direction of youth theatre, and even half an hour before it started I debated giving it a miss to enjoy the first glimerings of sunshine we'd seen for two weeks. But to miss it would have been a big mistake. These kids (aged, at a guess, between 14 and 18) could teach a few of the professional and most of the student groups a thing or two about acting. Quite obviously the director is very experienced, not just in theatrical terms but also in getting the very best out of kids, a specialised skill in its own right. It showed in every aspect of the production. Of course he did have the advantange of a tightly and clearly written script to begin with. Claire Dowie's monologue chronicles the mental disintegration of a schizophrenic child as she grows up. Director James Yarker has divided the monologue into parts for fifteen young performers, thus graphically illustating the gradual unravelling of the girl's mind. For most of the time the cast sit or stand, lined up for a school photograph, and simply speak their lines. There is some occasional movement, but the predominantly simply heads turning, which makes the climax, a sudden eruption of violence, the more shocking. I am, as regular reader's know, a great supporter of youth theatre, and so it is no small compliment to say that this is the best example of the genre I have ever seen. Utterly brilliant! The Curse of Iain Banks An interesting play, this. One might, in fact, call it oddball, off-the-wall. The Banks family, living in a castle somewhere between Edinburgh and Dunfermline, is cursed: every time novelist Iain Banks publishes a new novel, one of them dies. Ian (no "i") is next in line; a new Iain Banks novel is due; time is running out. The play tells the story of the unravelling of the curse. It's clear, intelligent, well-written and well-performed, but doesn't really engage the audience. We follow and admire, but our emotions are not roused, beyond that vague, natural sympathy for someone who will die unless he solves the problem. And those three words "solve the problem" sum up this play. It is like a detective story, and, like a detective story, its pleasures are cerebral, intellectual, not emotional. We don't get involved with the characters, not even poor Ian who may well die, but we do appreciate and enjoy the unravelling of the mystery, the solving of the problem. Next page - - - Index |
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