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Review from 2002 Edinburgh
Fringe
Bright Colours Only
2004 Tour dates here.
Drams 
reviewed at Venue Assembly (Venue 3) 54 George St
Reviewer Thelma Good
It's the first time as an audience member I've ever been thanked for coming
and kissed by the actor at the start of her performance. Pauline Goldsmith
greets everyone of us as we cram into a small space with a three-piece
suite, sundry furniture, a spread of sandwiches, tea, drams of whisky
and a coffin along the back. We get into the mood very quickly, asking
each other if we knew him well, helping each other to refreshments and
generally finding that strange half celebration, half shaken state you're
in after someone you knew remotely dies.
If you want to be really comfy sit on the 3-piece suite, otherwise after
a few minutes you will get to look down from her extra seating revealed
behind one of the temporary walls of the room. What follows is a strange,
humorous journey with the performer into some of her family - it's her
Grandfather Eddie's we are greeted for, his granddaughter having taken
on the wake no-one else wanted to do.
Her relations appear sometimes by her vivid vignette acting, sometimes
by charming naive style computer generated cartoons. Her Aunty Annie's
blighted love for the man who gives her the key to his heart, Granny whose's
"awful sore down there" are touching too. Soon tears prick and
flow down some of the audiences' faces. We laugh partly because of the
fear death brings but also because she tells things in such an Irish way.
Her deadpan delivery working so well as she takes us into the niceties
of coffin attire and the need for natural fibres if you're going up a
chimney!
Do have a sandwich and some whisky they are delicious, and attend to what
she reveals about life and all surrounding death. I memorably now know
lots about embalming and what the handles on coffins aren't for. It is
a lovely solo performance embracing, moving and warming the audience,
as wakes should, only the very last moments didn't work, hence the one
dram.
Bright Colours Only website
© Thelma Good 08 August 2002
Review when seen in it's prefestival short run in March 2002
Touring Dates for Spring - Summer 2004
Tour begins
10 March at Ireland - Castlebar: Linenhall 094 90 23733.
11 March at Ireland - Manorhamilton: The Glens Centre 071 9855833.
12 March at Ireland - Letterkenny: An Grainan Theatre 074 91 20777.
15-20 March at Ireland Belfast: Waterfront Hall 02890334455.
23-27 March at Ireland Dublin: The Space @ The Helix 01 700 7000.
30 Mar - 3 Apr at Ireland Derry: Millennium Forum 028 7126 4455.
14 Apr - 1 May at London The Lyric, Hammersmith 08700 500 511.
5 - 8 May at Thoresby Riding Hall 0115 941 9419.
11 - 15 May at Liverpool Unity Theatre 0151 709 4988.
19-22 May at Chester Gateway Theatre 01244 340392.
25-28 May at Warwick Arts Centre 024 7652 4524.
9-11 June at Croydon Clocktower 020 8253 1030.
16-19 June at Estonia: Baltoscandal Festival.
21 - 26 June at Ireland, Cork Midsummer Festival 021 4275974.
Tour Ends.
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