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Stars Beneath The Sea
- Tour & World Premiere.
Devised by - Vanishing Point.
Directors and Designers - Kai Fischer & Matthew Lenton.
Assistant Director - Andrew Panton.
Costume Designer -D .
Lighting Designer - Kia Fischer.
Music - John Anderson.
Props - Kati Clark.
Puppets - Shane Conlon.
Company - Vanishing Point.
Cast - here .
2003 Tour Dates and Times - here .
Seen to review at Tramway 9 May 2003. Then in seen in revised production
at Edinburgh Fringe Fringe Review here.
Run Time - 1 hours 10 mins, no Interval .
Reviewer - Thelma Good.
Awakening our inventive understanding.
Stars beneath the Sea - Vanishing Point.
Hans Haldane - Sandy Grierson
© Tim Nunn 2003.
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Under the sea is another world and this production from Vanishing Point
takes us into more. Hans Haldane is an Victorian inventor with a parrot
he uses in his experiments. The parrot is pretty voluble in his opinions,
and Sandy Grieson's other worldly Hans is a perfect foil for his feathered
colleague. It's a fun begining to a production that touches on wonder,
loss and discovery.
Once he's worked out how to breathe below the waves, Hans goes to Greece
and meets Maria, Itxaso Moreno, a young woman whose mother died
diving for sponges. In her island people can go down under the water for
6 minutes. When Maria/Itxaso does it it's an amazing moment. The production
is full of them, with liitle puppet fishermen, a old crone who seems to
be eternal and the set whose blue lit white fishing net shimmers in the
dark.
Vanishing Point's first show aimed at the 8+ audience, is for all children
and adults as well a visual and theatrical experience. Grierson's central
character of Hans gives us the inventor's soul. Moreno's Maria
in her village community provides the rooted contrast to a man who wants
to go where no one has gone before. The production doesn't explain as
many childrens shows do, and at times things are unclear. But that largerly
comes a strength as we experience a world where all is not known, awakening
our understanding so we have the inventor's thrill of discovery.
© Thelma Good 9 May 2003. - Published on EdinburghGuide.com
Fringe 2003 review of revised version of this
production with fewer actors and revised script.
Stars Beneath The Sea. (Not in
Fringe programme but in Assembly's)
Drams  .
Venue Assembly (Venue 3)
Address George St.
Reviewer Thelma Good.
It's got some good moments this and the performers bring revealing touches
but there's not enough clear direction or story to make this shine.
Sandy Griegson is the central character, inventor Hal Haldane,
a Scot who wants to go to the moon. Set a about a century or more back
from now he has to find a way to breathe in the absence of air, the solution
is a diving helmet which he develops with the help of his long suffering
and sometimes short of breath assistant, Sean Hay. Haldane given
a playful abstracted air by Griegson is the one the audience most
connects with.
Maria, Itaxso Merno, the Greek breath diver whose mother never
returned one day, is odd and strange, close to the borders of malevolent
when we meet her first her slight softening when Haldane appears to try
his equipment under the waves suggests strong sensuality .
What irritates in this piece is the sense of ill fashioned detail in
a story which sometime drops out some steps so it jerks uncomfortably
rather than glides over the gaps. I saw this work in an earlier incarnation,
aimed at adults and childern, with more characters and actors. The parrot
who originally help Haldane with experiments has been removed reducing
but not removing the peice's appealing querky feel. The Crone's absence
is however an improvement.
The actors do their best, all three, but sometimes the clumsy direction
and fragmented, oddly cut story drags their efforts down to a confusing
back eddy. It's never allowed to carry us freely enough, for long enough,
to allow us fully into the world of the play. By the end it's clear this
revised version has not yet realised the potential glimpseable within
it. Point's pervious work has often been performed in theatrical dark,
but here despite the lighting, the piece's point is hard to see or recognise
clearly.
© Thelma Good 12 August 2003 - Published on www.EdinburghGuide.com
Runs to 25 August at 17:00 every day.
Company Vanishing Point.
Reviews of other Vanishing Point Productions - Sauchiehall
Street | | A
Brief History Of Time | Invisible
Man | Glimpse
Cast: Hans Haldane - Sandy Grierson, George
Philipousis/Franco - Sean Hay, Greta/Mr Onassis/Maria - Skye Loneragan
and Paola - Itaxso Mreno.
2003 Tour Details of Vanishing Point's production
of Stars Beneath The Sea .
Tour begins
7 - 10 May at
8pm Glasgow Tramway 0845 330 3501.
15 May at 7pm Cambridge Drama Centre 01223 511 511.
17 May at 11am & 2pm Stirling MacRobert 01786 466666.
20 - 21 May at 7.30pm Leeds Studio Theatre Metropolitan University 0112
283 5998.
23 May at 7:30pm Aberdeen The Lemon Tree 01224 642230.
24 May at 7.45pm Cumbernauld Theatre 01236 732 887.
29 & 31 May at 7pm & 1 June at 12:45pm & 3pm
Edinburgh Traverse Theatre part of Bank of Scotland Children's International
Theatre Festival 0131 228 1404
Tour ends
Edinburgh Fringe Dates.
Vanishing Point will be performing at the Assembly Rooms between 1 -25
of August 2003 at 4:50pm daily.
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