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| Edinburgh : A&E : Theatre: Reviews |
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Double Bill One -
Part of the Citizen's A Little Bit Of Ruff Season in The Citizens' Circle
Studio.
Lit by green neon lights and women dressed in a white see through kimono lies almost unmoving on a hospital bed, this is the Lady Aio. Her husband, Hikaru returns from a business trip to visit her. This is not the first time she has been unwell, it's suggested the problem is one of the spirit. As the husband waits the nurse tells him about the woman who visits his wife late at night. But as he speaks, sunglass wearing, dressed slightly unusually in black shorts and thonged sandals, it occurs to the viewer this Hospital is tending to nations' souls rather than persons' bodies. There are never enough hospitals the nurse remarks. When the visitor Yasuko Rokugo arrives, she is in black - a glittering sequined full length flared coat, fastened to reveal her seductive and western near nakedness - and the metaphor is strengthened. As she and Hikaru talk it's clear they've been an item in the past, when they seperated the foxes were calling. And we hear them, vixens in heat, while at times the Lady Aoi speaks or rises up mutely in the bed - part ghost, part emblem. The production slips between metaphor - of the Japanese caught between the power of the traditions and the superficial seductive new other - and being just a triangle of two women and man and never settles. But the strength of the production and the play is that oscillation is statisfying.
In this the couple have parted but they find, after signing their divorce papers, they're forced to stay in the same hotel for just one more night. It's a civilised, painful night, with ocassional interuptions from their new partners. His asks urgently, fearfully on the phone, "Is it Over?" The ex-couple go back over their past and catch up on their lives after they parted some years ago. By the end you know the answer even if they don't. Meticulousily and seamlessly acted by Candida Benson and Andrew Clark, there is a real sense of a love that becomes dangerous as it dies. Someone always hopes the other will forget the worse and come back, for surely that fleeting joy can be rediscover. The performances from all three actors leave behind that sharp, salt taste of the painful tears human loving can bring in this exquistely fashioned play. These two short plays are intense delights in the first double bill in the peice of Ruff season. © Thelma Good 21 September 2004. - Published on EdinburghGuide.com . Cast of Citizen's Production of Lady Aoi. Lady Aoi - Julie Austin, Hikaru - Andrew Clark, Yasuko Rokugo - Lorna McDevitt and Nurse - Pete Ashmore. Cast of Citizen's Production of La Musica. Annie Marie Noche - Candida Benson, Michel Nollet - Andrew Clark, Hotel Owner - Julie Austin and Girl - Vivien Reid. Theatre Editor, Thelma Good's e-mail is thelma@edinburghguide.com Although every effort has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the information presented in these pages, no responsibility can be accepted for any errors or omissions.
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