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| Edinburgh : A&E : Theatre : Reviews |
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Theatre listings > Victory at the Dirt Palace. - Tour. Text and Music - Adriano Shaplin. Lights and Sound - Maria Shaplin. Directors and Designers - The Riot Group. Company - The Riot Group Company Website. Cast - here . 2006 Tour Dates and Times - here . Seen to review at The Arches on 21 April 2006. Run Time - 1hours 15mins no Interval. Reviewer - Graham Riach. Into each reign some life must fall. Conflict, jealousy, and haircuts - three words with deep resonance in TV news broadcasting. The opening tirade from the make-up chair makes it clear that this is not a world for the faint of heart. A channel zap later and the father-daughter rivals are seated at their news desks, backed up by their many-tendrilled P.R. agents seated on a broad sofa behind. The father, king of TV newscasting, is about to face his daughter in a bitter ratings war. The daughter, hard-nosed, with her hair scraped back, is poised to pounce on any slip her father might make. The pace in the opening thirty minutes is furious. The interplay between the four characters is executed with remarkable dexterity. Conversation is not really a fit description - assault would be closer. A short respite of sorrowful reflection in the middle of the play intelligently uses telephone answering machines to pass messages from one character to another. What could speak regret more clearly than a weary confession made in the blue-grey hours of the morning? This hiatus, however, serves to draw into sharper focus the frantic pace of the next day's news. Paul Schnabel gives a great performance as the wearied yet vain James Mann, and Stephanie Viola's K Mann finds sparkle in a glacial role. Spence and Andrew are oozing with sleaze, oiling the news machine as it lurches from crisis to crisis. Terrorist newsflashes provide background noise to the conflict within the family, all of which leads to a feeling of imminent collapse in a society rotten in the roots. Surrealistic passages are heightened by the dialogue's occasional shifts into passages from King Lear, on which the play is loosely based. These nightmarish passages emphasise the hyper-realistic nature of American TV news. It is encouraging to see such a telling blow being struck at an institution that at times seems numb to satire. The Riot Group have outdone themselves. And what a great pair of haircuts. ©Graham Riach 22 April 2006 - Published on EdinburghGuide.com Cast - James Mann - Paul Schnabel, K Mann - Stephanie Viola, Spence - Adriano Shaplin, Andrew - Andrew Friedman. 2006 More performances of Riot Group's production of Victory At The Dirt Palace. 11 -13 May US Vernont Burlington at the Flynn Space. Check out http://www.theriotgroup.com website for more details. 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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