Rating
Guide
None = Unmissable
= Unwatchable
Carol
Smilie Trashed My Room
Drams
(crackin)
Venue Bedlam Theatre (Venue 49)
Address 11b Bristo Place
Reviewer Claire Devlin
Lesley (Adam Brown) and Jemima (Clare Plested) have the perfect relationship,
cemented by their mutual infatuation with light entertainment. They
thought they had it all, and then the Changing Rooms team came calling.
Now, with an allotment - style living room, their life together has
crumbled and dark secrets emerge to shatter their blissful "Going for
Gold" lifestyle (Sorry, couldn't resist.).
With some of the worst puns ever squeezed out of game show title names,
this fast-paced and tightly scripted show will have everyone giggling.
The visual style of the play is both garish and inventive. The incredibly
compact set is a treasure trove of TV paraphernalia. This is put to
best use when Jemima performs her uncanny, and for me, show-stopping
impression of Shirley Bassey. A flower decoration draws out from the
wall to become her feather boa and the living room chair magically transforms
into a glittery stage. It's a stylish and fluid transition throughout,
featuring three costume changes and numerous set-piece re-enactments
of TV shows.
The Gladiators homage alone will have you rolling with laughter. After
a hesitant few moments as the play begins, both actors settle down to
give slyly humorous performances, careening wildly between subtlety
and overblown melodrama. The result is masterful and vivacious acting
from two talented leads. The finale is brutal, vindictive and brilliant,
and in keeping with the atmosphere of the play, features a television.
Keep an eye out for the flowers on the trellis as the play comes to
a close. Written by the two performers, this is a short, sharp shot
of humour, which fabulously and fondly satirizes Britain's favourite
past time.
Running until 19th, 12:15
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Cell G159
Drams 
(V.Good)
Venue Gilded Balloon (Venue 38)
Address 233 Cowgate
Reviewer Colin Donati
An unexpected gem. This piece of new writing by Paul Sellar takes us
back to a nameless
night in November 1955 when a certain Doctor Mallinson calls out two
local police officers to investigate a missing patient at his Manor
Hall maximum security home for the criminally insane. The fact that
the performance takes place in the Pleasance Cave is part of the effect.
This excellently inauspicious and opportunistic venue (perfect Fringe!)
is little more than a platform jammed up at the end of a dank Niddrie
Street cellar without any wings for entrances or exits, but it is hard
to think of any setting that could be more appropriate. The piece could
have been tailor made.
All the action takes place within the grounds of Manor Hall. A description
of night in its beautiful open grounds (encircled by a vast electrified
barrier) is eloquently incorporated into the script. Vivid in the imagination
yet without losing touch with of the actual dank claustrophobic atmosphere
of the cellar. This is deliberate and highly evocative. Again maximising
use of the space, the staging cleverly employs simple black screens
choreographed to convey instant switches of scene and the fascinating
thread of entrances and exits between the five players as the deeply
ambiguous events of the night unfold. Perhaps ‘infold’ would be a more
accurate word. The style of writing is mannered and darkly comic. An
opening dependence upon puns at first seems gratuitous, though amusing.
But the instability of language soon turns out to be functional (in
the dysfunctional sense) and effective. Eventually no one can be quite
certain who is hunting who, who is telling the truth, or even what terrible
crime might have been committed. The closing minutes genuinely surprise.
Excellently paced. Small but brilliant. This is what the Fringe is for.
Runs till the 28th, at 17.00hrs.
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Chagall
Chagall
Drams 0 Excellent
Venue Rocket @ St John’s Hall (Venue 126)
Address West End, Princes St
Reviewer Colin Donati
If paintings could move or speak, maybe this has something of what it
would feel like. The spiritual world of Marc Chagall sensuously evoked
by Belarus State Theatre. Don’t worry that you don’t have Russian; most
of the sense is accessible. The poetry is visual. This visual and emotional
presentation are rich with Slavonic intensity and eloquence. And besides,
there are excellent programme notes that explain the outline. Worth
charging up on these before the lights go down. And then you’re ready.
The central idea turns on the poetry and mystery of memory made sensuous
and spiritual. We are in Chagall’s dying minutes when, at the gradual
final dissolution of his consciousness, the voices of the townspeople
from Vitbesk begin to call to him. The space becomes populated with
people he remembers from his early days, many of whom are now themselves
beyond the line he is about to cross. The stories shift and change.
Echoes from the 1918 Revolution add a political note.
Overall, the production doesn’t set out to dazzle. Props are few and
movements surprisingly simple. There isn’t too much colour either. Nor
is there the need. For, with these simplest of means, the unmistakable
stamp of the painter imbues everything from the outset. The atmosphere
and character of his works is immediately recognisable. The sense of
the town, the figures, the buildings, the streets, is magically conveyed.
By the end you really can believe the world might fly and float.
Runs till the 19th, at 22.00hrs.
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Chaucer
in the Sky with Diamonds
Drams
Venue C (Venue 34)
Address Chambers Street
Reviewer Colin Donati
The best thing about this one is the title I’m afraid. This series of
revue sketches re-enacting a few of Chaucer’s more salacious tales (salaciously)
in the ‘Allo Allo’ mode, is set ostensibly on a station platform while
awaiting a delayed Canterbury train. It has the odd moment. There is
a plausible Blair impression as a simple con-man in a Trekkies Lottery
scam saga for instance, as well as a rapping rhyming black Friar at
one point which isn’t too bad. The paedophiliac ‘Cap’n Birdseye’ is
also quite arresting - though after the third time round, his questionable
song is merely that - questionable. Everything was lively though. As
bad shows go, at least it was quite entertainingly bad.
Runs till 27th (not 15th) at 23.15hrs.
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Chekhov
Double Bill: A
Jubillee / The Wedding
Drams
Venue Crowne Plaza Hotel (Venue 39)
Address 80 High Street
Reviewer Richard Taylor
A Jubilee & The Wedding are two snapshots of Russian society made easier
to digest by a liberal application of farce. The Wedding portrays a
vast range of characters attending a provincial wedding reception; A
Jubilee focuses on a pretentious Bank Manager caught between the conflicting
needs of his company, employees and wife.
Performed by students and graduates of the impressively titled School
of the Science of Acting, it would be unfair to expect these pieces
to come across as more than work in progress. That said, shortcomings
are occasionally compensated by robust technical work - the Benny Hill-like
fast-motions and good old-fashioned Russian plate throwing was performed
very well indeed.
However, the scenes that worked were probably those developed in the
classroom. Though this group manages to show something of the Russian
nature, the translation falters, gestures are weak and atmospheres fail.
Worst of all, the audience is not given anything to take away.
Taken together, it appears that the Science of Acting has veered off
towards science and lost touch with acting. If you decide to see this,
imagine that you are in provincial Russia complete with its own limits
- with effort it might just work.
Runs until 28th August. Starts 15:45 hrs (ends 17:15).
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Children of Clytemnestra (Page 89)
Drams
Venue C too, St Columba's by the Castle (Venue 4)
Address Johnston Terrace
Reviewer Thelma Good
Debacle Theatre has brought a very good production of the Agamemnon
story to the Fringe as its first production. The text by the director
Triche Kehoe is shaped for the cast and sounds well on the ear with
some fine dramatic speeches for both men and women. The film, produced
by Angus Mackenzie-Davie, projected as a background never intrudes but
adds to the enduring relevance of this ancient story, as do the music
and sounds by Robert Wells.
Mayur Zaveri has a strength and kingly dignity befitting his role as
Agamemnon, Liliana Figueira is deeply moving as the traumatised and
deeply feeling Cassandra and Angus Mackenzie-Davie as the Nightwatchman
lets us see the effects of long wars and waiting on the common people,
using his voice with delicacy. The chorus provide, both in voice and
movement, excellent scenes of battle, being marooned at sea, and the
waiting and return of Agammenon to his people and his Queen Clytemnestra,
played by the director with intensity. Only the slightly over long scene
changes, probably caused by Fringe conditions, detract from this overall
fine first stab at the Fringe.
Till 27th
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Crooked
Drams
Venue Komedia @ Southside (Venue 82)
Address 117 Nicolson Street
Reviewer Thelma Good
This is Peter Pan given a modern spin, where the battle between good
and evil is dealt with. The drummers drum and dancers dance and Tink
is still hopelessly attached to Peter. Tigerlily is running a club,
Hook is now a police captain with Smee, his right hand man who's more
cruel than Barrie's. The second N in Never Never Land slipped so it
reads Never Ever Land. And Tink preferring not to speak has a multitude
of sounds to get her point across. She's also a very stroppy little
fairy now.
This is a very intelligent and enjoyable reworking of the plot of Peter
Pan by cast member Keefe Healy. With interesting insights into why Peter
and his friends, Nibs, Tootles and Slightly, aided and hindered by Tigerlily
and Tink, scrap with Hook and Smee endlessly. And then Peter brings
Wendy to Never Never Land and John tags along for the ride and all goes
pear shaped. Even the Magic Dust, which has got addictive, doesn't quite
save the day.
The cast perform well and my only quibbles are with some scenes involving
Hook and Smee, where there is too much talk and not enough action. Also
the scene changes were not as slick as they might have been, even though
this company from Vermont USA solved the sets and the fringe staging
problems by having them on wheels, with different sides having different
locations. Overall though quite satisfying for Peter Pan fans everywhere.
Till 27th
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