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 Musicals & Opera |
Rating Guide None = Unmissable 
= UnwatchablePage number refers to the Fringe programme Tea! The Musical (Page 113) Drams Venue Augustine's (Venue 152) Address 41 George IV Bridge Reviewer Fiona O'Hanlon The humble teabag…it seems like an insignificant commodity yet this 'luxury' item helps to fuel the world economy (as well as keeping us all warm and content!) So what would you do if the UN imposed a world-wide ban on tea? Comply? Or continue to drink it regardless? The varying reactions to such an absurd ban are portrayed in Andrew Burman's Tea! The Musical. Mr Earl Grey staunchly obeys the letter of the law, Rosie Lea and Timothy Potts (Mr T Potts) rebel against the ban, whilst Rosie's grandad sees the prohibition as a money making possibility! The script is well written, permeated both with teenage issues and every tea pun imaginable, whilst six original songs (penned by Matthew Burman ) accompany the piece. Both script and songs are clearly and eloquently performed by the ten-strong cast. Particularly notable is the sustained energy and enthusiasm of Matthew Burman whose performance is the cream in our coffee…or tea! Although the set is very basic, consisting of five green and blue canvas chairs, the cast's choreographed movements sustain the audience's visual interest. Humour is incorporated into the piece through a genuinely funny tea-banking call centre sketch performed by Gabriella Fink. A well performed piece by a Youth Theatre Company, Tea! The Musical is just our cup of tea! © Fiona O'Hanlon 19th August 2003 - Published on www.EdinburghGuide.com Runs to 23rd August, daily at 13.15. Company – NPLS Spectrum Youth Theatre Company Company Website www.npls-spectrum.co.uk
That's Life! (page 113) WORLD
PREMIERE
Life's a bitch but that's life! On their preview night, the brand new graduates
of York University, Toronto, Canada, who form this brand new theatre company
operating out of the north of Toronto, had their baptism of fire that very night.
I'm happy to say that, just as in real baptism, they rose out of it and emerged
triumphant.
Joe, the yet-to-live-his-life rock guitarist fronting his band Afterlife, has been called to his unavoidable date with Death, whose messenger Beauty, tries to help him prepare to meet his Maker. "Fried by his amps" Joe, in that strange, in-between state from life to death, calls on all the important aspects, personified in each of his friends, to muster his roll call to tell God of what's he'd done to to make a difference on Earth. Not enough, in his own view, for he'd not yet lived long enough. No matter. The inevitable date has come. Poised exquisitely between song and dialogue, the poignant drama unfolds -
at times, irreverent, hilarious, lyrical, sorrowful, sympathetic, and ultimately
peacefully resigned - to carry the audience from laughter through tears then
to the deeply moral denouement dressed in totally appropriate music.
These talented new entrants into their professional and their real lives sang
and acted their hearts out. OK the voices didn't quite carry as they
should that night but that wasn't their fault. That they could act, sing and
rise above adversity with the poise that the did created an enchanting experience,
totally rooted in 21st century reality that spoke even more powefully to the
young in the audience than to the more experienced and knowing older folk.
Three Guys Naked from the Waist Down (page 113) Drams Venue Greyfriars Kirk House (Venue 28). Address 86 Candlemaker Row Reviewer Neil Ingram Comedy clubs are now widespread, but twenty years ago they were hot. Three Guys Naked... charts the progress of three hopeful young comics, Ted, Phil and Kenny, and it's the familiar rags to riches story, with a few twists along the way. Ted is the compere at the Komedy Klub West- he chats to the audience, and appears very confident, but most of all he wants to get on. Phil is "Mr Angry", raging at his fellow inhabitants of New York, but is it all an act? And Kenny is just a funny guy, a clown, always pulling gags, and getting on the others' nerves. Individually their acts are going nowhere, but could there be a better future if they worked together? They do the audition, and Kenny walks out, but the agent loves it, so they fly out to L.A, fame and fortune. The three guys are played by Edward Harrison, Richard Michael-Morse, and Pete Howe, who all act and sing with great confidence, and the three piece band, led by Hannah Peel, provides lively accompaniment. The songs are tuneful but not really memorable, and the story is pretty conventional. It's a brisk production which shows off well the talents of its young performers. © Neil Ingram 15 August 2003 - Published on www.EdinburghGuide.com Runs to 25 August at 20.50. Company – National Student Theatre Company
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