C cubed,
14-26 August (15:45)

Script:  Performance:
Stagecraft:  S.O.D: 

A Fear And Loathing Actor In Dublin, by Irish playwright Mark McAuley, allows us to hovercraft over the Viking waters to Dublin, where we sit at an intimate window into the life of a struggling thirty-year old actor. This is Vinny, played by Mark himself, & he is seriously treading water; job offers are thin on the ground, his love-life is complicating deeper every day, & to his flailing feet are wrapped an increasing, debt-swelling dependency on cocaine. It is within the paranoiac confines of this surreal half-life that the phrase “I am due a corporate gig,” is used to get the soul-destroying powder on tick. Thus, & almost immediately, we are presented with an unlikeable figure – Mark is a fantastic actor, but his part is someone hard to connect with on a spiritual level, unless of course you like a bit of coke. The drug-use does drift away, however, as the play progresses; its not all about chopping the lines out Human Traffic style.

This play is an exploration of ego & its effect on reality. The main battlefield is the relationship between Vinny & his girlfriend, played by the very slick Lisa Tyrell. A third actor comes with Gary Buckley, who plays the role of Vinny’s conscience hovering around him like a Scroogean ghost, yet solidified into an identically-dressed human being. Throughout the play we witness the two of them chatting together in the same way all of us live in our heads. This was a clever touch, but quite confusing at first. I didn’t know if we were actually meant to figure it out for ourselves or not, but either way its an unnecessary distraction. Better to know beforehand. Completing the quartet was Fiach Kunz, who filled various roles with plenty of variety to make the play feel real. Together they band well, their training & experience is the strong glue which holds the play together, a plurality of polished performances in which you can feel the affections they hold for one another. They relish the moment, too, you can tell – like athletes at a Games.

There are some great scenes throughout, including a slightly contrived Paul at Damascus moment of realisation, which together concoct a rainbow story-arc with precision. Unfortunately, there is a certain fragmented modernism to the play’s stagecraft, both inviting & expecting our imaginations to fill the aesthetic gaps. I felt I never really had the mental peace to do that, tho’, – the action was over-energetic in both writing & performance. Like surfing the speed limit in the middle lane on an uncluttered motorway. I guess its all about taste really, I prefer classical paintings to modern art, but the pace was definitely too rocket-fueled either way. But then again, I might be missing the metaphor for the dizzying mental craziness of a tortured actor, which is the play’s central theme.

Damian Beeson Bullen

Script:  Performance:
Stagecraft: S.O.D: 

This was my first visit to C Aquila; I found it very relaxed and welcoming, the entrance room opening up to stairs then to a small room for stage and seating. The action began with frenzied dialogue between Jon, Tim and Kate, each of whom had a different story to tell, all threads intertwining in their undercurrent of darkness. The content included sexual assault and loss (Jon), sexual inquiry and power (Kate) and a frantic distaste for God from Tim. Together they had a kind of disbelief about the words coming out of their mouths, but for each the reality came home more and more as the syllables sunk into their psyche negatively and powerfully.

Rick Romero as ‘Jon’

Kate, for instance, spoke honestly and without hesitation about the dream of sex from the point of view of a young woman; hopefully her father wouldn’t hear her talk this way. Jon absorbed our abhorrence by becoming rational, distant and reasonable but he often had tears streaming down his face. A screen at the back showed dark footage and mingled with the dialogue as a great noise in the actor’s heads, vexing them with amplification.

It’s a time in your life where you don’t have a lot of control over your life or decisions and that’s really what sits at the core of the play – How did we get to be here? How little control do we have? How much of it can we take? Matthew Gouldesbrough
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All  three were in a state of defiance as they reached for their rhetoric and headed towards the tragedy’s unfolding. The acting became more frantic, thrilling and desperate as the scenes became more and more explicit. There was a message here, confronting us with questions about how much control we have over our lives, how much manipulation we are subject to. The screen showed the dark influences we are surrounded by every day, the way they affect us both from within and without. It throws light on modern sexual mores, issues of gun control, chemical abuse. Striking, passionate, scary, this show was not an easy ride but rather a plea for help that will shake you up.

Daniel Donnelly

Holy Land

C Aquila

 Aug 14-26 (13:00)

www.elegytheatre.com

Underbelly Bristo Square
Jul 31 – Aug 26 ( 14:35)

Script:  Performance:
Stagecraft: S.O.D: 

The makeshift hut that was the Buttercup at Underbelly offered an intimate setting for Diana Dinerman to take us on a journey into self-discovery and expansion, where changing your mind was the whole point. She started out dressed for office work in smart suit and glasses, waxing rhetorical about all aspects of this style of work contains. But just as we started to think the show would be about the importance of such responsibilities she threw off said glasses. This was an immediate act of liberation.

She then began to share with us the effect it had had on her when she realised that life was bigger than eternally trying to please her bosses by doing anything but being herself. That her bigger job was the task of finding out who she was. She also compelled us to join her both in her quite spectacular story but to try and start some real ones of our own, inspiring us to think about our own lives as much as hers.

This was a powerful, beautifully conceived piece, with Dinerman dancing through her brilliant script with grace and ease, laying out before us the evidence of the life-changing but more importantly life-enhancing experiences that she would undertake to find her true path. In one scene she used a screen to address a dead man, asking his advice; she talked to herself, to an imaginary friend, to a lover right through the show. When she kicked off it wasn’t in anger but rather with wonder and enthusiasm. We could see her before our very eyes, bright and alive, charming and beautiful – surely evidence of the peace to be found in such a journey.

We smiled, we laughed, we were enthralled as we took the life journey with her; we came along as she visited spiritual lodges in South America where groups whose quest to become healers and gain insight into human concerns were enhanced by the use of plant drugs. She had started by looking like a tiny typist, but ended up nothing short of a shaman sitting in the lotus position meditating and answering questions about life. I can’t tell you just how inspirational and powerful an effect this show has on you – you’ll just have to go along and experience it for yourself.

Daniel Donnelly

Nia Williams has created a veritable modern masterpiece called Verity, & she has assembled an extremely talented bunch to solidify her vision on the stage. They are like rich & fertile vineyards flourishing around a deep & entrenched lake. Together they come under the monicker ‘Three Chairs and a Hat,’ & are here in Edinburgh until only the 17th so like a handsome new lover you’ve met on a cruise they get off at the next port of call, there now exists very real pressure to see the show before they flit out of town. Verity is played by Saffi Needham, who has just spent the last year training at Guildford School of Acting, & you can really feel her mix of natural ability & erudition. She possesses a starlight-sparkling voice & also a river of charms, the vital ingredients for a leading lady.

I think one of the most important, and exciting, things that I’ve learned is how much a musical, or any piece of theatre, is the creation of everyone who takes part in staging it Nia Williams
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Nia’s piano playing, fingers like flickering swifts, is also pretty much perfect. The songs she accompanies are a really eclectic bunch, music & melody-wise they meander in style & mood, while Nia’s lyricism is at times pure poetry – she rhymes like a rapper. I think Cocktail City was my favorite, with the psychbabbling facebook song & the motown-inspired ‘A Little Kindness’ finale a close second – altho’ all were quality, there was no weak moment. There are also some quite complex harmonies & voice combinations which come across as if they were more a symphonic orchestra than a vocal ensemble.

Verity has been jilted on her wedding night, & when we meet her she is still addicted to the bliss of love, but wandering blindly in a desert of realisiation. “What are going to do about Verity?” sing the ensemble as she sets off on her descent into drunken party-girl, stalking her ex on social-media mode. Into the action comes a meddling, match-making mother; gossipy office workers & the argumentative Ex – a brilliant mix of music-makers & storylines. If I was a visitor to the Fringe, & I wanted a musical theatre experience of high quality that reflects the influx of talent into Edinburgh – then Verity is the one. A fabulous piece on so many levels.

Damian Beeson Bullen

Verity

The Space on the Mile

Aug 12-17 (16:50)

www.facebook.com/threechairsandahat

Script:  Performance:
Stagecraft:  S.O.D: 

Kevin Kelly the part is played by Kevin Kelly the actor in this fascinating biopic of his later life. Personal accounts were recorded via dictaphone by Blair Christie, the artistic & everything else director of Raised Voices, a charity he founded in 2013 to offer creative writing and drama classes to people who have experienced homelessness. To tell this riveting, ultra-modern tale, a massive contributor was Ian Gibson, who we never saw on stage, but whose narration of Kevin’s thoughts was spot-on; often weaving into the dialogue itself… while Kevin would interact with an actor, Ian would reveal what was really going on in Kevin’s tortured mind.

All feelings I had of myself became toxic – I started to self harm in a big way

Kevin is joined on-stage by Lee Holland, Matthew Power, the multi-tasking Katy Greeney & of course the equally multi-tasking Archie Gray, one of the first members to join Raised Voices. Together they dart to & fro from the stage like dragonflies, embellishing every scene with spirit. One of these scenes in particular was amazing, when they all played various social aggressives; cluttering & pounding Kevin’s poor mind with sex-offers, drug-deals & insults upon his punishing descent into suicidal madness down Hastings.

Kevin found himself in that southern town at the end of a too common helter-skelter that begins with the tragic loss of his baby son & ends in the anonymous hell of a porous half-life by the moody, sliding, grey slab of the English Channel. Before then, a funeral scene was enacted with such silent tenderness I found my tear-wells hauling up a bucket or two. For Kevin, the blinkers were firmly on, & nothing could alleviate his private panic at this sense of devastating loss.

We have a core group of members that have been with us for years, they have all experienced homelessness at some point in their lives. We also have new members that have come on board that have not been homeless but have experienced or are experiencing some other issues in their life. All are not trained actors which brings a real rawness and energy to the performance. Blair Christie
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It is not all pathos & gloom, however; Prometheus does escape his rock eventually, & the ending is upbeat & reaffirming. It is like watching somebody lose their limbs then have them regrow even stronger. As a fair valuation for the random theatre-goer visiting the Fringe, 3 stars is an honest score, but for those wanting to experience Human truth upon the stage, then nothing can touch Raised Voices… Real Lives.

Damian Beeson Bullen

Raised Voices

SpaceUK Triplex Studio

Aug 12-17 (15:00)

www.raisedvoices.org.uk

Script: Stagecraft:
Performance: S.O.D:

Ralf Wetzel has created a strange & sexually sensual, quasi-androgenous character which will stick in the memory for a long time, I am sure. Let me for a moment attempt a portrait of Ralf’s ‘George,‘ beginning with his outfit. For a start the toothpaste green tanktop is too shrunken, revealing the belly & its button. The flies on his shorts are undone, revealing pretty garish underpants; while equally as garish is a viscious-pink wig. The mask is completed by cute, prosthetic gerbil cheeks, which lead our eyes into his own azure orbs – a quite hypnotic overall effect.

Overall, the message of the play is driven by the context in which you watch it. If you put the show into a different perspective, you see something different. We discovered that it’s like a prism. It will break light accordingly to how it is projected onto it. Masculinity is one angle, femininity might be another.
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The script courts the mundane, on purpose I believe, but the way Wetzel works his ingenius character’s words & mannerisms is an amazing watch. So much so, the story sometimes gets drowned in the performance. The beautiful & deformed gargoyle that is George comes across sometimes creepy – like serial killer weird – & sometimes catching our sympathies with sweetness. There is a duality, Boderline Personality Disorder perhaps, with Wetzel fluctuating between polarized emotions in an astonishing instant – like a magician’s flip of a card –  in the same effortless fashion that his 18th century compatriot, Konrad Ekhof, handled both tragedy & comedy famously well.

At the core of Absolutely Reliable is the mask; & the play was very much born from it, with Wetzel playing the archmagus weaving it all to life. He is a superb performer & it is a most addictive & fascinating experience watching him surfing on his own intensity.

Damian Beeson Bullen

Absolutely Reliable

C venues – C cubed

Aug 11-12, 14-25 (22:00)

www.clownforlife.com

Assembly George Square
Aug 12-26 (10.50)

Script: Performance:
Stagecraft: S.O.D:

A play of dance and dialogue about teenage lovers who lose an unborn child and then go their separate ways. Ten years later they are reunited at a wedding and during quiet moments it becomes clear that the wounds of their broken relationship have not healed. The pair go on to unpack their feelings of loss and love and work their way through a maze of emotions.

The performances by Essie Barrow and Iskandaar R. Sharazuddin are mesmerizing. I felt they were excited about bringing Alex and Nancy to life. The scenes cycle between dialogue, dance, and monologue, and in moods from humorous joy to morbid sadness. Every moment feels believable and as a whole fit together like a tile mosaic. The script, by Sharazuddin, has an organic feeling that paints a detailed emotional landscape. In the end I felt I knew these characters as friends and cared about their well being.

Post Mortem was like eating a bar of dark chocolate, rich and sweet as young love with bitter notes of loss and grief. A great way to start your Fringe day.

Michael Beeson

Underbelly Bristo Square
Jul 31 – Aug 26 (14.45)

Script   Performance:  

Stagecraft:  S.O.D:

The amazing Underbelly venue at Bristo Square has a very old history of its own, and is a tourist hotspot. And the amazing show it’s currently hosting, Manual Cinema’s Frankenstein, is also a hot spot for the Fringe – deservedly so. When I walked into the room, I was confronted with an epic set, packed with contraptions which created an air of anticipation as you wondered what part each would play in the forthcoming entertainment.

Everything came to life soon enough as the movie started to play on the central screen – black and white with just a hint of pre-technicolour tint. But this was not recorded video, this was live action, performed and filmed by the cast of five and projected on to the screen as it happened; accompanied by music from four musicians on cello, saxophone, and multiple other instruments that I didn’t even recognise. This was Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein story told in a totally new and unique way, patched together scene-by-scene while incorporating various poignant elements from the author’s own life.

The mechanics had the actors moving at great pace between their different roles, working with the equipment that was strewn across the stage and displaying an impressive range of skills and abilities, merging effects with action and shadow-silhouettes. The protagonists positioned themselves so perfectly, and the multiple lights, cameras and projectors were rigged so that everything ran seamlessly; almost like magic, scientific magic, as the multiple layers built up to display the Frankenstein story to us to its very limits. One of the most moving effects was the two representations of the creature itself. One was a terribly sewn together doll and the other an actress in full mask, a work of art in itself. The whole effect of this piece made it somehow so real that we took it as a kind of documentary instead of a fictional story. The agony of the creature grew with each new realisation and we were reminded of the beginning where Mary Shelly mourned the baby that she had lost. In encompassing all aspects of Shelly’s sad and familiar tale, I found this film to be one of the most beautiful masterpieces in the whole Frankenstein genre, and there have been many over the past century.

This work was striking, beautiful and loving. By showing us the mechanics behind making a movie, it only enhanced the magic and invited us in. Come along for an astonishing ride like no other.

Daniel Donnelly