Arcadia

Greenside

19-24 Aug

11.00

£6-£8

Twenty years ago, Tom Stoppard unleashed his comic masterpiece upon the theatre world, earning him the best play award in the 1994 Olivier & Tony’s. Ever since it has been treasured by the public, & has been a sell-out show at the Fringe for the last deacade or so. Its current incarnation is at the hands of the delectably-trained Close Up Theater , from Dean Close School in Cheltenham. The play straddles two time-zones, the first in 1809 when Lord Byron is visiting a country house in Derbyshire, & the second in the age of Richard & Judy, when a scholar is visiting the same house on the trail of said famous poet.

Stoppard is at his most fluid & lyrical in this play, which wis full of wit & wonder & a delight to be amidst for its full two hours. The cast is 12 strong, with each role being performed flawlessly by the troupe. Especially strong is Charles Coombs as Septimus Hodge, who shall no doubt shine in the future. However, every performance was strong, & the sum is greater than its parts, & the effect Close Up Theatre exude is one of a finely-honed theatre machine, which no-doubt gets on well away from the boards. A worthy FIVE STARS…

Reviewer – Damo Bullen

I didn’t know quite what to expect when entering the theatre. I’d chosen this play from a list because I’d presumably found the write up interesting but that was a couple of weeks ago and I couldn’t really remember it. What I got was nothing I could have anticipated. And that was an entirely good thing. If Stuart Lee is the master of deconstructive comedy then this lot are the masters of deconstructive theatre. There was no set to speak of, no real narrative, the text was constantly analysing itself and there was an overarching sense of self effacement throughout the piece. However, this was all delivered with such a lightness of touch and mischievous sense of humour that things were always kept fresh, never overly intellectual or pompous. Yes, there was perhaps a touch of pretentiousness but, as Michael Stipe will tell you, that’s no bad thing.

As a piece of post modern theatre it was hard to fault. And simply as a brilliantly written piece of quality entertainment there were few flaws. As daft as it was ambitious, as joyful as it was innovative, this play was truly one of, of not the, highlight of my fringe so far. And it was all delivered by an annoyingly slim and beautiful cast to keep things easy on the eye. If you want a play that covers love, Shakespeare, Serge Gainsbourg, the joy of performance and probably a whole host of other intellectual musings that went over my head but was no the worse for it, this is the play for you. Basically if you want to be entertained and stimulated in equal measure you can’t go far wrong here. It left the pallet refreshed yet satisfied like a fine Michelin star meal.  It is pieces likethis that remind you what the fringe is all about and are vital to the future of inventive new theatre. My only gripe – the run is criminally short. FIVE STARS

Reviewer – Steve Vickers

Whispering in the Dark

Venue 13

13-24

17.30

£6

This play set off from Los Angteles, crossed the Pacific picking up its subject, then traversed half the world to settle amidst the salubrious surrounds of Venue 13’s pleasant theatre near the bottom of the Royal Mile. That subject, then, is those two teenage lesbians who shocked both New Zealand & the world by the crude & callous slaying of one of the girl’s mother.

However, this is no simple retelling of the tale, but a garish nightmare of two souls haunted in torment following the demise of their earthly lives. For an hour the audience is privy to their painful purgatory, as the two actresses fence intellectually, sexually & emotionally, occasionally recreate the scenes which led to their ghastly crime.

The dialogue offered up by by director/writer Kaiso Hill is unremitting, enacted at fast pace which is a credit to the actresses training & memory. These, Caitlin Teeley & Kat Ortiz, give us an energetic show & some of the best acting I’ve seen this festival, pouring realistic emotions into their performances.  THREE STARS

Reviewer – Damo Bullen

Head Over Heels in Saudi Arabia

19-26 Aug

17.50

Spotlites@the Merchant Hall

£7.50-£8.50

Maisah Sobaihi stars in this play about women’s roles in Saudia Arabia… she poses the question to the audience as to what their pre-conceptions are about women in Saudia Arabia at the offset, with answers mostly returning ideas of oppression, women not being able to drive and men being able to marry multiple times. Sobaihi then challenges these notions and in a humorous and very confident manner acts out some snippets from some women’s daily lives in Saudi Arabia. We are shown how typically a woman might react at finding out her husband wants to take another wife and how a woman feels from the perspective of having married “Misyar”, (marrying outside of financial obligation/sharing a home).  Sobaihi also deconstructs familiar pre-conceptions about what it must be like to not be able to drive.

This is both an educational and enjoyable play which is performed well and draws the audience into thinking about what we often presume about Islamic or Middle Eastern nations and cultures.  In demonstrating that reactions of women are the same the world over regardless of religion or location, Sobaihi succeeds in making Saudia Arabia not seem quite so different to the UK after all. Maybe one that women would find more appealing than men, and it did feel just a little bit too long on the running time, yet definitely recommendable as something different and valuable in forging some pleasant mental connections between the Western and Eastern sides of the world. THREE STARS

Reviewer – Antionette Thirgood

Sympathy Pains

Pleasance Dome

18-26 AUg

13.40

£7-£9

One of entertainment’s long-time journeywomen,  Rosalind Adler has had a dabble with theatre this time round & produced a curious play about man becoming pregnant. This ‘miracle’ occurred just as the roles had been reversed in his marriage, with his wife having become the chief bread winner. These are the only actors in the play, which revolves around their bickering & tenderness. We in the audience have obtained a big brother like window into their lives, & are treat to a glut of emotional moods as the tensions of a modern relationship are played out before us. Sometimes funny, sometimes awkward, it is a very real play from a very real voice, & watchable show to boot THREE STARS

Reviewer Damo Bullen

Shhhh!

Award winning self proclaimed ‘Mentalist’ Doug Segal performs a mind-blowing extavaganza of comedy, magic, animation and audience interaction set in the midst of the festival action within the Gilded Balloon on Teviot Square.

Quietly

Traverse Theatre

August 1st to 25th

16:00

£6 to £19

 

The Dead Man’s Waltz

Summerhall

14-18 Aug

£8-£10

23.30

Last night, in a corner of the old Vetinary College that has been rebranded as an arts venue, I spent the most delightful hour with the creative intelligentsia of the wild & windy Isle of Skye. Blending cinematics, live music & the spoken word, a show was presented whose collective sensation touched every recess of the watcher’s psyche. The theme is death, though not of a morbid, gothic kind, but almost tender in its passing.

Taking our wooden seats in the old lecturing theatre, the space seemed perfect for the show, with the band below us on the floor & the film projected above them on the wall behind. The band are DEAD MAN’S WALTZ, whose haunting  sounds both accompained the cinema & supported their enchanting song-craft. Occasionaly, onto the floor, stepped writer & poet HAL DUNCAN, who read out his works with a highland relish.

The show flows like a dream for finer minds & it felt a privelige, for a tranquil while, to share that same dream. FOUR STARS

Reviewer – Damo Bullen

MASK

Venue 13

16-24 August

13.30

£6-£8

MASK, from Calarts Festival Theatre,USA is a compact yet powerful play exemplifying the various forces at work within the heave & ho of a modern relationship. The two actors – Ernie Long & Sandy Simona – have an unbelievable chemistry, from tender moments of acceptance & rejection to the full-on heat of lovemaking. Like the layers of an onion, the couple tear away their personals masks both pysyical & metaphyscial, driving us deeper into the different facets of thier psyches & love-connection. This play is performed at a perfect pitch & I feel is real ‘page-turner’ of a production. FOUR STARS

Reviewer Damo Buillen