Theatre
THE BOOTH VARIATIONS
Multi—media performance exploring life of Edwin Booth 0000
So often we are defrned in adulthood by the career and lrfe chOIces we made. or were forced to make. rn our youth. Such decisions then lead to the creation of a self-image. one that we present to the rest of the World to be scrutinised and Judged by others.
Such notions of rrnage and identity are tackled rn thrs exploration of the lrfe of Fdwrn Booth (Todd C(BWOFIS).
DUDLEY MOORE
COME AGAIN - THE WORLD OF PETER COOK AND
brother of Abraham Lincoln's assassin John Wilkes Booth.
We follow Booth's lrfe from being reluctantly catapulted onto the stage. emerging from the shadow of his monstrous actor father. to dealing wrth hrs Wife's death. to the unpleasant limelight thrust upon hrm by hrs brother's crime. Through images capturrng hrs deep vulnerabrlrties. created by American Crvrl War photographer Matthew Brady (Tom Butlerr. Booth looks inward to what he truly knows of hrrnsell.
A fresh, funny and stinging look at the marriage of Pete'n’Dud 00.00
If you’re thinking, ‘Ere, ’ang on a minute. Didn't I already see all that stuff about Pete’n’Dud on all those TV programmes a few years ago after Peter Cook died?’ then think again. This Pete’n’Dud show is more Dud than Pete
(although it’s definitely no, ahem, dud).
Framed by a 1982 British television chat show interview with Dudley Moore (superbly played by Kevin Bishop) - which was infamously interrupted by Peter Cook (Scott Handy, also superb) in best mischievous Mephistophelian mode — the often stinging Come Again flashes back in time to a series of key moments in the rise and fall of the comic duo’s personal and professional relationship. The first of these looks back at Moore and Cook’s appearance in the 605 at the Edinburgh Fringe, where the boys, along with Alan Bennett and Jonathan Miller, staged their alternative and highly irreverent Cambridge Footlights review. Sitting at a piano tinkling the ivories, recalling his first professional gig with Cook and addressing the live audience of Tony Ferguson’s cheesy chat show (ie us, Come Again’s crowd), Moore says: “Try to imagine you're at the Edinburgh
Festival Fringe . . .’
Come Again, written by Moore and Cook fans Chris Bartlett and Nick Awde and directed by Izzy Mant, is full of these kind of smooth elisions between times and places. It’s a brilliantly devised and directed show, full of surprising leaps of the imagination and peppered with show-stopping shocks (if there’s one minor criticism of Come it’s that at a spry hour and five minutes, the numerous scene changes required to tell two life stories
make the show seem a little rushed).
Bartlett and Awde don’t come to any new and different conclusions about what made Moore and Cook tick (and fail to took): the snide Cook ridiculed cuddly Moore partly because he was jealous of his comic partner’s successful solo film career in Hollywood and partly because of his own personal demons, and it was this line of ridicule, merciless as it was, that in large part made the pair so funny. What Bartlett and Awde do add to the ever-growing myth of one of the world’s funniest comedy teams is the notion that it was Moore’s working-class drive and affability (as opposed to Cook’s upper-class aloofness) that was equally important in them achieving their remarkable international success. (Miles Fielder)
I Assembly Rooms. 2262-128, until 25) Aug (not 77;. I 7. Main. 5‘94‘10 r5..‘8—-.l‘$)r.
Wrrtten by Cerverrs and Carrdad Svrch. thrs rs a considered. thought provoking prece with story telling working on many levels. Nick Phrlrppou's drrectron carefully integrates multrrnedra. never smotherrng or upstagrng Ceryerrs' engaging and lll‘.'(}f3l()(l performance. Movrng effortlessly between characters wrth attention to physrcalrty and ernotron. intermittently addressrng the audience. Cerverrs creates an intimate theatrical experience. It's a fascinating study of rrnage. of what rs real and what rs created by public projection. fusing 19th century themes and modern day obsessron ‘.‘.’llll celebrity and media.
«Michelle Macrntyrel
I Assem.‘)/y Rooms. 226 2428. untr/ Aug 29 rnot re. 72.40pm. 5‘} l 4‘72 .E‘IO—S‘l In
TRAD
Surreal comedy about tradition 0....
How much of who you are. your values. your opinions. your character rs determrned by the past? Not only your past but that of your family. your culture. your heritage.
An ancrent and cantankerous father known as Da rFrankae McCafferty l. and hrs aged son (Peter Gowenl. examine lrfe past and present in all its colourful. confused and comical glory Da clrngs onto the lrrsh \alues and traditions of hrs past while hrs son rs open to progression. When Da drscoyers hrs son had a chrld some Ti) years ago. they open their eyes and mrnds to the possibility of hrs exrstence. ernbarkrng on a surreal search for the contrnuatron of the family lrne.
Reminiscent of the absurdrst work of Beckett. Mark Doherty‘s Trad follows characters defrned by a rrch language that rs poetrc. immensely funny. evocatrve and touching. Under Mikel Murfr's superb. understated drrectron the cast are remarkable rn their powerfully intense characterrsations wrth engaging performances by McCafferty and Gowen. David Pearse rs rntrrgurng as the peculrar and complex Sal muttering dark anxretres
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Telephone Booking Book Festival 0131 624 5050 Fringe or 31 226 0000
lntemational Festival 0131 473 2000 Film Festival 0131 623 8030 Jazz Festival 0131 473 2000
about the modern world. With the addrtron of a lilting live $0undtrack, thrs rs a beautrfully balanced. eloquent prece: its porgnancy clings to you and continues to linger in yOur thOughts as you head out rnto George Street. (Michelle Macrntyre)
I Assembly Rooms, 226 2428. until 29 Aug (not IS. 22/. 3.3500), $70—$72 rl‘Q—ljl I).
I MISS COMMUNISM Croatian actress Ines Wurth’s energetic autobiographical monologue 0000
On the strength of / Miss Communism ’the show must go on" rs the raison d'etre of Yugoslav Croat actress lnes Wurth. Her monologue abOut her life. as a chrld growrng up rn Trto's cornrnunrst Yugoslavra. as an rmrnrgrant puttrng herself through college in America. as a frlm actress returnrng home to a Zagreb now in the war zone known as Croatia. Serbia and Bosnia. rs both energetic and heartfelt.
lt rs also the stOry of her mother and grandmother. and she flips from one persona to another. as well as herself as both chrld and adult. In addition. the show rs punctuated with snatches of songs from the musical O/rver.’. a film that the young Wurth loved and whose orphaned character she identified with. (Apparently. Oliver Twrst himself. Mark Lester. is a big fan of the show and is rn Edinburgh to Support it).
Wrth / Miss Communism Wurth lays her lrfe bare. including a terrifying encounter wrth Serbian soldiers she refers to as ‘the rncrdent.’ Beyond that. it's also an rn-a-nutshell education of a country (now countrresl that's been at the centre of European unrest since World War l. And the whole thing is performed wrth the gusto of a Survrvor and a truly professional performer. (Miles Fielder)
I P/easance Dome, 556 6550, unfr/ 25) Aug (not 15), 4. 75pm. £7.50—E8 rib-£57).
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005'» THE LIST FESTIVAL MAGAZINE 69