Theatre
www.list.co.uk/festival
IMPROBABLE FREQUENCY An Eire of brilliance on.
To write on Anglo Irish relations is to enter a pretty crowded area in the theatre, so few companies can be expected to be truly original, yet Irish company Rough Magic have achieved this triumphantly. This quite mad but nevertheless strictly logical musical by Arthur Riordan and Bell Helicopter delights as it reaches its goal through some wildly witty song and verse dialogue mixed cabaret pastiche music delivered live.
In it, a dopey young cryptographer Faraday (Peter Hanly) working for wartime British intelligence is packed off to a field mission in Dublin to keep an eye on the Nazi sympathising IRA of the free state. Here he encounters such figures as bigoted John Betjeman (Louis Lovett), pissed up Flann O’Brien (Darragh Kelly) and even dirty old Erwin Schrodinger (Dan Gordon) in one of those noted-historicaI-figures-all-in-one -city-by - historic-coincidence comedies that you might remember from Stoppard’s Travesties. Meanwhile he’s teased and tempted by femme fatale Agent Green (Cathy White) and sweet and waifish local Philomena (Lisa Lambe).
Lynne Parker’s production is utterly charming, while Riordan’s book is full of the kind of risible wordplay and groan making puns that O'Brien himself might have been proud of. There really isn’t a moment of rest from the piece’s relentless playfulness, which all looks great on Alan Farquharson’s pub/restaurant/radio station set. The comic highlight, an interrogation that turns into seduction between Faraday and Philomena will I suspect, leave you weak with laughter. The performances, too are outstanding, with Hanly’s hard-of-thinking Englishman a grand lead. Meanwhile Lambe’s brilliant innocent, a silent matinee idol ingénue, trading pleading looks and knowing winks with her audience takes the Lillian Gish marvelously - it is perhaps the performance of the Fringe. This is a priority ticket for the Fringe. (Steve Cramer)
I Traverse. 228 740.1, uriti/ 27 Aug, times vary, NS (5370).
TITS & BLOOD Misanthropy and misogyny 00
demolition of theatres ‘fourth wall' lthe imaginary one that separates the actors from the audience). Tits 8 Blood comprises two unrelated scenes in which characters converse With the crowd in clever-arse ironic fashion. Thing is. dramatists were dOing this stuff back in the golden age of the Globe T heatre. It doesn't help the plays case that it's loaded With Labute's dodgy — and long Since dull — brand of lTTlsalTilerD‘, and misogyny. iMiles Fielderi
I Grey/friars Kirk House. 0845 226 2727, unit/2O Aug. 6.20pm. £7 i961.
for GLASGOW THEATRE see non-Festival magazine
Pity this trOLipe of young American performers. As am-dram groups go they‘re not terrible. But
filmmaker plawvright Neil Labute’s latest piece of theatre is. Purportedly a
www.nationaltheatrescotland.com
NATIONAL THEATRE
OF SCOTLAND
National Theatre of Scotland at the Fringe
BY GREGORY BURKE
An unauthorised biography of the legendary Scottish regiment.
1-2? August 2006
BOX OFFICE (TRAVERSE THEATRE):
ONllNE aoonuc: D 4 o: rum NA ‘4 ‘ [THER‘I‘RE
.‘t .- ‘I'é ' EDINBURGH ‘: INTERNATIONAL 0' scum“ - FESTIVAL
i ' ‘ ‘ ' I - , ,. . “ a..- ,4 I
National Theatre of Scotland and the Edinburgh International Festival present
Realism
BY ANTHONY NEILSON A magical trip into the mundane.
ROYAL lYCEUM THEATRE, EDINBURGH 14-19 August 2006
BOX OFFICE: 0131 473 2000 ONllNE BOOKING: WWW.EIF.CO.UK
Sponsored by First ScotRail
Scottish Arts Council
. z THE LIST FESTIVAL MAGAZINE 67