list.co.uk/festival Reviews | FESTIVAL THEATRE
THE PORTABLE DOROTHY PARKER Intriguing synopsis of an elaborate life ●●●●● LET ME LOOK AT YOU Witty look at 50 years of gay history ●●●●●
American poet and satirist Dorothy Parker was perhaps best known for her great wit and intelligent commentary. But behind the sharp tongue was a woman with real strength as well as vulnerabilities, who struggled with heartbreak and loss. Annie Lux’s The Portable Dorothy Parker takes
place in 1943 in Parker’s New York apartment as she works alongside a young female editor from Viking Press in the collation of her works for a new series. The format of the one-woman play seems fitting for the depiction of Parker, whose trademark zingers deserve to stand alone for full effect.
Occasionally, the allusions to her famous friends and celebrated members of New York’s elite can feel confusing and drawn out. Nevertheless, in these stories, Margot Avery does well to capture the wry cynicism of the poet as well as her many anxieties, reciting her best known works with a humorous sass and swagger. It’s just a shame that some of the dialogue falls flat, forcing a level of theatricality that at times feels excessive.
Still, the show offers an intriguing synopsis of
Parker’s elaborate life story, providing a glimpse of her rarely seen fragility. (Arusa Qureshi) ■ Gilded Balloon at Rose Theatre, until 28 Aug (not 21), 4pm, £11–£12 (£10–£11).
There’s no doubting the ambition of Anglo-US company Starving Artists’ solo show: to take us through the last 50 or so years of gay history, while also sketching in an encounter with a darkly magnetic figure in London’s Old Compton Street. And they succeed magnificently, in a considered, beautifully nuanced performance by Mark Pinkosh of a wonderfully witty text by Godfrey Hamilton.
Pinkosh’s delivery bristles with energy – and fury
when required. His recollections of pivotal moments in gay history – the report that recommended decriminalisation as long as those homosexuals weren’t too ostentatious about things (as if); the riot at a Los Angeles lesbian bar that kicked off today’s movement – are as funny as they are revealing, and he has some fantastic one-liners. His seemingly endless, tongue-in-cheek list of everything that homosexuals have to learn proves his assertion that it’s hard work being gay. But despite the humour, there are serious themes underpinning this carefully crafted show, themes of continuing petty discrimination and, above all, the crucial need to stay angry. This is a compelling hour of provocative theatre. (David Kettle) ■ Pleasance Courtyard, until 28 Aug, 11.15am, £8–£10 (£7–£9).
A HUNGER ARTIST Kafka as a metaphor for the art of performance ●●●●●
A Hunger Artist is the name of a short story by Franz Kafka, but it could also be the tagline for a whole lineage of 20th-century performance art. Adapted for the stage by Josh Luxenberg, the eponymous hunger artist makes his living through self-deprivation, travelling across Europe to perform his 40-day starvation act for enthralled crowds. A moth-eaten, eerily pale-faced and heavily padded Jonathan Levin emerges through the curtain pushing a trunk full of props. This is an impresario from a bygone age, and as he pulls out his tiny box theatre and wind-up gramophone, he draws the audience in to this witty, enchanting and macabre tale.
Levin then turns the tables, re-enacting the performance of the hunger artist. Full of artistic integrity and stripped of his bloated padding, he transforms in to a fragile caged creature. Members of the audience are brought on stage to become participants in the nauseating spectacle, portraying doctors taking measurements of the emaciated artist and witnesses to his feat of endurance.
Levin is an agile physical performer, jumping between multiple roles with clarity and precision in what is a mesmerising piece of work. (Irina Glinski) ■ ZOO, until 28 Aug (not 22), 5.45pm, £11 (£9).
TRASHED Brutal monologue about a man’s descent into landfill ●●●●●
It’s time to get Trashed. This new play from Lab Rats features David William Bryan as Goody, the kind of character you’d cross the road to avoid; swigging cider from cans, he perches among piles of household waste, aggressively shouting about his lot. Goody’s lot, as described in Sascha Moore’s monologue, is a pretty downbeat one. Goody’s wife has left him after the loss of a child, and despite attending a counseling group, Goody’s world seems to be falling apart. He’s trying to keep up with events by opening and draining as many cans of booze as he can, but his sorrows are coming at him at such a pace that Goody can barely drink quickly enough to stave off despair. As a play, Trashed has a big plus point, and that’s Bryan’s performance. A ferocious opening sees Goody railing at the audience with a smashed bit of wood, before breaking off with an apologetic ‘Sorry, I thought you were someone else . . . ’ It’s a moment that captures Goody’s personality; rebarbative, yet timid and self-pitying, and Bryan does a great job in capturing the extremes of the character he plays. But that description also presents the weakness of Trashed; Goody goes so rapidly from one extreme to another that there’s little room for nuance. Moore’s play has more incident than it needs as domestic abuse, paedophilia and several untimely deaths rain down on Goody’s wide shoulders.
Trashed seeks to find pathos in the bitter incidents of an
outsider’s life, but piles on the tragedy far too vigorously to make any one of the incidents sing. But if the writing needs a tweak, Bryan’s sky-high performance levels keep Trashed on the rails; it’s a hot, sweaty, uncomfortable hour of theatre that will leave audiences with a desire for a wash afterwards. (Eddie Harrison) ■ Underbelly Cowgate, until 27 Aug, 1.40pm, £9.50–£10.50 (£8.50–£9.50).
17–28 Aug 2017 THE LIST FESTIVAL 79