6PM/8” FESTIVAL
corsov , THAI-DIE
Meet Greg Fleet - he’s experienced. llot in the normal Australian stand-up sense, but in terms of real life.
That’s why his show is about being abducted in Bangkok, embezzled of $4000 and ending up in the Burmese jungle with a bunch of student rebels who wear Fido 7-llp T-shirts and are bombed daily by the government. Fleet, with his swept-back carrot locks, bright eyes, and teeth solar apart you’re looking for whiskers, looks like, and admits he was, the kind of paranoid stoner falling off every other bar-stool in downtown Melbourne. But his holiday from hell, and what happened next, was a shot in the arm for ‘Fleety’ and inspired him to create this hilarious, hard-hitting show.
It’s tough material for a man still approaching the summit of his raconteur powers - tllnA, Australia’s RADA, kicked him out at the end of his first year - but Fleet’s ability to narrate, although prone to tangential over-drive, can grip you for spells. And
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IN rHAItAlllll
Greg Fleet: die laughing
when it does, everything else slips away: it’s just you and Fleety caught in a mad, magnified moment. llold that thought . . . and hug this man today. (Deirdre Molloy) Thai-Die (Fringe) Greg Fleet, Gilded
Balloon ( Venue 38) 226 2151, until 2 Sept, 6.15pm, £6 (£5).
Fever Pitch: llobln llodson ls Arsenal tanatlc lllck llornby
THEATRE
FEVER PITCH
Nick Homby's best selling intelligent lad’s perspective on football has metamorphosed into similarly best selling one- man play. here resurrected by Robin Hodson.
A self-confessed middle-class Maidstone boy desperate to adopt an
East End accent as part of his Arsenal-fixated credentials. young Hornby's obsession with the Mighty Highbury Reds has shaped and dominated all spheres: love. education. family and personal identity for an enduring quarter of a century.
Robin Hodson‘s 90- minute portrayal of the rebellious suburbanite
venue 47
the cafe royal l7 west register street tickets $56 2549 august l4-29 7:30pm(8:40pm)
£5.00(£4.50) (not weds 23 aug)
Hornby is fine in that he swings comfortably from adult in therapy sessions to youthful scenes on the terraces. but the fanatical enthusiasm of the footballing fan is defmitley lacking. (Ann Donald)
- I Fever Pitch (Fringe)
Brighton Theatre Events. Assembly Rooms (Venue 3) 226 2428. I7 Aug—2 Sept (not 29). 6.05pm. £9l£8 (£8/£7).
mm- THE ; THREEPENNY OPERA
The National Youth Music
f
“This show is brilliant, truly dramatic presence and razor-sharp wit.
Theatre are without a doubt the créme de la creme of young musical talent. with some of them but a short hop from West End stardom (and with king of the musicals HRH Lloyd Webber ‘supporting‘ them. their
journey should be fairly
smooth).
The show itself is visually striking. the lighting and set design creating a perfect seedy underworld. with powerful tableaux interspersing the action. Particularly entertaining is Laurence Taylor‘s Mm‘ The Knife. a kind of cross between Michael Caine's Alfie and a Kray twin. although it is during the ensemble pieces that the show really comes into its own. All the Brechtian devices are there. but the famous social commentary seems to get lost under a sea of voices. But then. they were so beautiful (particularly the sopranos). that nobody appeared to mind. (Kelly McMenamin)
I The Threepenny 0pera (Fringe) National Youth Music Theatre. George Square Theatre (Venue 37) 650 2001. until 27 Aug (not 20. 22) times vary. £3—£7.
Glasgow-based theatre company Clyde Unity Theatre has established an enviable reputation for its community approach. by
Clyde Unity Theatre: the weight of worthlness
the
“to
taking genuinely
accessible theatre to areas most companies don't go. But when resident writer John Binnie's plays put the issue cart before the drama horse. as Bone does. the weight of worthiness smothers the whole enterprise.
The ‘issue' at the centre of this play is child- battering and how. against
the odds. a child will bond 1
to the most unsuitable surrogate parent. Bmic starts mythically when a mute foundling is pulled from the surf after an unspecified accident at sea. but most of the dialogue between the two significant adults in his life — an emotionally withdrawn female doctor and a man trying to come to terms with his wife‘s death — is conducted in banal pseudo tenement- close banter. The doctor is only a doctor. it appears. so she can deliver socially incisive lines like: ‘l‘ve had a terrible. under- funded day.‘ John Binnie has sold his company and those who have supported Clyde Unity very short with this one. (Eddie
Sranml on Sunday
Gibb) I Bone (Fringe) Clyde Unity Theatre (Venue 20) 226 5425. I8. 20. 22. 25. 27. 29. 3| Aug. 2 Sept. 6pm. £5.50 (£3.50).
COMEDY NDBBY SHANKS
In the stifling heat of the Cafe Royal. it's difficult to concentrate when you want to run out and stick
‘ your head in a bucket of
Bern“
ice. No reflection on Nobby Shanks though. who performs a 40-minute set which looks like it's as far as he can take the character without stretching it too far. Shanks looks like a character from On The Bum: Looking like a frumpy jobsworth security guard. he presents a motley collection of friends and humorous songs played with a ukelele. He‘s still developing. but he's definitely on to a good 'un. (Cait Hurley) I llobby Shanks (Fringe) Cafe Royal (Venue 47) 556 254‘). until 2 Sept. 6.30pm. £3.99 (£2.99).
llobby Shanks: comedian In progress
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Jasmine f Birlles
45 The List 18-24 Aug 1995