Festival Theatre
Telephone Booking Fringe 0131 226 0000 International Festival 0131 473 2000 Book Festival 0845 373 5888 Art Festival 07500 461 332 SUCKERVILLE Short and not that sweet ●●●●●
sociopolitical norms, signalled by quotes, Biblical allusions and direct discussion. As the relationship unravels, Evelyn’s radically transgressive acts oppose traditional concepts of love. As a result she is deemed monstrous while a misogynistic, oppressively violent social model is reaffirmed. Jenny (Antonia Kinlay, heartbreaking) and Phillip (Luke Neal, blunt), whose relationship borders on the abusive, are cast as the victims.
Directed by Caroline Jay Ranger, in her safe hands the actors perform their duties in subservience to the script, the stage setting conjures the correct pseudo-arty vibe and the loud
musical cues between scenes prohibit reflection as LaBute requested. The Shape of Things is a gripping watch,
Suckerville looks at the Wall Street Crash of 1929, reflecting on the human implications of economic collapse, with the constant shadow of suicide looming over the action. We walk into an artistic set dominated by a girl balanced on a beam, with television sets flickering images which raise expectations and set a panicked atmosphere. So far, so interesting. There has been some work done on the production since the beginning of its run, and it now stands as a more coherent piece, with fluid plotting and a greater emphasis on characters. However, the dialogue still feels stilted and the production amateurish, despite some interesting concepts.
The often pretentious use of
language jars with the young and likeable cast, who do their best to engage the audience during frequently confusing segments. The changes may have been for the better, but it does also mean the show has lost its grip on the initial subject matter of the ’29 disaster. Suckerville still needs a harsh culling of its indulgent segments but has become a watchable, if unremarkable, Fringe experiment. (Siân Bevan) ■ C Cubed, 0845 260 1234, until 31 Aug, 7.10pm, £8.50–£10.50 (£7.50–£9.50).
THE SHAPE OF THINGS A love story with added politics ●●●●●
Neil LaBute’s Closer-like four-hander examines boundaries in art and relationships. Geeky intellectual Adam (Robert Galas, totally believable) meets firebrand Evelyn (Kira Sternbach, captivating); he’s besotted, she convinces him he’s worthy of her, and he flourishes under her attentions until it all goes wrong. Parallel to this drama is a critique of
narrow-minded conservatism and
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THE OVERCOAT Warm and beautiful visual theatre ●●●●●
For anyone feeling trapped within a workplace, shackled by social convention and oppressed by materialism this collaborative adaptation by Gecko of Gogol’s short story will perfectly express your discontent. Amit Lahav’s production is a technical masterpiece, with music, sound and lights creating a perfect ambience, through which the performers move with astonishing deftness.
The story is of a young man in a dead-end office job, something of a
social pariah, whose two fixations in life are a pretty co-worker and the overcoat offered as a prize for productivity by his forbidding boss. But everyone in the office wants the overcoat, and our hero is not alone either in seeking the girl. He finds that he is not beyond Faustian pacts in attaining his ends. What follows is an endlessly inventive spectacle, in which the white-
faced seven-strong cast display tremendous physical skills in recreating, through some gorgeous movement and body sculpting, an entire nightmarish world of reifying office politics and lonely domesticity. The text is spoken in a bewildering array of languages, each strangely stylised from the original Russian, Italian, Spanish, Japanese and more into a fascinatingly understandable cod dialogue. The various moveable platforms of Ti Green’s ingenious set and costume design recreate a period modernist feel splendidly, offsetting the beguiling humour and ultimate sadness of this morality fable. What’s unmistakable is the contemporariness of the piece, as abuses of power, and the confusion of sexuality and commodity fetishism begin moving to the fore like dark, cancerous shadows as the piece proceeds. This is a quirky, funny and deeply moving piece of theatre, with so many little, warm, recognisably human ticks running through it that it can’t fail to please. (Steve Cramer) ■ Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6557, until 29 Aug, 5.20pm, £14 (£11.50).
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whether you are looking at it from an emotional or intellectual perspective; it works as an engaging indie romcom, but also shows the inherent conservatism of the genre. (Suzanne Black) ■ C Chambers Street, 0845 260 1234, until 31 Aug, 8.05pm, £8.50–£10.50 (£7.50–£9.50).
A LIFE IN THREE ACTS A fascinating story, engagingly told ●●●●● This three-part biography, based on edited transcripts of conversations between playwright Mark Ravenhill and the performer Bette Bourne, sounds on paper like the kind of theatrical experiment that could easily go awry. Yet the raw material of Bourne’s life story is so rich, so vividly described that it’s impossible not to be drawn in.
The text has been shaped into a
linear trajectory, yet it is when Bourne goes off script that the piece really comes alive. He’s a vivacious, engaging raconteur, taking in every member of the audience with his eyes and occasionally leaping to his feet to run through a routine from his lengthy performing career. His story moves from his sexual awakening while a jobbing actor in the 1950s to his radicalisation in the 1970s, life in a drag commune and later role in the creation of drag theatre collective the Bloolips, yet Bourne repeatedly refuses to be treated as a symbol or even to acknowledge his status as a trailblazer. When Ravenhill questions him about the persecution of gays in the 1950s he insists that such pressures were not applied to working class boys experimenting with their sexuality. And this piece is no mere string of fruity anecdotes either: his difficult relationship with his violent father and the loss of scores of his friends from Aids are dealt with frankly and movingly. While presumably the script could in
future be revived and performed by other actors, it’s fitting that Bourne’s life – much of which has revolved around the art of performance – should be performed by the man himself. (Allan Radcliffe) ■ Traverse Theatre, 228 1404, until 30 Aug, times vary, £14–£16 (£10–£11).
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