{THEATRE} Reviews
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E D R B C M S A L G U O D
FUTUREPROOF A fairly unshocking freak show ●●●●●
In the world of the freak show there is, Lynda Radley’s play informs us, a hierarchy. At the top are the ‘reals’ – people like bearded lady Countess Marketa (Irene Macdougall), Siamese twins Lillie and Millie (Ashley Smith and Nicola Roy, mirroring each other brilliantly), and the hermaphrodite George/Georgina (Lesley Hart). Then there are the ‘mades’, represented by the incredibly fat Tiny (a scene-stealing Robert Paterson). Most lowly are the ‘gaffs’, who fake their freakish qualities. In Riley’s circus, Serena (Natalie Wallace) is the only gaff, though her mermaid act is topping the bill, sustaining the troupe as they struggle to find audiences. Facing ruin, Riley (John Buick) hits upon a very modern idea
– that people might pay to see his performers turn from sideshow acts into regular folks. His becomes, essentially, a makeover show. George/Georgina resists, still wanting to wear the elaborate costume that makes her right half male and left half female. Only after several dark events have unfolded does she realise that she can choose to be neither gender, but rather, uniquely, herself.
The elegant stage mess that constitutes the circus’ caravan site feels familiar. The play’s characters, too, form part of a contemporary obsession with the lost, thrilling days of non-pc entertainment. Though whereas, for example, David Leddy’s Sub Rosa last year took those thrills to mesmerising limits, Futureproof merely tickles some issues of identity. To our adjusted liberal minds, the characters aren’t freaks, they’re just people. But there’s no enjoyment in watching them blend into society. We want for them what we want for ourselves – not to be gawped at but still to feel individual. Radley purposefully deconstructs the mystique of otherness that makes peering into the past so fascinating and, in doing so, limits the play to being an interesting and well-presented, but very comfortable, psychological drama. (Jonny Ensall) ■ Traverse Theatre, 228 1404, until 28 Aug, times vary, £17–£19 (£12–£13).
THE TIME OUT Interactive exploration of team work ●●●●●
THE TRANSLATOR’S DILEMMA Dark, taut work about industrial negligence ●●●●● UND Tough play with the meaning stressed out ●●●●●
L A V I T S E F
An interactive piece for 12 players who get to don swimming caps (with headphones inside) and become a water polo team. If this fills you with trepidation, it’s meant to. The focus shifts between Ken, the cliché-spouting coach with motivational tidbits about the game ahead, and instructions relayed via the headsets from an unseen performer. The audience are enticed into revealing personal truths, taking part in trust exercises and forming bonds with a bunch of random strangers. Exploring this ‘loaded moment’ (the charged
minutes before an act), Non Zero One pushes the bond of trust between audience member and performer. There’s not just the trust that nothing humiliating will happen during the performance, but also that there will be a pay-off, a uniting theme for the disparate interactive elements. The different sections of The Time Out work well to create a coherent whole, in which the separate stages work up to fostering a certain relationship between members of the audience. It’s an interesting exploration of group psychology where the techniques of interactive theatre are employed to good effect. (Suzanne Black) ■ Forest Café, forestfringe.co.uk, until 27 Aug, 1pm, free.
54 THE LIST 25 Aug–22 Sep 2011
Plays designed to educate the audience about a particular issue often just come off as lectures, so it was clever of new playwright Jessica Philippi, who also takes on most of the burden of performing, to actually set her piece about the appalling legacy of industrial asbestos in a university tutorial. The audience are the class, here to learn about legal translation, and in the opening moments our young stand-in teacher is charmingly inept, fumbling with the overhead projector. Then she realises the lecture she’s covering – with its case study of a wealthy industrialist tried over the asbestos that killed half his workforce – may be too close to home. Scandal Theatre are a new Glasgow company
formed out of the recent IETM theatre conference, and on this evidence, they’re worth watching. The play becomes slightly shrill at times, and though Philippi’s performance, moving from professional to grief-wracked, is very strong, there’s sometimes too much information being thrown out to grasp the finer points of plot. Ultimately, though, it both educates and entertains, passionately, which is the job of any good lecturer. (Kirstin Innes) ■ Princes Mall, until 27 Aug, 1pm, free.
Howard Barker is a playwright loved by actors for the chance to get their tongues round his muscular language. His writing is poetic and uncompromising. It’s a shame, therefore, that actor Annette Chown does not seem able to trust Barker’s words to work for her. Instead, in this production by the Mechanical Animal Corporation, she performs in a punishingly emphatic manner, STRESSING every SECOND word SO it IS impossible TO make ANY sense OF the SCRIPT. It also means, after yelling her way through the most innocuous passages, she has nowhere to go when she is really angry.
Why she should be angry is consequently hard to fathom in this portrait of an aristocratic woman, deserted by her servants while some kind of crisis takes place beyond the walls of her home. You have to do your own research to find out she is a Jewish woman in denial about being under attack. Tom Bailey’s production looks good with its swinging Perspex tables suggesting some ultra-fashionable interior. But all this counts for little when the central performance is so impenetrable. (Mark Fisher) ■ C Soco, 0845 260 1234, until 29 Aug, 9.30pm, £10.50–£11.50 (£8.50–£9.50).