Show - The Terrible Tales of the Midnight Chorus
Group - River People
Genre - Physical Theatre/Puppetry
Venue - Bedlam Theatre
Price - £8.00
Time - 16:15
It is so wonderful to see a show at the Fringe which gels perfectly together. This is a perfect example of just that. With three dedicated musicians, a guitar playing host, and four singing actresses, the stage is full of music from start to finish. The costumes - a host of carny style clothes - fit the mood perfectly, and the final cast member - a faceless puppet - is brought to life so beautifully and full of character that you almost feel he deserves a bow at the end.
Three dark and mysterious tales are told during the hour, and the seamless layering of the story on top of the music, all accompanying the action being played out on stage is beautiful through and through. Noticing faces around me, there was an obvious communal sense of joy in the audience throughout, and when our time was up, you could tell that this sold out audience was disappointed it had to end.
If anyone saw last year's L'Enfant Terrible then there are massive similarities between the two shows - almost to the extent that at the very beginning I thought I would be upset at the correlation - but with such a charming and seemingly effortless show as this, that is no problem whatsoever. A definite recommendation.
5/5
Wednesday, 11 August 2010
Odyssey
Show - Odyssey
Group - Theatre Ad Infinitum
Genre - Physical Theatre
Venue - Pleasance Dome
Time - 2:50
Ticket - £7.50
Physical theatre at the Fringe can be a difficult thing to gauge before you see it. It is pretty rare that a show description will tell you too much, as by the very nature of the beast, the themes tend to be a little more abstract. This was not quite the case with Odyssey.
Put simply, the show is a storytelling of the voyage of Odysseus back to Ithaca after the Trojan war. Put more complexly, it is a one man show showcasing the incredible physical and vocal talents of one of the most talented physical actors I have seen in a long time - George Mann. From the building of a swirling mass with his hands to represent the Gods on Olympus, to the repeated actions for each character as their name is mentioned, to the musical singsong falsetto of Calypso the nymph, Mann has truly built a piece that draws you in. Every movement is perfectly measured, and is an absolute joy from beginning to end.
For storytelling physical theatre, you could not do much better than this, but equally it is not just for physical theatre buffs. Worth a look from everybody.
5/5
Group - Theatre Ad Infinitum
Genre - Physical Theatre
Venue - Pleasance Dome
Time - 2:50
Ticket - £7.50
Physical theatre at the Fringe can be a difficult thing to gauge before you see it. It is pretty rare that a show description will tell you too much, as by the very nature of the beast, the themes tend to be a little more abstract. This was not quite the case with Odyssey.
Put simply, the show is a storytelling of the voyage of Odysseus back to Ithaca after the Trojan war. Put more complexly, it is a one man show showcasing the incredible physical and vocal talents of one of the most talented physical actors I have seen in a long time - George Mann. From the building of a swirling mass with his hands to represent the Gods on Olympus, to the repeated actions for each character as their name is mentioned, to the musical singsong falsetto of Calypso the nymph, Mann has truly built a piece that draws you in. Every movement is perfectly measured, and is an absolute joy from beginning to end.
For storytelling physical theatre, you could not do much better than this, but equally it is not just for physical theatre buffs. Worth a look from everybody.
5/5
Dinosaur Planet
Show - Dinosaur Planet
Group - MJ Hibbert
Venue - GRV
Time - 12:00
Tickets - £5
Well, first show of the Fringe and where better to start than with a musical about space-dinosaurs? In honesty, probably elsewhere.
The two performers appear in front of a black cloth with dinosaur tshirts on and an assortment of props on a table. They rattle through a tale of dinosaurs from space attacking the planet, adopting personas by adding a hat or wig and singing merrily throughout. However with almost no movemnt around the stage the show is relient upon its
lyrics to draw you in, and try as they may, these two could just not make the show funny.
They try hard, but unfortunately te whole show falls pretty flat, with some songs having pretty much no relevence, and very little being very funny. With an adaptation to the lyrics to make them a little less full of difficult words, this would probably make a fair kids show, but as it is it's just a couple of unhatable blokes trying too hard.
2/5
Group - MJ Hibbert
Venue - GRV
Time - 12:00
Tickets - £5
Well, first show of the Fringe and where better to start than with a musical about space-dinosaurs? In honesty, probably elsewhere.
The two performers appear in front of a black cloth with dinosaur tshirts on and an assortment of props on a table. They rattle through a tale of dinosaurs from space attacking the planet, adopting personas by adding a hat or wig and singing merrily throughout. However with almost no movemnt around the stage the show is relient upon its
lyrics to draw you in, and try as they may, these two could just not make the show funny.
They try hard, but unfortunately te whole show falls pretty flat, with some songs having pretty much no relevence, and very little being very funny. With an adaptation to the lyrics to make them a little less full of difficult words, this would probably make a fair kids show, but as it is it's just a couple of unhatable blokes trying too hard.
2/5
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