Giulio Cesare
The Playhouse
9:30pm, Sun 12 Mar 2000
Score: 8
Short Review: Bizarre
Robyn Archer is one brave Festival Director. I have been to several shows this Festival where I have seen several people of the "Festival Set" arch their eyebrows at what was taking place before them. This was another eyebrow-raising production, apparently based on the Shakespearean text.
The opening of the first Act, it must be said, was magnificent. The stage curtain, white, starts pulsing. The pulses get larger. The curtains part to show the battering ram creating the pulses. The curtain closes. The pulses fade. The curtains part. There sits Brutus. He inserts an endoscope through his nose, down to his vocal chords. He utters the first lines of the night, his vocal chords projected for all to see. Stunning.
The rest of the play... well... you know what it's like when you're watching a Lynch or Greenaway film for the first time, and you've no idea what's going on? Giulio Cesare created a similar feeling in me. Don't get me wrong, the plot was dead simple - Brutus kills Caesar, then the weapon used in the act returns unto him, with which he suicides. There you go - a one-sentence plot summary. Simple.
Ah, but if only the imagery used in the play were that easy to decipher! Some of the prop devices used to support the actors were truly amazing - a chair walking of its' own accord, the prevalant use of a fox, a cat (complete with Exorcist-style spinning head) and even a seahorse... what was going on? Act 2 replaced the actors playing Brutus and Cassius with two scrawny women... apparently, their anorexia was meant to represent the need to empty oneself in penance.
I think I've used the word "apparently" a few times now - and with good reason. Some of the symbolism seemed... well, tenuous, if you catch my drift. Again, the comparison to Lynch/Greenaway comes to the fore - not only for the far-reaching symbolism, but also for the wonderful aural (I hesitate to say "musical") score. A lot of the imagery was recurrent between the two acts, also, elaborating on the theme of the returning dagger.
So - did I like it or not? Well, here's the thing about me - I'm much fonder of a performance that looks average, but adds depth through indecipherable imagery, than of one which looks pretty but is straightforward. It gives something to think about on the way home, no? So I rate this one pretty high.
Scared Weird Little Guys - Rock
The Famous Spiegeltent
7:00pm, Sun 12 Mar 2000
Score: 8
Short Review: RockOn!!
A gap in my schedule, and an urge to see what this Spiegeltent thing was all about, encouraged me to snaffle tickets for this, the last performance of the Scared Weird Little Guys this Fringe. Boy, am I glad I did.
Chock full of ROCK songs, this show had a real ROCK motif, including the audience ROCK-o-meter (cheers to the guy in the audience who got us to ROCK factor 10 with the cROCK pot! Ah, you had to be there :)
This show was pants-wettingly-funny from go to woah, with great songs about the GST, food additives, transexuals, and a plethora of re-worded classics ("Beer Stein of Bourbon" to the tune of "Stairway to Heaven" was just beautiful). The undoubtable highlight, though, was the encore, featuring 5 different renditions of Prince's "Kiss" - the rap version being a perfect ending to a great show.
If you haven't seen them yet... well, you missed out. But the SWLG's were great.
Mirette and Bellini
The Foreign Legion (Cartoons)
5:00pm, Sun 12 Mar 2000
Score: 7
Short Review: Curious
Hmmmm.... odd one, this. One World (who brought us Quixote) present a story, strangely enough, about the fallen (literally) tight-rope performer, Bellini, and his doting friend, Mirette, who aspires to be "Queen of Cartwheels" in the circus.
In a nutshell: Mirette and Bellini meet. Mirette ("the Unreasonable") urges Bellini to re-join the circus from which he came. Bellini does not understand Mirette's compulsion. He spurns her, crushing her spirit, but then the roles are reversed as he urges her to resume her dreaming.
The cast are great - there's a real element of madcappery to their performances - and the production is full of neat touches - Bellini bursting into hideous song is most amusing, and the use of the clothesline for characterisations is superb. However, there was something missing from this play that stopped it being "great". Bummer, that, because all the ingredients were there.
Another perfect score - Dawson Nichols stuns once again in "Virtual Solitaire"! Get on down to The Foreign Legion (Cartoons) now! And stay for the rest of the shows, too!
Virtual Solitaire
The Foreign Legion (Cartoons)
2:00pm, Sun 12 Mar 2000
Score: 10
Short Review: Astounding
Once again, Dawson Nichols (responsible for the brilliant I Might Be Edgar Allen Poe last Fringe) has come up with an incredibly compelling piece of theatre. Dwelling on the plight of the Virtual Reality junkie Nathan, who is used as a guinea pig in the development of a VR game, the script introduces a plentitude of virtual characters who all seem to have something to contribute on the topic of isolation & solitary confinement.
Nichols appears on stage, initially as Nathan, complete with VR headset (the only prop of the show). As soon as he is drawn into the virtual world of the game, and its' creators, he removes the goggles to reveal glowing eyes (great use of mirrored contact lenses!). This was a masterstroke - as he stares into the crowd for the first time, you realise there is something sublimely different, perfectly cultured, about this performance.
And what a performance it is! Nichols ducks and weaves between a myriad of characters (I counted 32), with the fluid VR "transitions" between them revealing his wonderful sense of movement. When glitches occur in the virtual world, Nichols convulses in wonderfully convincing manner - apparently at random, but perfectly scripted.
The script (available for sale at the end of the show... buy! read!) is... well, intense. "Perfect" is another word that springs to mind. All Nichols' characters are wonderfully used - the beat poet provides gorgeous comic relief, the asylum guard helps display the Real Life history of Nathan, the prisoner on death row reminds us that we're all, essentially, alone. Not a line is wasted.
In short, go to see this show. Then join me, as we kneel and say: "All hail and praise Dawson Nichols, for he is Great".