Polaroid
Catriona Gilchrist @ Fowlers Live
6:30pm, Fri 3 Mar 2006
Score: 6
Polariod presents us with four character pieces and a couple of songs. The first piece didn’t raise my hopes much, being an obvious (for those in the industry) look at the proliferation of acronymity and detachment in today’s average office worker’s life. Meh.
The second piece, the representation of an Irish woman espousing truths and interpretations of her children, is a touch better. The third – a junkie – packed a whallop; well constructed, and played with the desperation required.
A short duet (with guitar), and the final piece featuring a socially-challenged fellow in search of… he knows not what. A final solo song – chucklingly off-key, but well handled – and we’re out.
So – a competent performance, earnestly done.
And now we come to one of the worst things about the Fringe. And that’s when you’re in a show where there’s an embarrassingly small crowd. Especially when it’s a crowd of… one.
That’s right – I was the only paying punter at this performance.
Catriona Gilchrist trekked over for the weekend for three performances of this piece, and after one performance she’d had exactly one patron through the doors.
To be honest, she handled it incredibly well; she directed any audience specific stuff directly at me, “ladies and gentlemen” became “sir”, and in general had some fun with what I’d consider to be a heart-breaking situation. I really felt sorry for her, sorry that I was the only person in the audience; conflicting emotions where I felt like apologising for the fact that she actually had to perform because I was there, and apologising for the rest of the city who hadn’t turned up this evening.
Still, she and here crew were confident they’d manage to get a few more people through the doors over the weekend; whilst it wasn’t the most compelling performance of the Fringe, it certainly deserves more than one person spectating.