Sheryl's Ramblings 2
Today is August 23rd and we officially have less than a week here in Edinburgh. We have officially begun performances in Augustine's, which is a really fun space and much bigger than the Greyfriar's studio. We do have to use different entrances than we're used to, so the blocking has had to shift a little and reverse itself. It is kind of cool that in this set up we can physically separate the young man and young woman in 'I Really, Really Like You' a bit more. The night of tech - Monday - we performed in Doctors, a pub we have frequented near the venues. I use we in the communal term - I watched the performance that night. It was very, very hard to hear anything in Doctors, but it went fairly well - a lot of people in the bar actually paid attention. It was fun to see the people who came in during Paten's 'Portia' who didn't know there was a show going on and thought that maybe they had stepped into a "domestic situation" as one of my acquaintances here described it. I will miss the Greyfriars though; I liked that space and the stage and was getting fairly comfortable with it. The change'll definitely keep my young woman on her toes though.
So I'm starting to compile a large number of reviews of the shows I've seen, so I'm going to start with the most recent and work my way back. I'm certain this will lend itself to more than one post, and more time than I currently have at the moment, but I shall do my best to make a dent in the mound of reviewership...
Yesterday, August 22nd, I saw two shows - Growing Up With Martin at the Greyfriars Kirkhouse and Frank's Life at Augustine's. The first, Growing Up With Martin was very well written and witty, but I'm sad to say that the delivery left the performance wanting. There were moments I sat thinking 'I should be laughing, this is funny,' but I wasn't because the actors didn't punch something or ran past it. The tone of the performance was very much on one level - it was both emotionally and vocally monotone. The blocking itself was very psychological and could have been easily motivated, but wasn't played to its fullest. I came away in essence 'whistling the costumes,' since I found some of them very funny and fitting and some others rather out of place.
Frank's Life I thought was very well played. A precursor to the Jim Carrey film 'The Truman Show' it is about a man whose life is a television show and what happens when he finds out and tries to break free - or rather other people spill the beans to him and the shows ratings put it in danger of cancellation. The actors were energetic and exciting, and although you definitely could tell what their original accent was in most cases, they did a very good job of affecting American dialect. They had a lot more set on the Augustine's studio stage than I've seen in a lot of places - on one side of the set was the producer's office with desk, chair, and accessories, in the middle a couch indicating a living room, and on the other side a dining room set up and a bar. Something about the end of the play left me feeling a little weird. Personally I think they could have done without the blood effect - especially since he was supposed to be 'faking his death' and the cameras had been turned off in the play at that point. It brought the show's comedy down a peg. Also, there was no music for the curtain call, so the final blackout looked to be a bit like all of the scene changes and it wasn't until the actors bowed that the audience was sure it was okay to be clapping for them. It was a very amusing show and a fun idea, so I do recommend it to anyone who was a fan of 'The Truman Show' or just likes the sound of the description in the program flyers.
I'm having trouble remembering which dates I've seen what without my own journal with me, so the next two reviews are from, I believe, Saturday. (Logic tells me I performed on Sunday, and therefore saw nothing and worked instead and that Monday was no show - cheers for the process of elimination). That day I saw two shows at Augustine's - a production of The Winter's Tale and Behind Closed Doors. The production of The Winter's Tale was rather exciting - it used the text to create an experimental piece for a six person ensemble and a disc jockey, which was rather cool (for lack of a better term). The disc jockey provided an underscoring for the entire show perfectly timed to the action on stage rather than a recording which might have been too fast or too slow for the actors themselves. The piece recognized its own theatricality - not only did the actors watch each other from the sidelines, but they set up and dismantled the stage as part of the piece itself. Costume and set changes were most often made in plain view. The double casting was an exciting challenge for the cast - their swaps between characters were fluid and stark, you knew when they changed. That only became a problem at the end, when the characters being played appeared at the same time. Well, go see, you'll understand.
Behind Closed Doors is one of those plays not for the squeamish. It deals with issues of abuse - both as a child and in relationships with significant others - and how these abusive relationships affect our subsequent relationships and our mental capacity and personality. The show offers a chance for audience interaction, reminiscent of a choose your own adventure story - some lucky members of the audience trade better sightlines for the chance to affect the story's outcome. The movement of the story was so fluid that I was left wondering how on earth they communicated these decisions so well among the company. It was a very good show encompassing a lot of physical theatre. The reality of this show is what struck me the most. It didn't pull any punches - including the S&M display of the final scenes.
Yesterday morning we also had the Fringe USA event, which was a lot of fun. The performances included a musical theatre group from a New Rochelle, NY high school, a comedienne, us of course, an excerpt from 'Girl Blog from Iraq,' and the Three Mo Tenors. As part of our presentation Bree did her monologue for the audience, which was absolutely excellent. I was impressed by the Three Mo Tenors, though. They were brilliant, and I am definitely going to attempt to see them before the end of the week. I have two more performances - Thursday and Saturday - so I will miss seeing the three that performed during the USA event (they have a double cast) but I really want to go anyway. If the other group is as good, I'll be in music heaven.
Don't go off thinking that I'm only seeing shows at our venues though; I have gotten a chance to do some of the touristy things and see the city. Before tech on Monday I explored Edinburgh Castle, which makes the history nerd in me shout with glee. Once I'm done with this some of us are headed down the mile to take a look at Holyrood Palace and the Parliament building, both of which are unfortunately closed for tours during the month of August. Then there's always the plan to make it up to Stirling Castle or Lauriston Castle before I leave. It's so weird to think that we've already been here for so long and it's almost time to leave. Time to go for now. Cheers.