Dogstar Theatre Company at the Edinburgh Fringe

The award-winning Dogstar Theatre Company, based in the Highlands town of Inverness, is about to begin touring its two most recent Edinburgh fringe shows throughout Scotland, starting in September. The first, The Tailor of Inverness, is a sensitive, moving and, at times, traumatic story of one man’s journey from his home town in Poland through many years in the Soviet work camps to finally arriving in Scotland and creating a new life for himself as a tailor in the eponymous town. The production, which was first performed on the Fringe in 2008, winning a Fringe First award in the process, was written and directed by Matthew Zajac, who also plays the lead role of the pine furniture maker. The play is actually based on his own father’s life, infusing the script and Zajac’s performance with a genuine raw emotion that only a strong link to the subject matter can bring.

At the other end of the theatrical spectrum is Jacobite Country, an anarchic, wild and comic production about a male stand-up comedian who moves to London and sells out before returning north to his Scottish home town to face his relatives and friends. The play is innovatively performed by an all-female cast and was written by Henry Adam and directed by Matthew Zajac, making its debut at the Udderbelly at the Edinburgh Fringe this year. Featuring live music, gags and unforgettable characters, the show was well-received in Edinburgh, earning a three-star review from The Scotsman newspaper.

Dogstar are touring both shows throughout smaller Scottish venues, taking in Aberdeen, Glasgow, St.Andrews, Orkney and the Isle of Skye. The company has just announced the good news that it has managed to secure funding for its next production in 2011; an adaptation by the young Scottish writer Kevin McNeil of the black comedy Heaven’s Honey, a novel by Torgny Lindgren. Look out for this new play from one of Scotland’s most cutting-edge theater companies in spring 2011.

Nusrsing Lives

OOH Matron! – The world of medicine has proved a rich vein of dramatic material for centuries. From the intense doctor’s dilemmas as in AJ Cronin’s The Citadel, to the soapy lives and loves of medical folk as in TV’s Dr Kildare to the knockabout farce in the Carry On films – not to mention the high-octane incidents a-plenty from the likes of Holby City, and Casualty – health dramas continue to engage, challenge, thrill and entertain across the genres. I’m sure it’s inspired more than a few of us to look at a career in the medical profession and there’s nothing like real life from which to create the funniest and most moving moments for humankind, which is what Vamos Theatre has done with Nursing Lives.

The Worcestershire-based company has taken the stories of nurses working at the Worcester Royal Infirmary and turned them into a heart-warming and uplifting production which serves as a real tribute to the profession and all those in it. Via the central character of Rosie, we follow the progress of a young trainee who embarks on her nursing career, just as Britain pitches into maelstrom of World War II.

With her we not only experience the trials and tribulations of falling foul of matron, we laugh with her at the jokes played by her fellow nurses, we sigh as she falls for her soldier sweetheart and we watch, gripped, as she wrestles with ethical dilemmas over the use of the latest super drug – penicillin.

Although the production uses actors, they sport full-face masks, which is a little bizarre when you first see it – but it works and the whole affair is a mix of puppetry, dance and song with music helping to evoking the 1940s wartime era in spades.

It’s a visual treat during which you’ll laugh, you’ll cry but most of all you’ll love it – whether you’re eight or 80.

Nursing Lives is touring until April 2011. Details can be found at www.vamostheatre.webeden.co.uk

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Theatre-Cirque de Légume

My main experiences with theater are amateur dramatic versions of Shakespeare plays from school but it is a medium I have long been fascinated by. The Edinburgh Festival has always been an event to go and take in the atmosphere and laugh at the shows- the bizarre array never ceases to intrigue me. This year I wanted to go see the show ‘Cirque de Légume’ which has had great reviews described as two clowns, a chair and some metal boxes containing truly unusual vegetables including the Magical Carrot and the Leek of Power(?!) not to mention the fabled Onion Strip Tease!

What I want from a show is humour and charisma and a show as outrageous as this promises me both- their maxim is that by playing with simple, unappreciated things it shows the audience their inner beauty-even with vegetables! Therefore, if you appreciate the show (and I know I would), then you may be able to apply their concept to other areas in your life and remember that inner humour/beauty that can be found in anything.

The novelty of this idea is contrasted by the duos’ take on the style of Cirque du Freak and Cirque de Soleil circus show, with fantastic make-up, costumes and prosthetic noses the show is a 50 minute spectacle they describe as ‘mayhem’ where two ‘idiots’ attempt to show the audience the ‘hidden beauty’ within their act.

It seems a relief that a concept so childish can still make people smile-they are a favourite of the critics and in the theatre circuit they seem and individual and entertaining act that can’t possibly fail to make even the most serious person laugh.

One worry of mine is that unique as this act is how they might expand on their set and keep abreast of the audiences as in this time and age something that specialised has a limited shelf life before other acts that perhaps aren’t as outwardly kooky as Cirque de Légume but have a wider variety to offer the audience.

Christ on a bike – he’s back!

Review of Richard Herring: Christ on a Bike – the Second Coming at the Edinburgh Fringe

Richard Herring, the sweet, naïve one from 90s comedy stalwarts Lee and Herring, returns to the Fringe with a reworking of his favourite solo show. Discussing life as an atheist with a Jesus obsession, Herring picks apart the more ludicrous elements of the “Greatest Story Ever Told” without anyone being offended enough to walk out; a rare example of charm in an era of shock comedians.

But there is no denying there are ludicrous elements to the Jesus story; none more so than the passages Herring focuses on for much of the second part of his show, a childish, yet hilarious, review of some of the names of Jesus’ supposed descendants. A list that includes the wonderfully named Booz, who Matthew thought needed to be named Booz of Rachab, “so people didn’t confuse him with the other Booz” - good call.

Herring’s knack for the verbal tangent is as strong as in the days when he and comedy partner Stewart Lee had their own TV series, stories meandering away from their initial subject taking the audience on a strange new journey every night. Not all of these diversions are a complete success, but enough hit the mark to keep the punters laughing through the weaker sections.

Herring has tackled a variety of controversial subjects in his Edinburgh solo shows over the years, including one about the reactions he faced when he grew a Hitler moustache, but despite the subject matter this rarely feels like a risky topic. Herring shows respect to those in the audience who, through a show of hands, admit to believing in Jesus as the son of God and even manages a warm, fuzzy ending that had me leaving the venue not only amused, but with a happy smile too.

There are enough changes from Herring’s original Christ on a Bike show to tempt those who feel they may have seen everything before, though the structure and concept is essentially the same. A show that’s definitely worth a “Second Coming”.

Love Bites by Ignus Fatuus Theatre Company

Love Bites is a modern “in your face” drama by Ignus Fatuus Theatre Company about a couple, Stephen and Claire who are doomed to a depressing and borderline abusive relationship.

The production values for this fringe production were good and the staging was crisp and effective, however the characters were so difficult to sympathise with that it was quite unpleasant to watch. The dialogue had potential for comedy and it’s possible that the playwright was intending to satirise the bland and chauvinistic personality of Stephen.

Unfortunately however because the character of Claire was so pathetic one was unsure as to who we were laughing at and it all became slightly awkward. Stephen constantly berated Claire for gaining weight and because he didn’t get his comeuppance and Claire showed no sign of strength or intelligence ever, the whole thing felt misogynistic. I think the playwright may have intended the TV chef to be expressing Claire’s inner feelings of rage towards Stephen, but if this was the case then we needed to see at least a glimmer of this in Claire’s dialogue and performance. The references to industrial lubricants also went totally over my head. It’s a shame the production was flawed because there was potential in the theatricality of the script and there were moments which were visually effective and visceral.

One particualry effective moment was when the TV chef tips a salt cellar over Stephen’s head and the salt cascades down as he continues to eat, completely oblivious to the salt falling off his hair and on to the floor. However, the playwright needs either to steer clear of gender stereotyping and get a handle on how couples (and in particular women) actually speak, or if he is attempting to parody stereotypes then this needs to be better executed.

The idea of a TV chef commenting on the action was effective and provided some much needed moments of dark humour but some re-writes and dramaturgy are necessary for this play to fully develop.

The Green Room, Etcetra, Camden London

The Green Room brings backstage to the audience with an insightful look into the pre-stage preparations of four actresses, swamped in the strewn mess of costumes and dresses, make-up and wigs, they moan, bicker, dream and reveal the joys and woes of their rollercoaster love lives. Meet Truda, Klara, Lisa and Marie, starry-eyed hopefuls taking to the stage in a small repertory, living the dream and dreaming there was more to life.

This witty comedy, written by Arnost Goldflam and translated from Czech to English by director Eva Danicková puts life under the microscope, but the only infestation is hopes of a better role, in work and play. It doesn’t tell us anything we don’t already know. The sense of humour is there from start to end, but only falls out in fits and starts, most notably when the deadpan Lisa, brilliantly portrayed by Pamela Parry, tramps on in the third act dressed as a flame. It seems her not so glamorous acting career has taken a turn for the worse. As if she wasn’t angry and bitter enough in the first place, raising her voice to the end of her sentences to vent her frustration.

Karen Burton as Truda plays a thirty-something trying to keep things together on stage whilst suffering the torment of a collapsed marriage behind the scenes. Burton casually flicks through the emotions of her tortuous journey with natural ease and demonstrates accomplished talents as a comic actress with precision timing.

So too, Amy Simpson, superb in the role of Marie who, when we first meet her sweeps in with the buoyancy a winning goal in the last minute of the cup final would give you, only to slump like a fan of the losing team by the end.

Then we have the fly-by-night Klara, a hapless day-dreamer played by Kara McLean with the energy of a dance troupe. She breezes round the stage, powerful, sprightly, sweeping from the chest of drawers on the right to the flowers on the left, always with a smile, yet still shows enough of Klara to tell us her pipe dreams are full of hot air and her prayers will go unanswered.

So all in all, the girls do The Green Room proud. If only the male writer had been as convincing. But then, man’s failure towards the fairer sex is a fundamental point of the play.

The Green Room will be running in the Etcetra in Camden until Sunday 26th September.

Glass Eye Theatre’s production of “The City and Iris”

I recently went to see Glass Eye Theatre’s production of “The City and Iris” at the Zoo Roxy and was very impressed. This was a lovely production following the journey of dowdy young Iris who developed a neurosis about her eyesight after being advised to wear glasses by someone working a locum doctors job in her town for a minor eye condition at a young age. The story is illustrated by a lovely ensemble that plays anything from ducks in a pond to work colleagues at the library where Iris works. The storytelling is sweet and inventive and while there is humour to be mined in Iris’ geeky manner this never tips over in to caricature. At all times the phrase “simple yet effective” rings true and the performers rely on nothing but themselves to tell the tale. Instead of recorded music the ensemble use their own unaccompanied voices to fantastic affect and while the technique of an actor becoming the sounds of a radio has been done many times before, it was executed very well indeed here. The cast are all Jacques Le Coq trained which is evident from the fantastic physicality and sense of ensemble which exists at all times. However on occasions their training is a bit too evident. For example when illustrating a crowded tube train, I felt that I had seen this many times before by Complicite or the like. This is a minor quibble of course and I’d hope that as the company develop they find their own distinctive language and perhaps avoid such classic Le Coq tableaus, as I feel that they are certainly a company with a long future in front of them. This was a sensitive, warm and skilful production and I left the theatre feeling uplifted with the calming tunes of the ensemble going round and around happily in my head.