Making Theater History
And once again, a Fringe First OR EVEN THE POSSIBILITY OF IT evades us. Read it, if you dare.
But then we also got this rave from British Theatre Guide. A good reminder that reviews are very subjective.
La Femme Est Morte or why I should not Fuck my Son
Shalimar Productions
Pleasance Dome
****
Seneca never looked so good. Shalimar's production of Phaedra updates the action to modern day America and retells the story in a highly irreverent fashion. The story of the Phaedra the Celebrity-Queen and her love for stepson Hippolytus is told with a giggle and a whimsy that befit the situation all too well, as they try and fail to avoid each other's amorous glances until absentee King Theseus returns from waging war in a far-off but undisclosed land.
What struck me immediately as genius was Joey Williamson's inspired use of popular music, sung by the trio of paparazzi musicians, and set to articulately choreographed dance routines. By interspacing the action with these numbers, the tone is kept jolly and fun even when the doom becomes ever more apparent. In fact, the one moment where the play slips into the tragic mode of the source material comes as such a shock that it genuinely becomes affecting, before being transformed by the most brilliantly inspired visual gag of the play and a Harp rendition of Guns and Roses' Don't Cry.
The acting is decent, but with a carelessness at times that is welcome in an outright comedy as funny as this. Despite all of the comedy, underneath the play still manages to evoke a cutting satirical swipe at the modern celebrity culture and the invasions of privacy and spin used by the mass-media. As such it succeeds on both levels without ever seeming cloying or heavy-handed.
Graeme Strachan
But then we also got this rave from British Theatre Guide. A good reminder that reviews are very subjective.
La Femme Est Morte or why I should not Fuck my Son
Shalimar Productions
Pleasance Dome
****
Seneca never looked so good. Shalimar's production of Phaedra updates the action to modern day America and retells the story in a highly irreverent fashion. The story of the Phaedra the Celebrity-Queen and her love for stepson Hippolytus is told with a giggle and a whimsy that befit the situation all too well, as they try and fail to avoid each other's amorous glances until absentee King Theseus returns from waging war in a far-off but undisclosed land.
What struck me immediately as genius was Joey Williamson's inspired use of popular music, sung by the trio of paparazzi musicians, and set to articulately choreographed dance routines. By interspacing the action with these numbers, the tone is kept jolly and fun even when the doom becomes ever more apparent. In fact, the one moment where the play slips into the tragic mode of the source material comes as such a shock that it genuinely becomes affecting, before being transformed by the most brilliantly inspired visual gag of the play and a Harp rendition of Guns and Roses' Don't Cry.
The acting is decent, but with a carelessness at times that is welcome in an outright comedy as funny as this. Despite all of the comedy, underneath the play still manages to evoke a cutting satirical swipe at the modern celebrity culture and the invasions of privacy and spin used by the mass-media. As such it succeeds on both levels without ever seeming cloying or heavy-handed.
Graeme Strachan
posted by SWC at 3:08 AM
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