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THEATRE Soft Boy ****
Another triumph for acclaimed youth theatre
Those who bang on about the halcyon days of youth have obviously shunted crushes, break-ups, and anxiety about self image to the back of their minds. It is exactly these kinds of issues that West Lothian Youth Theatre has chosen to focus on.
Soft Boy traces the lives of seven young people as they embark on the perilous passage into adulthood. Frank and direct, it contains equal measures of sensitivity and humour with many of the laughs provided by Marybeth (Kirsten Burnett), the ceaselessly perky and patronising Asda store manager. John Binnie’s script is tight and vigor0us and Mary Gapinski's direction elicits spirited performances from her talented cast. Hugely engaging. (Dawn Kofie)
;,_ Soft Boy (Fringe) West Lothian Youth Theatre, The Stand Comedy Club (Venue 5) 558 7272, until 76 Aug, 3pm, [5 ([4).
COMEDY
Susan And Janice: I Hate My Sister ***
Sibling rivalry runs amok
Susan and Janice are making a career out of hating each other. Last year they were rival comedy actresses in the show Sparking, and this year they’ve taken the theme one step further to perform as Sibling squabblers. Reliving the scenes that have instigated their loathing for each other, we see how Susan fell prey to contemporary dance in childhood while tomboy Janice is made to remember Joming the environmental society at school. Appropriately Vindictive and Juvenile, rivalry really does seem to come naturally to these girls, who demonstrate a quirky and often charming handling of the comedy sketch show.
(Catherine Bromley)
' ,' Susan And Janice." / Hate My Sister (Fringe) Susan And Janice, Pleasance (Venue 33) 556 6550, until 28 Aug (not 22) 3.45pm, £7. 50/[8 50 (£6.50/[7.50).
THEATRE Rancho Hollywood ***
A Californian dream
From the moment the cast of Rancho Holl/nrood b0und on stage, you know this production won't be short on energy. Their whistle-stop tour of Californian history takes the form of a movie being filmed and puts a spin on Hollywood’s racial stereotyping Ivlexicans, Spaniards, Native American Indians and the Opportunist Yankee trader all hare their say about a land where someone was al ways stepping or: sorriecne else's shoulders in search of 'and, gold or farrie Th:s is comedy i.‘..tr‘ a mora. message and the slapstick doesn't aways sit weii ‘.‘/l'.ll speeches air; it oppress on, but the
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BOOK PREVIEW
Thomas Lynch
Undertaking poetry
’I partly take the instruction from Yeats’ writing that we should only write about sex and death,’ says Thomas Lynch, a man currently being heralded, by the likes of Blake Morrison, as the finest chronicler and poet of his generation. His works Grimalkin. . ., The Undertaking and Bodies In Rest And Motion are certainly amazing works that draw on European and US influences: ’Readers become writers the same way people go into karaoke; they hear a voice they admire and want to imitate, then they try to up those voices.’ An undertaker by trade, Lynch has earned literary acclaim in a strange way, but sees no need for touchstones in his work: ’My theme is language, a key consolation. | write about things that get us into the world and things that get us out.’ Truly the son of Yeats, Lynch eschews the idea of modern American Poet as outlaw a la Benn Gunn. Like one of his heroes, poet Michael Heffen, he just wants to be ’an ordinary citizen writing extraordinary poems.’ (Paul Dale) ,4 Thomas Lynch (Book) The Studio Theatre, 73 Aug, 3.30pm, £6.50 (£4.50).
Rancho Hollywood (Fringe) Rio Hondo College, Randolph Studio (Venue 55) 225 5366, until 78 Aug,
; 3.30pm, £5 (£4).
THEATRE . The Bicycle Bridge *‘k‘kt
Comedy under siege
An elephant, a war, love and a bicycle. lncongruous maybe, but these constitute the main ingredients of
5 Reject’s Revenge’s latest inventive 7 offering. Inspired by true stories of
Sieges through the ages and told
: through a mixture of drama and song,
The Bicycle Bridge relates episodes
; from the lives of the subterranean
inhabitants of a city under siege.
' 1 ‘ 3. hope he d’t sleep In that'cofflp
THEATRE Bernie And Clive ** Slapstick on the run
A surreal excurSion into period comedy, Bernie And Clive sources costumes, sketches, music and vaudeVIlle-style japes from 1930s America. Combining classic forms of Visual theatre with a contemporary sense of the ridiculous, the protagonists, a pair of star struck
lovers, pursue 'Depression
: Seemingly effortlessly, the cast of three I
portray a heap of oddball characters With boundless energy. Despite the graVity of the subject matter, the briskly-paced piece is characterised by finely tuned, laugh-out-loud and, above all, mordant humour (it includes an upbeat number about being killed by a shell). A shining example of
energetic, thought-provoking theatre
(Dawn Kofie)
The Bicycle Bridge (Fringe) Reject’s Revenge Theatre, Pleasance (Venue 33) 556 6550, until 28 Aug (not Tue) 4 30pm, [8 ([6)
‘ STAR RATINGS
Unmissable
Very good
Worth seeing
Below average You've been warned
desperadoes’ Bonnie and Clyde and in
the process (because of the resemblance in names) become fated to share their grisly end. Despite enthusiastic performances, the slapstick here is just a little too frantic and, sadly, no amount of jazz singing chickens and scheming mice can bring this often haphazard 30s throwback experiment back from the brink. (Catherine Bromley)
'__; Bernie And Clive (Fringe) Cartoon De Salvo, Pleasance (Venue 33) 556 6550, until 75 Aug, 3.05pm, f6.50/£7.50 (£5.50/f650).
Frantic slapstick in Bernie and Clive
42 THE LIST FESTIVAL GUIDE ‘ 7 22’s";