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“Unorthodox &
uninhibited”- The Independent
THEATRE
Decky Does A Bronco **** A story of park and present
We all know the old English Romantic phrase 'emotion recollected in tranquillity’, yet for all of us, some emotions can only be recollected in turbulence. Such is the grief felt by David at a single event in his past. Douglas Maxwell's narrator brings us a story that evokes a nostalgia for our past innocence, but finally reminds us of the ugly inevitability of its loss. Keith Macpherson gives a commanding performance, supported by a strong cast of seven others, as a man recollecting a long-ago summer of boyish exuberance, re-enacted for us in the present. Funny and haunting by turns, this Grid Iron production, taking place in a well-used swing park, is likely to stay with you long after the event.
Ben Harrison's production comments on our capacity to tell ourselves stories of our past so that we can begin to make peace with it. If this thematic is a hoary old chestnut by now, it is well used in its context. The childish rumbunctiousness of the characters early on creates an astonishing authenticity, allowing us to progress to a tragic dénouement with quite complete engagement. Well worth swinging by for.
(Steve Cramer)
l Decky Does A Bronco (Fringe) Grid Iron, Scot/and Yard P/ayground (Venue 172) 226 5738, until 26 Aug (not 73, 20) 7.30pm; 72, I8, 26 Aug, 2.30pm, £70 (£8) £4 under 27.
“A Lesbian Victoria Wood” -
Woman’s Hour,'Radio 4
Scottishi’ower Learning
THEATRE PREVIEW the First was handed to them, a Hopeless Games couple of company members privately Return of /ast year's Fringe Firsts told me they were dissatisfied with the STEPHEN SONDHEIM'S work, and genuinely surprised to be Fringe critics and audiences alike seem rewarded for it. For such humility to have a 'thing’ for Russian-German alone these artists deserved their physical theatre companies. In 1998 prizes. (Donald Hutera) . and 99, Dresden-based Derevo made a I Hopeless Games (Fringe) Do- . big splash with two separate, award- Theatre, Komedia (Venue 82) 667 - winning productions. Last year it was 2272, 75—27 Aug (not 78—79 20, 22) . g the turn of Potsdam’s Fabrik and St times vary, £8/f9 (£6/E7). O D D Petersburg’s Do-Theatre. Their collaboration Hopeless Games was a THEATRE PREYIEW . macabre fusion of contemporary The Adding Machine 8-12 dance, adult clowning, and a Anachronistic play finds its time I specifically European Theatre Of The In the first year of a reciprocal S Absurd. working relationship between the . ,_.., This striking ensemble show won a drama departments of Edinburgh's Fringe First and a Herald Angel. I had Queen Margaret University College a few reservations. It wasn’t tight and America’s Carnegie Mellon Ikor ":(_?(Ii(l < SOUIITSICIC AUQUSt 8'12 7-3opm enough, and the subject matter University, Elmer Rice's expressionist A. w 1 3,312 7'.“ um), r221“. August 11-12 2.00 pm (haunted emigrants with nothing, yet play will enjoy a rare BfltlSh. staging. " " _ ' ‘ everything, to lose) seemed a touch Long considered an American 80“ Om“: (’6 f 92 I 2 , , second-hand. Yet the performers’ classic, The Adding Machine "SBI'IOUSIY Nasty energy and invention were presented an interesting anachronism Pgrformance - - (Oxford Times Group) undeniable, and the imagery; a when first produced Stateside in T'mes vary headless midget, a dangerous stint of 1923. Before the dawn of computers, . . ;- Russran roulette, climactic the playwright’s exploration of an . pyrotechnics, were memorable. When average man, Mr Zero, being made
52 THE LIST FESTIVAL GUIDE 10—1 7 Aug 2000