Hitlifl *
You’d be out of your
mind to miss out on these final week hits Zinzm
A spin-off from Archaos, Les Treteaux Du Coeur Volant presents an extra-terrestrial Circus show for those wrth a love of slapstick Juggling and melancholic trapezery, See TE’VIQVV. Zing/n (Fringe) Les Treteaux Du Coeur Vo/ant, Scottish /nternationa/ At The Quad (Venue 78) 530 3557, until 28 Aug, 9.30pm, £7 7 (£9),
Priorité A Gauche
99’s Perrier Newcomer Winners Ben ‘n' Arn are back With a full show from the rapping duo who played a part in gaining them glory last year. See reVIew. Priorite A Gauche (Fringe) P/easance (Venue 33) 556 6550, until 28 Aug, 9.05pm, f8—f9 ([7-f8i.
Ross Noble ***
Frustrating set from ad-Iibbing Geordie jester
The man who would be king has, ever so slightly, let that crown slip around his Fraggled locks. While the boy from Cramlington has both time and talent firmly on his side (he's only 23, you know), his swift ascent among the circuit's cream means that he has a very long period in which to blow it. Quite why he is threatening to do it so soon is a staggering mystery and, for anyone who has championed the Noble cause, a deep, deep trauma.
His Glasgow performance in June bore testament to a man at ease with his style, delivery and - " content; the whole hooting match. ’ He may have dashed up to the mike two hours late but natural
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talent oozed onto his stage and flooded the crowd with good vibrations. The difference between
now and then can only come down to some unforeseen crisis of confidence with his material. Previously, ad-libbing with the audience worked, largely down to the fact that it was punctuated with some cracking material. When his front row targets yield little mileage, he gives up that ghost and moves on. On this night, a plumb(ing) centre worker and a protein scientist gave him a routine which should have lasted minutes yet was returned to at every possible moment. Occasionally it would throw up a moment or two of genial lunacy, but Noble’s theory appears to be that the longer and harder you hammer away at a flimsy idea, the more chance it will flourish into
comedy gold. It didn't.
Yet, it all kicked off well enough with his entrance delayed for several minutes as he took refuge behind his elaborate (and entirely irrelevant) chicken kingdom set to introduce the show. Then, in total contrast to
It":
Not quite ready to rule the roost
seems to head downhill; the audience chat just doesn't click, yet a-bantering he will 90. Great fun for the front row, not so much for the rest of us.
That left around fifteen minutes of material which was never allowed to take off or flow, so determined was his compulsion to return to the objects of derision. And even the prepared comedy was not his best stuff: his routine about catching Lansbury’s disease still works but the section on how to be as wise as an old Chinaman still doesn't.
In terms of chucking it away, this is hardly from the George Best school of career abuse. For now though,
his 'Chickenmaster’, this quasi-show, has seen Ross
what you'd expect, he appears before us and it all
C 93%; . NDR Symphony Orchestra
Bruckner brings down the Usher Hall curtain
lllltill W Q
N ' H l . i h .‘e'. v , .
perseverance
As it reaches its close, the Edinburgh International Festival is thinking big The lll't?‘.".’Olf<S of the very last concert Will fill the sky, but immediately before them, one symphony will be filling the Usher Hall before it shuts down for final refurbishment Bruckner's ‘Symphony No 8' is massive Lasting about an hour and a half in total, the slow movement alone is over 30 minutes long Yet perseverance is given ample reward as the music of this, .intil relatively recently, rather neglected composer takes a grip mth an exciting intensity unlike any other Matching forces of tenacious energy are required from the performers, in this case the mighty NDR Symphony Orchestra of Hamburg and conductor Gunter Wand This is the sixth time that the orchestra and Wand have at.)peared at the Festival in the past seven years It is a fitting collaboration,
Noble inexplicably allow himself to descend the pecking order. (Brian Donaldson)
Ross Nob/e (Fringei Gilded Balloon (Venue 361 226 275 1, until 28 Aug, 9pm, [8 50 1[7 50,‘
given that, like the Festival, the NDR Orchestra was formed Just after the end of World War ll
In amongst Germany's mass of ruins and rubble, a British Army officer teamed up with conductor Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt to search for iiitisiCiaits to play in a i’iewly-formed symphony orchestra With this, the NDR Symphony Orchestra was born
Rooted in the great classical and lOITlaIHIC repertoire of the 19th century, the NDR Symphony Orchestra brings authoritative musical integrity to Bruckner He may have been a neurotic, psychologically disturbed composer, With little sef-esteem, but there is a solid religious faith which permeates his music, uplifting the soul at least as high as the fireworks which follow (Carol Maini
NDR (International! Usher Hall, 473 2000, 2 Sep, 8pm, [5 [39
SadoWit/ is pure magic, at the moment. Tricks and tongue lashings are the order of the day from the man who very nearly made Channel 5 watchable, Jerry Sadownz (Fringe) Assembly Rooms (Venue 3) 226 2428, until 28 Au], 8pm, [70/[77 ([9/[ IO) DeJa Donne
A humorous trip around a show going off the rails, this Pan- Euro dance protect works brilliantly See reView Aria Sprnta (Fringe) De/a Donne, Continental Shifts At St Bride’s (Venue 62) 346 7405, 27 37 Aug (not 29) 8pm, £7. 50
([5. 50),
The Johnny Vegas Game Show
Silly questions, fabulous pri/es and contestants scrapping It's hardly Bruc ie's Generation Game, but it is a way back into our hearts for the former Butlin’s Redcoat. The Johnny Vegas Game Show (Frinch Edinburgh 's Garden Party (Venue 50) 226 275 7, until 26 Aug, 8pm, [10([9i
2.: itac; 2 30:) [COO THE lIST FESTIVAL GUIDE 41