Theatre
Telephone Booking
Book Festival 0131 624 5050
Fringe 0131 226 0000
International Festival 0131 473 2000 Film Festival 0131 623 8030
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING TURBANN’D
Riotous farce about an Indian family “I
Take note today of the Indian-style jewelled slipper fashion: every other woman shuffling round the Fringe has a pair (including me). You see. India is currently very hip. A cross between The Kumars at No 42 and East is East. Tabula Rasa's crazy-paced farce feeds our love for all things bright and Indian. Julian (Aman Sharma) is planning to elope with his blonde lover who's doing a spot of catering at the Singh residence. But the traditional values of previous generations dictate he's to marry an Indian bird from the De Souza family. The two families meet and Julian plans his escape. Directed by Nadia Latif. the production explores modernity and traditionalism; arranged marriages and religious strife. The cast
l
: don‘t always do justice to the sharp
witticisms of Jaspreet Singh Boparai's
script. though Aditi Kapoor's Mrs
Singh is brilliantly animated and Rajiv Sharma pulls off some great one-liners as Colonel Singh. As the plot climaxes to bewildering slapstick action. the audience are grinning, if not laughing hysterically. The actors look like they're having a ball. so it's hard not to get
carried along with the hilarity.
(Claire Piela) I C, 0870 707 57 05, until 29 Aug.
8. 30pm, £8.50 (£7.50).
NIGHT-LIGHT
Dance, darkness and dreams 00.
What are you afraid of? Be it spiders
or loss of loved ones. the things we
fear the most cling to the sub-
conscious and are stirred in our
a dreams where we explore our deepest T anxieties. Delving into the imagination ' of two children, Out of Inc's piece is
about fear born out of the threat of
external forces. such as the nurse with a needle. as well as the fear of loneliness. illness and death which haunts us all.
Devised by Sinead Rushe and Camille Litalien. the performance combines fragments of dance with poetic storytelling and unwinds to the exhilarating musical contrasts of Chopin and Massive Attack. The performers use dance. mime and physical theatre. contorting their bodies to convey their childhood
All Assemny shows on sale now! www.cssemblyrooms.com The Queen’s Hall Booking Hotline 0131 668 2019 www.fhequeensholl.net
66 THE LIST FESTIVAL MAGAZINE 18—25 Aug 2005
imagery and stepping out of role to confront the audience with their own personal reflections on what frightens them. Disappointingly. this disrupts the momentum rather than enhancing the surrealism. Best at its most strange. with moments of sleepy darkness so innovatively framed. this show will quietly charm you. (Claire Piela)
I Roman Eagle Lodge, 226 7207, until 28 Aug (not Tue), 7 7.30am. £5 (£3.50).
JUMP
Martial arts-lite showcase 000
This martial arts showcase from Korea (and the people who brought Cookin' to Edinburgh) is a real crowd-pleaser. if the reaction of the sizeable audience composed largely of families is anything to go by. Hung on a flimsy stOry about a Brady Bunch-like wholesome family who experience various domestic problems. from the arrival of a suitor for the teenage daughter to the less welcome appearance of a couple of burglars. Jump is essentially a showcase for some nifty acrobatic and fight routines. The whole thing is performed with the good-natured Spirit of slapstick. not unlike the comedy kung fu of Jackie Chan‘s movies (one of the cast. the older brother. even performs in the drunken style of Chan's breakout film. Drunken Master).
Film is a good reference point for the show. While it must be said that having triple somersaults and flashy sword fights performed mere feet
away your seat is impressive in itself, l the proximity of the martial arts mayhem doesn't make up for the fact that what you can see on film — in Chan's. in Bruce Lee's and in martial arthouse modern classics such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon — is a lot more impressive. Watching the spectacle of a carefully choreographed bout between various whirling. punching. high-kicking opponents . right in front of you. you're left with the j somewhat odd feeling that you've seen this all before and so much better elsewhere. And when the cast break into (a by now massively overdone) parody of the gravity defying. computer generated image- assisted fight sequences of The Matrix. it's almost an admission of defeat.
And with the show being modelled on martial arts movies (as opposed to. say. dance). Jump's Brady Bunch wholesomeness quite quickly becomes irritating. The extended routine with a pair of gun-wielding thieves. for example. doesn't sit
comfortably with the family audience orientation of the show. It's not that Jump is likely to upset its audience — it's too resolutely good-natured for that — it's more likely to upset anyone who likes martial arts via the movies. There‘s a sense that the martial arts are here being sanitised for the Fringe crowd.
And that notion finds its nadir in the climactic acrobatic melee that can only — and horribly — be described as clap- alonga-kung fu. A pleasant. if inherently naff experience this show is. A bloody kickboxing pit in Bangkok Jump ain't. (Miles Fielder)
I Assembly Hall, 226 2428, until 27 Aug, $12—$73 (£7 7—£72).
NEXT ISSUE OUT WEDNESDAY 24 AUGUST
The Reid Hall- Bristo Square Box office 01316628740
Aug 17th 14.30 Heartstrings - Piano/ Harp Duo £5 (£4)
WALES @ THE REID venue 201
l l Wales’ Finest Singers and lnstrumentalists In Concert J
Aug 17th 19.00 Tribute to Lanza/Robeson/Keel £10 ( £8)
Aug 18th 14.30 Classical Welsh Song £5 (£4)
Aug 18th 19.00 Some Enchanted Evening » Musicals £10 (£8)
Aug 19th 14.30 A Family Affair — Piano/Flute/Clarinet £5 (£4) I Aug 19th 19.00 A Feast of Song - Operatic Favourites £10 (£8)
Preview all shows on www.cantabrleartrstsagency.co.uk