list.co.uk/festival
comedy imagines Austen swapping notes with a blocked 21st century playwright named Brett. He’s in dire need of a masterclass on romance for his tale of two gay men who meet while auditioning for a costume drama, while she could do with some advice on injecting raw physical passion into her work. The production, for Australia’s Out Cast theatre, really catches fire when all three strands come together, Dawson skilfully jump-cutting between Austen and Brett’s frantic attempts to write and Brett’s play-within-a-play to create an enjoyable, multi-layered, fruity farce. The piece takes a while to establish its characters and conceits, however, and for a show with such a racy title, it all gets just a touch too corny and sentimental in the closing stages. (Allan Radcliffe)
Online Booking Fringe www.edfringe.com International Festival www.eif.co.uk Book Festival www.edbookfest.co.uk Art Festival www.edinburghartfestival.org
■ Zoo Southside, 662 6892, until 31 Aug (not 21), 5pm, £8.50–£9.50 (£6.50–£7.50).
INTERNAL Powerful, disarming exercise in human interaction ●●●●●
How much information are you comfortable revealing to a complete stranger? How long can you stare back at someone in a candlelit booth? What tells are you giving with your body language? Belgian theatre company Ontroerend Goed want to dig these answers out of their audience, who enter a darkened room, five at a time, for an interactive performance with five actors. Based around the speed dating and
group therapy templates – of fast- forwarded intimacy and forced confessionals – the four other unknown guinea pigs who joined me said they found it ‘revealing’, ‘terrifying’ and ‘original’ as they staggered outside, a bit shaken, 25 minutes later. Over a dram of whisky, with mandolins playing in the background, my actor partner, Oliver
Roels performed a sort of verbal lapdance on me, the theatrical equivalent of making me believe I was the girl of his dreams. One cubicle down, a sweet fifty-something man was being made to feel like a pervert by an intense, neurotic and beautiful Amazonian type. Challenging the actor-audience boundaries, Ontroerend Goed’s show is a disarming, simple and powerful exercise in human interaction. Memorably different. (Claire Sawers) ■ Mercure Point Hotel, 228 1404, until 30 Aug (not 24), times vary, £14–£16 (£10–£11).
Festival Theatre NUN THE WISER Triona Adams picks up a new habit ●●●●●
Shows, TV programmes and novels about personal journeys are ten-a- penny at the moment (is there anywhere Dawn Porter hasn’t been?). Triona Adams leaving a media career to spend a year training to be a Benedictine nun because of a genuine spiritual inkling has the potential to be more revelatory than most.
Adapted from her Radio 4 Afternoon Play, The Lemon Squeezer, her Edinburgh show is a monologue related by the ex-nun-to-be, which reveals some surprising aspects of monastic life. Nuns are just like regular people, it seems, with the same interpersonal relationships, hierarchies and petty squabbles.
As an introduction to life in an
enclosed convent (and the inequalities with monks of the same order), Adams’ insider perspective is illuminating. Her demeanour, reminiscent of a jolly hockey sticks version of Sue Perkins, is engaging and honest, yet her rhythm occasionally stumbles, possibly due to nerves. Adams is a likeable performer, and her experience makes for worthy material, but her tendency to lift the habits of the other nuns she met, rather than expose her own emotional journey is a frustrating use of her story. (Suzanne Black) ■ Gilded Balloon Teviot, 622 6552, until 31 Aug, 3.45pm, £8.50–£9.50 (£7.50–£8.50).
JANE AUSTEN’S GUIDE TO PORNOGRAPHY 19th century literary superstar gives a masterclass in romance ●●●●●
BARFLIES Smart, accomplished tale of schism’n’booze ●●●●●
Ben Harrison’s production, adapted from a series of Charles Bukowski short stories, is very much what you might expect in terms of subject matter, but its treatment at the hands of Grid Iron, brings a certain whimsical élan to the squalor. That the writer’s style, however fanciful it gets, isn’t quite a match for magic realism seems not to matter by the end of the piece.
Keith Fleming’s drunken writer sits at the end of Edinburgh’s Barony bar, hammering away at a typewriter, and conjuring up five women he’s encountered in his booze-sodden life. These all appear in the shape of Gail Watson, who shifts from a punk eccentric descending into a prostitute through to an officious career woman and publisher. On the way, there’s a predictable series of brawls, acts of spousal violence and sometimes tawdry sexual encounters.
As the performers gambol around the pub’s dim
Despite the enduring popularity of her novels, 19th century literary superstar Jane Austen remains something of an enigma. Was she really the peevish, watchful stay-at-home spinster of popular imagination? Or did a truly passionate heart beat beneath that starched exterior?
Steven Dawson’s literary time travel wooden interior, there emerges a peculiar moral
62 THE LIST FESTIVAL MAGAZINE 20–27 Aug 2009
ambivalence about proceedings. Alcohol rears its ugly head as both saviour and destroyer, yet the subtext hints that we too seldom acknowledge it in the former role, and the central character’s plea to be left in his state of undemonstrative degeneracy seems only reasonable. Throughout there are sprinkled several comically insalubrious set pieces, with the highlight being the account of the protagonist’s first wife, a witch, who turns him by slow degrees into a dildo, which is far better seen than described. David Paul Jones, who occasionally emerges from behind his piano to take on the role of barman, adds a fascinating variety of music, from pub ditties to a surprisingly moving rendition of ‘Lilac Wine’, and the two lead performers are both splendid. There are a few problems with sightlines, with some of the action taking place on the floor being entirely obscured if you’re in the wrong seat, but this is a smart and accomplished piece of entertainment. (Steve Cramer) ■ The Barony, 228 1404, until 31 Aug (not 21 & 22, 28 & 29), 3pm, £14–£16 (£10–£11).