list.co.uk/festival Previews | FESTIVAL THEATRE
BORIS AND SERGEY II PERILOUS ESCAPADE Puppets against the devil
Last year, Boris and Sergey were a late night success: a pair of seditious puppets, out to bilk their audience while spoofing Kate Bush and The Matrix, they provided wild hilarity right up until their souls were dragged down into hell.
Artistic director of Flabbergast, Henry Maynard, found the terrible twosome hard to escape. ‘We are bringing the old show back – and we have the sequel,’ he says. ‘It is a continuation of what happened at the end of Vaudevillian Adventure – they sold their souls to the devil and this is their journey to reclaim them through the underworld.’
Boris and Sergey have become serious, without losing their anarchic humour. ‘The first show is a crossover cabaret,’ Maynard continues. ‘The new show is following a traditional structure.’ The Perilous Escapade is their version of the hero’s journey, the archetypal story that structures everything from classical myth to the good Star Wars films.
Henry Maynard is ambitious for puppetry - having worked on the National Theatre’s celebrated War Horse, he is aware of the medium’s crossover potential. Although he discounts the possibility of a Boris and Sergey Waiting for Godot (‘They’d take it over,’ he worries), he does see them as potential chat show hosts in the festival and is hoping to develop a TV sitcom.
For the moment, his Odysseus and two vaudevillians are content to follow in the footsteps of Odysseus and Bill and Ted and take on the dark forces. But they are always restless. Maynard sighs. ‘We are going to have to do a trilogy now.’ (Gareth K Vile) ■ Boris & Sergey II Perilous Escapade, Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, 3–25 Aug, 23.10pm, £8–11 (£7–£10). Previews 31 Jul, 1 & 2 Aug, £6.
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FERAL Animating the Trumpton Riots
Even leaving aside the subject matter, there can be few more potentially stunning Fringe plays in the pipeline than Tortoise in a Nutshell’s Feral. A co-production with Cumbernauld Theatre after the previous success of Grit and The Last Miner, Feral is both a puppet show, with three puppeteers manipulating an ensemble cast of tiny characters, and a live-action film – as the characters are moved, video cameras project them on to a big screen above the stage. Director Ross MacKay explains: ‘It’s like Trumpton or Fireman Sam’s Pontypandy – this ideal community that we then start to tear apart.’ Perhaps unexpectedly, the story has its roots in the summer riots of 2011, transposed to an English seaside town where a brother and sister find themselves on opposite sides of a violent dispute when a big supercasino moves in. ‘Very quickly we realised the story is about community,’ says MacKay, ‘about how people live within their own community when those communities aren’t working. The way we’ve staged it is related to that theme – the idea of being able to see a character in close-up and everything all at once.’ (David Pollock) ■ Summerhall, 0845 874 3001, 2–25 Aug (not 13, 20), 8pm, £9 (£7).
CIARA Playwright David Harrower visits Glasgow the Dangerous I’M WITH THE BAND Tim Price tackles Scottish independence from a different angle
The Traverse’s programme during the Fringe is predictably solid: the theatre’s continued support for Scotland’s top playwrights is reflected in a new work from David Harrower, Ciara. Harrower remains most famous for his incendiary Blackbird, a complex analysis of child abuse that is sadly still relevant today. But in Ciara, he has consciously considered his performer in the script’s writing.
The story takes on the difficult history of Glasgow, and the woman who witnesses its changes was, for Harrower, always going to be performed by Blythe Duff: hers was ‘the face I saw as I brought Ciara into being, the voice I heard whispering her cradled secrets,’ he says. Duff is well known for her role in Taggart, but her recent victory at the 2013 CATS is a reminder that she is more than just a famous face.
Using the trope of Glasgow as ‘no mean city’, Ciara has Duff’s character confront her grandfather’s dark legacy. Through Harrower’s adept ear for language and Duff’s forceful charisma, this familiar background promises a more personal and incisive meditation on change and responsibility. (Gareth K Vile) ■ Traverse Theatre, 228 1404, 4–25 Aug (not 5, 12, 19), times vary, £18–£20 (£13–£15). Previews 1 & 3 Aug, £13 (£6).
It’s not the subtlest metaphor: when a Scottish guitarist leaves successful indie-rock band The Union, its remaining members – an Englishman, a Welshman and a Northern Irishman – question their alliance. But with the independence referendum just a year away, I’m With the Band stands out as one of the few Fringe offerings to engage with the debate.
‘As a proud Welshman, I felt the whole Scottish
independence debate has been conducted as if it’s an Anglo-Scottish issue,’ explains playwright Tim Price, who, along with director Hamish Pirie, was Olivier-nominated for Salt, Root and Roe in 2012. ‘It’s almost like an unhappy couple screaming at each other about how they want to separate, while the two kids sit on the stairs wondering if they’ll ever be asked their opinion on the family’s future.’ But it’s not all about politics. ‘First and foremost this is a play about a fictional band,’ says Price. ‘Hopefully people who have no interest in independence will enjoy a great play about four friends struggling to get through a break-up, with some great acting and some wonderful music.’ (Yasmin Sulaiman) ■ Traverse Theatre, 228 1404, 4–25 Aug (not 5, 12, 19), times vary, £18–£20 (£13–15). Previews 2 & 3 Aug, £13 (£6).
1–8 Aug 2013 THE LIST FESTIVAL 89