FESTIVAL THEATRE | Previews
R E K L A W L L A N
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SEVEN AGES A whole lifetime in just one hour
IF THESE SPASMS COULD SPEAK Touching account of everyday life as a disabled person [TITLE OF SHOW] A show of shows
Although last year Kevin Tomlinson’s extended improvisation on Shakespeare’s seven ages of man speech was a success under the comedy label, its return is firmly in the theatre section. ‘I didn’t just want to be judged by whether I was being funny,’ he says.
In Seven Ages, Tomlinson roves from mewling, puking infant to shrunken, toothless ancient, with help from actress Abi Hood and, of course, the audience. His unique selling point is his ability to set up a punchline he has yet to see: at the start, the audience writes random comments and quotations and throws them on to the stage. At key dramatic moments in each of the seven ages, Tomlinson picks up one of the crumpled papers and reads out whatever some smart-arse in the front row has scribbled down.
It might be hilarious, bathetic or bonkers, but Tomlinson’s experience – he has been using half masks, wigs, hats, and a baby doll to work through the different stages of our life cycles since 2005 – allows him to work the line into his witty and moving improvisation. (Anna Burnside) ■ Just The Tonic at The Caves, 556 5375, 3−25 Aug (not 13), 3pm, £10 (£7). Previews 1 & 2 Aug, £5.
‘At its simplest, the show looks at how disabled people see their own bodies,’ says Robert Softley of If These Spasms Could Speak, a big hit at The Arches last year that returns for a full Fringe run as part of the Made in Scotland Showcase. ‘It does this by telling a series of stories about the things that happen to disabled people because their bodies are the way they are.’ Softley, an actor and theatre-maker with cerebral palsy, developed the play through discussions with four disabled individuals, but it was inspired by a particular personal experience: ‘My husband had just found out that he’d got a first in his law degree and we were about to quaff some champagne to celebrate. Before a drop touched any lips, my hands spasmed and knocked the whole table over.’
But, says Softley, there’s room for humour too: ‘People have really engaged with the show and found it to be much funnier than I, or they, thought it would be. This has been really rewarding as it shows me that the humanity of the stories is making the greatest impact.’ (Yasmin Sulaiman) ■ Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, 3−26 Aug (not 12), 5.45pm, £7−£9 (£6−£8). Previews 31 Jul−2 Aug, £6.
Anyone who saw Daniel Kitson’s 2012 Fringe sell-out, about a writer writing a play about writers writing another play, will agree that the show-within-a-show format has grown serious legs in recent years. This year Patch of Blue Theatre stride out with their latest take on the genre to showcase the UK premiere of quirky US Broadway musical hit [title of show].
A fun-filled feat conceived by real-life pals Jeff Bowen and Hunter Bell in 2004, it brings together musical theatre and real life as two guys write a musical about two guys writing a musical.
For actress and West End theatre star Carley
Stenson, the originality of the script, not to mention some great tunes, made the chance to join the line- up irresistible. ‘I’d done Elle in Legally Blonde and played the Princess in Shrek, but this just felt so different from what I’d done, or seen, before.’ With a new cast in place for the UK run, Stenson
is hopeful it can emulate the show’s stateside success: ‘It’s nerve-racking, but hopefully the Edinburgh audience will love it as much as I do.’ (Anna Millar) ■ Assembly Checkpoint, 226 0000, 3–26 Aug (not 12), 3.10pm, £10.50–£12.50 (£8.50–£10.50). Previews 1 & 2 Aug, £8.50.
BANKSY: THE ROOM IN THE ELEPHANT Art may be nice, but is it better than a place to live?
For their tale based on a real-life event, the team behind Banksy: The Room in the Elephant – director Emma Callander (of Theatre Uncut), writer Tom Wainwright and actor and former Eastenders star Gary Beadle – have lucked out with a story that provides a launchpad into a discussion of the way we live our lives today. It begins when the internationally renowned graffiti artist Banksy is in Los Angeles with his Oscar-nominated film Exit Through the Gift Shop, when he paused to spray the words ‘this looks a bit like an elephant’ on an old water tank – that was also the residence of a homeless man named Tachowa Covington. Presumably the comment showed that the elephantine structure represented the unspoken ‘out of sight, out of mind’ nature of homelessness to Banksy. But the story very quickly became about the results of his actions when shadowy corporate individuals turned up, turfed Covington out and requisitioned his home as a highly valuable work of art. ‘It’s about the fact we’re putting prices on things that can’t be sold,’ says Callander of a play she says is more a part-rap, part-spoken word monologue. ‘We’re losing our perspective on commercial value and we need to strongly readdress what’s important.’ She says the play was created with the help of Covington –
who now lives in a tent near the site – and some poetic licence from Wainwright. ‘It asks, what is art?’ she says. ‘It asks about the ongoing conversation about what gets painted over and what gets sold for millions, and what’s the difference between those two things. But it’s also about what things cost, about how commercialisation can become dangerous when it becomes more important than people’s lives.’ (David Pollock) ■ Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, 3–26 Aug (not 13, 19), 1pm, £9–£12 (£8–£11). Previews 31 Jul–2 Aug, £7.
90 THE LIST FESTIVAL 1–8 Aug 2013