FESTIVAL THEATRE | Previews
TOP 5 FREE SHOWS Increasingly, the Free Fringes have become a reminder of the alternative and experimental possibilities of Edinburgh in August. From new plays to investigative cabaret, the Free Fringes have begun to present theatre that ranges across genre and styles
Death Shall Have No Dominion WWI meets Richard III as this Welsh company looks at how easily reputations can be destroyed on the battlefield. Divided into two parts, it follows the tale of Shakespeare’s delicious villain and a Welsh battalion accused of cowardice. Laughing Horse @ The Phoenix, 557 0234, 1–23 Aug (not 19), 6.15pm. Playback Impro Experience the thrill of having your story turned into theatre: the company takes tales and improvises a performance on the spot. Comic or tragic: it depends on the crowd. This show demands audience participation, but in a gentle and supportive atmosphere. Laughing Horse @ The Jekyll and Hyde, 225 2022, 31 Jul–24 Aug (not 4, 11, 18), 12.30pm.
Pope Head: The Secret Life of Francis Bacon (pictured) Another Welsh company, this time a solo show getting to grips with the dark 20th century artist. After a youthful indiscretion, Bacon finds himself banished to Berlin, and begins to develop the beliefs that will guide his painting. Laughing Horse @ Ryries, 337 0550, 31 Jul–24 Aug (not 13), noon. And the Goat Remained a Goat Fringe veterans, and absurdist vaudevillians the Creative Martyrs team up with Professor Richard Wiseman to seek out the truth behind Harry Price: ghost hunter, psychic investigator, conjurer and debunker. Voodoo Rooms, 226 0000, 2–16 Aug, 5pm.
The Mother of the Priest A priest finds that pleasure can overcome even the entreaties of his mother in a one-woman show that combines physical theatre, Sardinian folk song and an adaptation of Nobel Prize-winner Grazia Deledda’s novel The Mother. The Street, 226 0000, 2–23 Aug, 5.15pm.
(Gareth K Vile)
80 THE LIST FESTIVAL 31 Jul–7 Aug 2014
P H O T O © J O N A T H A N K E E N A N
PRIVATE PEACEFUL The folly of war through the eyes of a young soldier
To mark the centenary of the beginning of World War I, Scamp Theatre’s award-winning adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s Private Peaceful makes a welcome return to the Fringe. Charting the life of young soldier Tommo Peaceful (Andy Daniel), a Devon-born private facing the firing
squad, this is a poignant journey through the days that shaped him: early school memories, losing his father, falling in love and facing the front line. Unsentimental and bracing, it brings an intimate perspective to the most brutal conflict of the 20th century.
Simon Reade, who adapted and directed Morpurgo’s novel, is sure that the centenary will add a new
poignancy to the story. ‘As a whole new generation of young people are doubly exposed to the ongoing political controversies of World War I – witness Michael Gove’s jingoistic revisionism – they become painfully aware of the inhumanity of arm-to-arm combat that still rages across the globe,’ he says. More than a period piece, Reade’s production becomes a symbol of war’s horror.
Having first staged the play a decade ago, Morpurgo himself is closely involved with the production, often attending auditions, and is a close friend of Reade, who describes him as ‘an inspiring collaborator, who has a keen eye and an astute ear for the theatre’. The enormous success of Morpurgo's War Horse might be ascribed to the puppetry, but it's his storytelling that drives both the novel and its adaptation. Bringing the horrors of war to a stage is a massive challenge, particularly when created for a mostly family
audience, but Reade believes that ‘no amount of high-tech effects or blood and gore would ever be as effective as our imagination’. Private Peaceful is a sensitive yet brutally honest evocation of the folly of war, through the eyes of a young
man, and a life cruelly curtailed. (Lorna Irvine) ■ Underbelly, Bristo Square, 0844 545 8252, 2–25 Aug (not 13), 2.45pm, £11–£12.50 (£10.50–£11). Previews 30 Jul–1 Aug, £7.
BEOWULF THE BLOCKBUSTER The first British superhero takes centre stage
Following its acclaimed run at the 2013 Dublin International Festival, Beowulf the Blockbuster has its UK debut at the Fringe this year. Written and performed by award-winning actor Bryan Burroughs, his dynamic solo performance repurposes the epic poem to portray the relationship between a father and son with added Spielbergian monsters. As Burroughs says, ‘It’s also the first real action story hence the blockbuster part of the title.’ The promise of silver-screen superheroes becoming woven into the action alongside Beowulf rests on the expressive acrobatics of Burroughs himself, for aside from a few tricks of time and place ‘everything else is created in the moment by the actor,’ he says.
Burroughs focuses on evoking the silly and the sublime, the enchanted and the real, and promises an experience in which ‘we can meet each other, the audience and I, and hopefully together take this journey with this boy and his da.’ (Elliot Roberts) ■ Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, 2–24 Aug (not 11, 18), 12.50pm, £9–£11 (£8–£10). Previews 30 Jul, 1 Aug, £6.