FESTIVAL THEATRE | Reviews
JANIS JOPLIN: FULL TILT Another musical hit for Cora Bissett ●●●●●
Following its success at Oran Mor's A Play, a Pie and a Pint season last year, Janis Joplin: Full Tilt arrives at the Fringe as one of this year's most anticipated shows – and it lives up to the hype. It’s staged in the style of a gig, with the audience arranged
cabaret-style by the stage. Angela Darcy plays the iconic 1960s musician who died aged 27 of a heroin overdose, making her a legendary figure of the so-called 27 Club (other ‘members’ include Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix and Amy Winehouse).
Darcy is fantastic: she doesn't so much portray Joplin as
channel her cosmic energy. Accompanied by the 'groovy' Full Tilt Boogie Band, they belt out soulful Joplin hits like 'Piece of My Heart', 'Kozmic Blues' and 'Summertime', along with a handful of lesser-known numbers too. Each song is interspersed with theatrical vignettes about Joplin's life. We hear about her troubled childhood in Texas, where she was regarded as a ‘freak’; her failed attempts to go ‘straight’; her move to San Francisco, where her vocal talents were spotted; her drug and alcohol-fuelled rock’n’roll lifestyle, and her crippling loneliness.
Despite the slightly grating profusion of 'man's and 'y'know's in her speech, Darcy is mesmerising in the role. The band are great too, knowing just when to fade into the background and then bring the room back to life again. By the time Darcy starts a mournful a cappella rendition of the anti-consumerist anthem 'Mercedes Benz', the atmosphere in the room is electric.
Written by Peter Arnott and directed by Cora Bissett – the
director of Roadkill and Glasgow Girls, and one of Scotland's most musically gifted theatremakers – it's an emotional powerhouse of a show. All it's missing is some standing room for the audience members who are itching to get up and dance. (Yasmin Sulaiman) ■ Assembly Roxy, 623 3030, until 25 Aug (not 12, 19), 8.50pm, £12–£13.50.
BEANS ON TOAST Enchanting visions of young love ●●●●● CITY OF THE BLIND Epic online political thriller ●●●●●
MARK RAVENHILL: PRODUCT The playwright's analysis on the War on Terror ●●●●●
Patch of Blue’s Beans on Toast conjures a world of bunting, fairy lights and soft furnishings through brightly illuminated vignettes of youthful love. The six strong ensemble between them present the star-crossed lovers Jen and Scott. Passing the roles around from scene to scene, the supporting actors are called upon to visualise set-pieces and to enrich the joke-filled snapshots.
The ensemble provides enthusiasm and the easy delivery of pop-culture zingers suggests rapid improvisation, were it not for the fluidity of the staging. The scenes are bookended with colourful hand-written placards and dulcet-toned folk music performed by the company. There is no shortage of charm from the dynamic ensemble.
However, both the company and the production itself seem to strain when the tone shifts to the serious side of things. The text, which has a kitsch comedic sparkle, struggles to deliver depth when it comes to the adult lives of the die-hard romantic pair. Perhaps a touch saccharine in places, there is nevertheless a charm in watching the group play out familiar stories, or as they have it: ‘the sparks that never fade’. (Elliot Roberts) ■ Zoo Southside, 662 6892, until 25 Aug (not 18), 6.50pm, £9 (£7).
88 THE LIST FESTIVAL 7–14 Aug 2014
Theatrical iconoclast David Leddy’s online thriller is an astonishing achievement, in technical and dramatic terms. It delves into some of the rawest, most distressing areas of human activity and forces you to confront them in detail and at length. Using surveillance videos, bugged recordings,
hacked emails and the like, it offers a damning indictment of the United Nations’ record on policing its own darker activities. New recruit Cassandra Al-Khatib (a compelling Claire Knight) investigates sexual war crimes in the Democratic Republic of Congo, casting the viewer as voyeur and asking us to question everything we see and hear. A double bill with live show Horizontal
Collaboration, Leddy crams in epic vistas of horror and confusion into six half-hour episodes, and his slow unveiling of plot is masterful – even if some of the acting is a little unconvincing, which, in a work where you’re suspicious of everything you experience, makes things even more disorientating. There are even moments of bleak humour, but
should you ever think he’s going too far, Leddy provides background material to prove that even his darkest revelations are all based on truth. A deeply unsettling, unforgettable experience. (David Kettle) ■ Online from davidleddy.com, Traverse, £8.99.
Mark Ravenhill’s scripts have a nasty bite: Product operates both as a satirical look at the media and its ability to trivialise politics, and a provocative meditation on the paranoia surrounding the ‘War on Terror’. A fast-paced monologue, Product has Leah (Olivia Poulet) pitching a film script to an actor, trying to persuade them that the ridiculous plot – about a woman who falls in love with a jihadi – has emotional depth. If the pitch is dumb, Ravenhill’s script is a
sophisticated play on the simultaneous attraction and repulsion of terrorism. Leah seems to be entranced by the film’s tale of sex and fighting. By filtering the War on Terror through a badly conceived script, Ravenhill examines how misconceptions distort the so-called ‘Clash of Civilisations’ into a simplistic battle between love and hate, hope and fear.
Many of Ravenhill’s themes – the orientalism of the Muslim male as both object of terror and lust, the desperate need to make sense of conflicting desires – remain relevant some nine years after Product's first staging: diving into the darkness where fear, lust and violence meet, Ravenhill’s cerebral analysis is an emotive provocation. (Gareth K Vile) ■ Assembly Hall, 623 3030, until 20 Aug, 2.45pm, £13–£14 (£12–£13).