d a n ce & p hys i c a l t h e a t re
PLEASANCE
INFINITA Familie Flöz Pleasance Courtyard, Sat 4–Mon 27 Aug (not 13), 1.30pm, £13.50–£15.50 (£12.40–£14.50). Previews Thu 2 & Fri 3 Aug, £9. After the success of Hotel Paradiso and i ve-star hit Teatro Delusio, Germany’s mask theatre masters return to the Fringe with their next visual comedy. In Ini nita, a cast of irresistible, larger than life characters are seen both as warring children and as residents of an old people’s home. The wily games of nursery one-upmanship seem hardly to change with the passage of time. Survival of the craftiest is still the rule of the day. Ini nita plays out in a succession of increasingly hilarious scenes, combining poignancy, astute observation and some superbly skilled slapstick. Suitable for ages 5+. FEED Theatre Témoin in co-production with The Lowry and Everyman Cheltenham Pleasance Dome, Sat 4–Mon 27 Aug (not 15), 2pm, £9–£12 (£8–£11). Previews Wed 1–Fri 3 Aug, £7. See preview, left.
SUMMERHALL
TAIWAN SEASON: ONCE UPON A DAYDREAM Sun Son Theatre Summerhall, Fri 3–Sun 26 Aug (not 6, 13, 20), 2.40pm, £8 (£6). Previews Wed 1 & Thu 2 Aug, £5. Sun Son Theatre welcomes you to a light-hearted world of live action and handcrafted animation, where the line between real life and fantasy is sweetly blurred and dreams can come true. Originally created by visual artist/actor Liu Wan Chun, this disarming show conjures up home as a safe but possibly coni ning place of salty tears and sugar water, bathroom karaoke and a mermaid alter ego who isn’t at all as ugly as she might sometimes feel. CEZARY GOES TO WAR Polish Cultural Institute Army @ The Fringe in Association with Summerhall, Thu 16–Sat 25 Aug (not 20), 7pm, £10 (£8). Memories of the director’s own experiences of military recruitment assessments are used to redei ne existing concepts to create a queer fantasy system. Written for four actors and a pianist, Nijinsky’s Afternoon of a Faun comes to life in the men’s dressing room, along with Moniuszko’s patriotic Polish folk songs, and Shostakovich’s Battle Symphony soundtracks aerobic exercises. Winner of the Best Artistic Team award at the 2017 Divine Comedy Festival (Krakow).
FESTIVAL 2018 | PLEASANCE | SUMMERHALL | ZOO 65
FEED Heading for the heart of the horror
‘F eed has been created in reaction to a moment in time when we were experiencing empathy burnout,’ says director Ailin Conant, ‘when victim-driven news items were l ooding our Facebook feeds and we felt ourselves shutting down to the plight of humans living the various crises of our time.’ While Theatre Temoin has always explored profound ideas including post-traumatic stress and bipolar through a distinctive aesthetic, ‘using visual theatre to l ip the human mind inside-out and show a protagonist’s mental journey through the tangible world’, Feed confronts the dominant ideology of the contemporary age: capitalism.
‘It’s about the attention economy,’ Conant continues, ‘and how our focus as consumers – our engagement, our emotional arousal, and the time we spend with our eyeballs drinking in content – is the greatest commodity on the current market.’ Trump and the constantly shifting political landscape may appear, but Feed targets the consumer experience. ‘Anything that provokes emotion – humour, scandal, outrage, sensationalism – rises to the top while nuance and deep thinking are pushed out the picture,’ Conant adds. ‘Fake news and social divisions are a part of that, but they are a tangential by-product of a much darker and more insidious thing.’
Temoin’s approach, Conant concludes, is to confront that darkness. ‘The attention economy is capitalism unleashed on the human mind; it is addiction, it is manipulation, it is deception, and it’s completely devoid of any ethics or monitoring. It’s a world in which every human experience is a commodity. Making this play has made us all feel a little bit less sane.’ (Gareth K Vile)
Pleasance Dome, Sat 4–Mon 27 Aug (not 15), 2pm, £9–£12 (£8–£11). Previews Wed 1–Fri 3 Aug, £7.