FESTIVAL REVIEW
FESTIVAL THEATRE
TATTOO
This portrayal otthe mysteries at human relationships is the result at the most acute observation. The tiny Yugoslavian company. Tetovirano Pozoriste. pertorm the work with absolute precision. Barely a word is spoken in the play which is nevertheless pertormed with such emotional intensity that it is impossible not to be drawn completely into it.
The play tells the story ota couple trom tirst love to the point when impetuous youth gives way to something else. and then. almost as an epilogue. gives a glimpse at old age. An ordinary working class couple. their relationship is universal but the play draws an extra strength. parallelling it with the claustrophobia otthe Yugoslavian state.
While being so complete that it is a work that other theatrical experiences will have to be compared to. it nevertheless recalls other genres. Events are telescoped together in a way that you would only think possible in a brilliantly edited litm. Despite a wealth at strong images that produce an ettect similarto the time lapse photography ot David Hockney. the result is seamless.
Western pop music becomes both background and commentary to some at the action which combined with the delicacy otthe movements creates an ettect at times resembling ballet. Atoy rabbit(a symbolic but throwaway gitt otthe counte‘stirst
l_ ._____-__
4'1 Iicl l\l 3| Aug 3 Sept
I lovemaking)acrobatically comes to lite, dancing to its own musical theme. It isn't tantasy. merely the embodiment ot the lantastic in everyday lite. Nowhere. despite the rabbit.does the play. in its essence depart trom naturalism. The lack ot dialogue doesn‘t seem the slightest bit odd nor does it limit the play‘s scope: there is so much in Tattoo that you begin to realise that plots may develop in words but i lite is lived in the pauses. .. . (Nigel Billen) 0 Tattoo. Tetovirano Pozoriste. Richard Demarco Gallery. 17-21 Blacktriars Street (venue 22) 557 0707. ‘i Until 22 Aug — but look out loranothervenuetakingit up. 11pm £4.50 (£2.50).
3 MARY QUEEN OF ;scors
Forget the pomp and
circumstance — enjoy the rough and tumble. Liz Lochhead‘s new staging ot
the tale ot the ill-tated Mary Stuart goes straight torthe jugular. punching out the essentials ot the story and brilliantly creating the tangled web ot intrigue.
religion and politics in
3 which the two queens were
i entangled.
Communicado's excellent
production is played in a
sort ot circus ring. The
} narrator. La Corbie (Myra
McFadyen) . a wise old
. crow. holds court.
introducingthe characters and tilling in the plot.
haunt Scotland today and yet creating sympathy tor thetwo queens andtheir ultimate loneliness. Alison Peebles‘ Elizabeth is respendlently calculating —all image. butplenty broken heart.Mary. meanwhile. is no scarlet woman. but strong. well-intentioned and an irredeemable mistit in the country she doesn'tquite understand. Herteud with Elizabeth is as nothing compared with herbattles with John Knox (tine pertormancestrom Anne Lacey and Gerry Mulgrew) and her love-lite appears simply ill-tated (John Mitchell making a delightfully wimpish Damley). In the end the clue to both queens, their similarities and their ditterences. comes across as being theircommon battleto hold their own against men. (Sarah Hemming) 0 Mary Queen at Scots Got Her Head Chopped Ott. Lyceum Studio. Cambridge
. Street (venue 35) 229 9699. Until 22 Aug. 9pm. £4
(£2.50) THE SUMMIT
: Two suits talk. One suit may
look like another. it may say the same things. butthese
; suitsareimplacably
. opposedlt‘s notwhatthey saythatcountsbuthow
Ioudlythey sayit.Thetate i ottheworldhangsinthe
Highly stylised and whipped
torward by music. dance
' and comedy the production zips through the story ata tremendous rate casting up all the contlicts that still
A selection of this year‘s best Fringe offerings.
THE I.IST’S
PICK OF THE FRINGE
balance.
Jonathon and Barnaby Stone do not need wordsto caricaturethe playground politics at asuperpower negotiatingtable. Theirtwo suitstalkwith theirbodies. withtable-banging lists and
Tattoo Theatre
weird mouth music. They also get triendly. in an atter-hours drinking session. and embarass each otherwith their national tolk songs. Best 01 all is the tentative hand-shake that neitherol them can end.
This is pertectly observed. particularly in the orators' press conterencetechnique;the haranguing. the propagandising. the contiding. the despairing. the one-trom-the-heart stutl: there'slies. bare-laced lies. and joint statements. Asuperb and healthy exercise in nuclear-age consumer cynicism: Ball Raltshould be booked into Geneva‘s best cabaret spot. instantest. (Alexander Benton)
0 The Summit. RaltRalt. Traverse. Grassmarket (venue 15) 226 2633 until 27 Aug times vary.
YOU STRIKE THE WOMAN, YOU STRIKE THE ROCK
This impassioned yet humorous production trom South Atrica. managesto
stirourconscienceswithout
resortingto political diatribe.
Full ol warmth and vitality. ittellsthe story at howthree black women come to be selling chickens and oranges at a market stall. Like the women themselves. we hardly
know whether to laugh or cry as they recall the practical and emotional trustrations ot lives blighted by a regime whichtorces husbands away trom wives. women away trom their homes and children to grow up in the streets. Throughoutthe pertormance the tlashbacks are inventively staged. with the actresses capable ot conjuring up buses. trains or chickens with theirvoices and gestures.
As an increasingly involved picture emerges. we see that these women are struggling. notjust against the dictates ot the State. but against the attitudes ot the men. black orwhite. who they encounter. One tinds herselt sexually harassed by her boss as she works illegally on a tarm. Another tries to sateguard her meagre earningstrom her husband and his drinking. as her child cowers beside her. distraught at beingtorn I in two directions.
. Yet even these situations have their roots inthe
I apartheid system.andthe j play's strength comes
tinallytromitscunning
: conversion ot moving
I domestic scenes into a
. torcetul political message. l Only one at the characters is I overtly concerned with
! South Atrican politics. By
j the end she has convinced
the others. andthe audience. that everyone
should be. on Strike the Woman.
jou t' etheBock.
usisizwe Players. Assembly Rooms. 54 George St. (Venue 3). 226
2427. Until 29 Aug. 8.00. £4.50(£3.50)
MAN TO MAN
Tilda Swinton's extraordinary pertormance in this one-woman show has made this one at the tastest sellers on the Fringe. In German writer Mantred Karge's play she plays a woman who poses. tora litetime, as herdead husband-so lrom both sides at the sexual coin we get an account ota working-class lite under Hitlerand beyond. It isa very German tragedy. in which the massive anecdotes ot GunterGrass. and the tine minimalism ot F. X. Kroetz both have an influence. A grand and disturbing play. translated with verve by Anthony Vivis. this is a must. (Alex Benton) 0 Man to Man. Traverse. Grassmarket. (venue 6). 226 2633. Until 29 Aug. times vary. £5 (£2.50) plus 50p membership.
HAUPTMANN
‘Atl l have is avoicefTo undo the tolded lie' quote the programme notesto
I John Logan‘s HAUPTMANN.
3 Larry Kramer took the same
Auden poem as motto tor his AIDS play ‘The Normal Heart‘ and the same sense at deep. slow~burning outrage tuelled that play as runsthrough Logan‘s beautitully-written drama aboutRichard Bruno Hauptmann.
In 1936 Hauptmann was executed as the kidnapper and murdererotCharles Lindbergh's baby son. Logan. convinced that Hauptmann wasa