FESTIVAL 8PM 0PM
THEATRE/DANCE/COMEDY/KIDS
Eartha
delights
Eartha Kitt has been cast as Joyce’s earthy creation, Molly Bloom. She slips out of rehearsals to seduce Robert Gray with her stream of consciousness.
Voice purring like a lioness at the kill. Eartha Kitt — chanteuse. cabaret icon and catwoman supreme — impales you on the claws of her convictions. Conversing with her is to be challenged and mauled delectably.
it isjust this effect that she is hoping to produce for her audience in Yes. a play devised by Steven Rumbelow. who previously called on Kitt to play a ‘deranged hermaphrodite scientist' in an obscure Canadian science fiction movie. Now. in a rare outing as a stage actress. Kitt is to star in an untried one- woman play based on one of literature's most misunderstood and controversial characters.
Kitt will play Molly Bloom. the character created by James Joyce in his ground-breaking novel Ulysses. which was originally banned in every English- speaking country except the United States. One of the main reasons for its
'Eartha Kitt: relates emotionally to Molly Bloom
establishment. and for that very reason she is a character with whom Kitt strongly identifies. ‘l'm not playing myself as Molly.‘ she says. fixing you with a clear-eyed gaze. ‘l'm playing Molly. who happens to be emotionally. spiritually and intellectually related to Eartha Kitt‘s feelings.‘
Eartha Kitt's own life story is so rich and exotic it verges on the improbable. She has no birth certificate. but believes she was born in South Carolina ()6 years ago to a half- Cherokee. half-black fourteen-year-old who had been raped by a plantation owner's son.
Shuffled off first to a neighbour and then to an aunt in Harlem. Kitt joined a dance company at fifteen and toured Europe after the Second World War. in Paris she launched her career as a solo nightclub singer with an act noted as much for its teasing lewdness as for the husky splendour of her vocals.
As Bloom. her inimitable voice will be put through its paces again for Yes. performing songs composed specifically for the show by (‘harles g Aznavour. His participation was suggested by Kitt. who belies her ’ fearsome reputation by confessing to a
fondness for torch songs and lyricism.
‘I love romance.‘ she purrs. ‘l think it‘s
wonderful. And I‘m glad l've had my share ofit.’
I Yes (Fringe) Alborada Productions.
Church Hill Theatre (Venue ~16) 447 , ()l l I. 15—20 Aug; 9.25pm. 22—28 Aug. 10.25pm. £7.50 (£6).
prohibition was the extraordinary passage featuring Molly Bloom‘s stream of consciousness that veers between philosophy and obscenity. the unexpected and the mundane.
Molly Bloom outraged the
Inside The Firm
Tony Lambrianou did his time - fifteen years for his part in the Krays’ infamous murder of Jack ‘The llat’ Mchtle - but he’s not bitter. llowadays, a reformed lambrianou lives the quiet life, running a flower shop in Kent and training greyhounds. The nearest he comes to the murky world of crime is his role as media pundit on crime and author of a bestselling book about his experiences as a 25-year~old East End boy made bad who ran with lieggie and Bonnie at the height of their notoriety.
The dramatic adaptation of Inside The Firm may have been described as ‘lieservolr Dogs on stage’, but lambrianou is keen to disassociate himself from any voyeurs of violence. ‘I don’t see nothing glamorous in murder or violence,’ he says. ‘What we did was wrong and the wamlng is: you can’t get away with it.’
With Reggie’s seal of approval on the
Kray area: llonnie and Reggie on stage
project - ‘I went to see him yesterday and he’s absolutely delighted about it,’ says Lambrianou - the play also explores society’s warped fascination with the criminal mind and the longterrn effects that curiosity had on lambrianou’s post-prison life.
‘When I did signings for my book it astounded me the number of people that wanted to know about that side of life,’ he says, referring to those
followers who went so far as to tattoo the Krays’ and Lambrianou’s faces on their arms. ‘lt shook me to the foundations,’ he says, ‘and in the end it nearly cracked me up. But I know there’s no escape and you have to live and adapt to that.’ (Ann Donald) Inside The Firm (Fringe) Adam House Theatre (Venue 34) 650 8200, 13—27 Aug, 9.45pm; Aug 28—3 Sept, 5.45pm, £5 (£4).
ITLIS
Follow the smart money to these evenings shows, selected by Eddie Gibb.
xi“. 2% ,4, W. p I Modern Nature ()nc-man show from Belgium based on the diaries of Derek Jarman from the time he discovered he was HIV positive and began devoting more time to his beloved garden in Dungeness. A sad but ultitnately optimistic piece which uses a first person ‘narrator‘ rather than a Jarman impersonator.
.llor/ern N Hure (Fringe) l)e l’ururle. 'l‘roverse 'l'lleulre (Venue l5) //—2/
Aug. times vary. [7 ( [4).
I Love, Sex, Death and Weather Craig Ferguson's telly show is a pale
imitation of his stand—up routine. which still hacks it. ()bservational comedy with a Glasgow accent.
Lore. Sex. Dear/1 and Wrnrlzer (Fringe) ('ruig Ferguson. Assembly Rooms (Venue 3) 226 2428, 15—21 Aug. 8pm. [9/8 (£7.49).
I Dominic Holland’s Happy Hour Last year's Perrier Best Newcomer returns
to Edinburgh with a show that could take him into the comedy big league.
By all accounts Holland gave Eddie lzzard a run for his money when the
pair toured together.
Dominie Holland '3' Happy Hour (Fringe) l’leomnee ( Venue 3.?) 556 6550. ll Aug—3 Sept. 8pm, £6 (£5.50). I Burying Dad Hot-ticket writer Rona Munro and actor Fiona Knowles are the Mslits in this awardwvinning comedy. Three women‘s perspectives on the death of one man who was a father. son and husband in this snapshot of an ordinary family's existence.
Burying Dar! (Fringe) Diverse Alll‘ur'lionx (Venue II) 225 896/. /5—27 Aug, 8pm. £4.50 ( [2.50).
I Betrace the Defaced Mixture of Eastern and Western dance styles to create a new, ()ne World form by an equally multi-cultural company that has ‘ its roots in China. Part of the St Bride‘s Centre's ‘Continental Shifts' dance and theatre programme. i Retror‘e Ilie Defined (Fringe) Bi Mu Dunee ( 'onipuny. S! Bride iv ( 'enrre (Venue ()2) 346 [405, l5~2() Aug. 9pm. i [6 ([4).
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The List 12—18 August l‘)‘)4 47