SHAKTI kicked up quite a rumpus at the last two Festivals with her exotic displays of abandon. poised at the sex-charged interface between Eastern dance and Western music. This year. the lndo-Japanese dancer returns with a perfect marriage of material to performance style. Even without Tokyo-based Shakti's famous sexual charisma. 'I'lie Kama Sum: would he an aphrodisiac to hormonal Fringe audiences. We predict that Shakti will pull tnore than tnost this year.
The Kama Sutra (Fringe) Slut/(ti. Pleasant'e (Venue 33) 225 5366, 8—24 Aug. 3.30mi). £6 ( £5).
Vllu. SMITH (right) is the man with the iiobnob jokes. the mild- mannered cornic teams up tor his debut visit to Edinburgh with veteran comedian and anytime TVpresenter Bert Iyler-htoore tor a ‘hiscuit-test’ sketch show called Sorted For Teas And Bios. Although Will is a relatively unknown middle-class graduate troni Jersey and Bert is an all-round media success story, the partnership is not as strange as it tirst appears. ‘It plays on the tact that he‘s not a very canip gay person and I'm not a very hutch straight rnan,’ says Will. ‘So it works against your preconceptions.’ Lots at very silly sketches are promised, plus a send-up ot crimson Tide and the secret diaries oi Michael Fish. (Catriona Craig)
Bert And Hill In Sorted For Tees And Blcs (Fringe) Bert TylerMoore and I'll! Smith, Pleasance ( Venue 33) 556 6550, 7-31 Aug, 5.20pm, £7/E6 (ES/£5).
ROBE!" lEPAGE will be familiar to anyone who's seen Denys Arcand's film Jesus Oj'Muntreal. In it. a young actor (Lothaire Bluteau. who also stars in Lepage's debut movie as director. The Conjessimtal. released this year) has to recruit a cast for his passion play. Lepage's character agrees to play Pilate on one condition: that he gets to recite ‘To be or not to be . . .' during the show. Most actors nurture an ambition to play Hamlet. but for Lepage that wasn‘t enough. With typical disregard for convention. he‘s hogging all the parts himself. Yep. that's right: Hamlet. Claudius. the Ghost. ()phelia — the works. And he does the show in French or English. depending on what country he‘s in. lfyou know Lepage. you won't be surprised to learn that the latest technical wizardry is also employed; nor that Elsinore — as he's calling it — has been garnering lavish praise all over North America and Europe. Where can we see the British premiere? — that is the question. At the Festival. of course - that is the answer.
Elsinore (lnternatt'mtal Festival) Robert Lepage. Edinburgh Internatimral (,‘un/eretu'e Centre. tickets: 225 5 765.. [6-28 Aug ("0! I9. 25). 7.30pm/2-l Aug. 2.30pm. [5—[l-l.
6 The List 9- l5 Aug I996