THEATRE review
DEADLINE EXTENDED FOR ONE WEEK
Every August, Edinburgh fills up with hundreds of people who are gagging for a laugh .and that’s just the comedians. For three long weeks, Edinburgh becomes comedy central for the whole world; and of course some acts have more fizz than others.
That’s where Perrier comes in. For the past seventeen years, the Perrier Award panel has been checking out every comedy act on the Fringe, sorting out the sparkling from the flat.
The Perrier Awards for Best Comedian and Best Newcomer, presented each year during the final week of the Festival, have long been the most coveted bottle—shaped items in comedy. Previous winners include Frank Skinner (1991), Lee Evans (1993), Jenny Eclair, (1995) and Dylan Moran (1996).
MflNTEEPEmMERPANEL
This year, one lucky reader of The List will have an exclusive opportunity to take part in the judging for the Perrier Awards.
It’s hard work, mind. You’ll be expected to see around fifty shows (many of them late at night) and share your opinion with the other judges. There’s no funny money to be made, but you’ll get free tickets for all the shows, plus a whole crate of champagne to yourself.
If you think you're the person to separate the rib—splitters from the bullshitters, and you've got some time to spare this August, send your application in now.
Write us a letter of about 250 words, telling us your views and feelings about comedy, and saying why you think you’re the person for the job.
Send your entry, with your name, address and daytime telephone number to:
PEPRIER PANEL, The List, 14 High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1TE
Entries should arrive by Thursday 17 July.
54THELIST 1': .i‘. ..
THEATRE
review
Animal instincts: three of the cast of II Florilegio
CIRCUS ll Florilegio
Edinburgh: Royal Highland Centre, Ingliston * it hr After the long dominance of companies like Archaos and Circus 02, a much older form of circus returns in // Florilegio. Here, a deft company makes good use of physical skills such as clowning, trape7e and animal acts, to traditional musical accompaniment. The sense of spectacle and danger is emphasised in the trapeze acts, although the performers are so tnofeswonalthatrnoreinjunesrnay result from arm-clutching by the atmhence Huntrun-nnsmncibytluacast
A highlight is Corrado the clown, who opens the show with a popcorn- eating routine. His is a gentle and self- effacing interpretation of commedia de/I’arte tradition, the complex choreography closer to Norman Wisdom than the aggressive clowning of a Carry On film. For all that, there is plenty of 'buffo' in the act, which incorporates spitting, belching, farting and trouser-dropping. A modest amount of audience intervention is required, but there is little to fear from this, the emphasis being more on participation than humiliation.
This is an old art-form, and as such requhesthe SNaHovnng ofsonwiPC pnde.The Mrongnuniinvnesfenufle audience members to feel his muscles, while the women are self-consciously body-beautiful.
Among the latter are a trouser- warmingly sub-erotic dancer, who wriggles about engagineg in a burning hoop, and a sword-balancer who provides an alternative meaning to ’big top’. Notably, the women, unlike the men, are not given a bow after the finale.
A gnu”) of anhnM-nghm demonstrators in the car-park might
also remind us of the condition of the I animals. In truth, they do appear '
overfed and apathetic, but on the night the similarly-afflicted ocCupants
of the press enclosure did not allow Unsto mand Hithe way ofthe'
entertainment, any more than the alert and amused audience. (Steve Kramer)
BALLET Scottish Ballet
On tour. 1: 1k *
Once a year Scotbsh BaHetleaves behind the big stages of the City and
i Sphtsin Iv“) kirzitvlusflestop tour of
the parts of Scotland most big tours don’t reach. Seen on the Dundee leg of this year's National Tour, the mini-
j company wheeled out a three—ballet
llllX to keep Viewers of all regional
variations happy, And that it dld,
For Hiose vvho hke Mien baHet pnik and frilly, things got off to a peachy
. start. Prokovsky's Vestiri (1973i and
FoknustesSykflwdesil909ianébout trad to the core Think sugar-stick UHMnnasuipuflbMIunusandfoppwh kMowsnihghwthathMeru>shune
f (Vtstnir dlKl Htxny skins teanied unth
low-flying hair-buns (Les Sir/ph/desi and yOtigetthe pktine
With Vesiiri, set to Verdi’s opera inumc,thuuw getcfifto ainechanmal start,;uid thcickincers k)0k lu7ninieclin by “K‘rUKPlXXfii Ccflnvebstue bann away, though, as the dancers get into then stnde and put backbone and
; ttwveintotlutsteps Tlnsrnuch-needed 3(Hunkspmwhlxnthomthelmnncfi
tonmhfi,SBSUMnma UnmiSuntand
VdeMvBuMuw
[Is Syhflndesis anothercnuithat li0(KiScl hrecracktu 1”) die lUIllI()i(X)k ustmstIbiuwtishngmyanged
\th&iflflnlhO(N8\WHWibMKWmdS
lmdtolM‘MKmHygahfmunanoUmr wofld Thmlotendtuikxmnmiw) cnhmealfluwreinchmgerofkednm over bin once again flashes of brdhant
danung MiClKunnstflonousinumc
vweduwhw
‘Floaty skirts and low-flying hair-buns': Anne Christie in Les Sylphides
Things niove severalluindred years kflmflfld\vflh HuihnalbaHetoithe nght finnt)’9umhy,Arneu>bawm OHilpOOHlby(MthHKNkHihfldlnuflfl SCQWlUnhkOW,lMM Ccnypheeinenuxu Lorna Scottsclebin baHetis asfresh as anyinodenichonmxuaphy Setto rnusm by NkHCohn Arnoht n nuxes fcflkie thnrh>xvnliiazzy HlNOClKNlScHld (ivvfld sense of pacc> Fast lUfKHJStflld infectuius,it presses an die ugln tthons mnflithe dancers vnuicnve their best performance so far
liulgutg by Him SOVOH-HIHNJU‘\V(HKlOL Scottis set kirtncyjer Hiuigs Hrfll OVth Hie blue rnises hkcmlit,rincliiot a tutu insight (Ellie Carr)