FESTIVAL 10pm— Late
Shakti: ferocious, fearless and 40
DANCE PREVIEW Shakti In Tibetan Book Of The Dead
0’ fearless spiritual sex kitten! O’ 40- year-old lndo-Japanese voluptuaryl Shakti, making her fourth consecutive Fringe appearance will doubtless pour everything into her interpretation of that famous old tome The Tibetan Book Of The Dead. On a previous Visit, she remarks Without ranc0ur, ’a Tory councillor wanted to chase me out of Edinburgh. She must not have had anything better to do.’
It’s not that Shakti likes to shock but her danCIng Is unbridled, wild and ferocious. In the new show she's the writhing symbol of death, luring audiences into a cyclic underworld Journey Shakti says it's all about ’looking into yourself and askzng what you have done during your life to deserve your death?’ The pre-recorded score features Peter Gabriel and Diamanda Galas' spooky vocals The vivrdly—coloured costumes include leather, vinyl and chains. Some will call it trash, while others find It liberating. Oh, deCIde for yourselfl (Donald Hutera)
I Shakti in Tibetan Book Of The Dead (Fringe) Shakti, Graffiti (Venue 90) 557 8330, 8—30 Aug, 70pm, £7/f6 (f6/f5).
THEATRE PREVIEW BeckettLand
Samuel Beckett isn't a figure normally aSSOCIated With a QUICk fix. So In an attempt, as director Robert Sherrod puts it, to ’pull the great playwright down from his ivory tower,’ Action Theater have unearthed SIX of his lesser—known short dramatic pieces and transposed them to a high-octane carnival setting. Rather than bastardising the pieces. however, Sherrod maintains ’our little ghost carnival approach seemed to correspond very well with his — stripping the pieces down til what’s left is this ghost of conscioiisness.’ Indeed, there are all Beckett’s usual thematic hallmarks - power-plays of coercion, manipulation, oppression and the suffocating relentlessness of existence. Not a nation known for doing things by halves, US-based Action are pulling out all the stops in order ’to capture the feel of a carnival ‘Nltii a full-on sensOry
80 THE lIST 8 —lIl Aug 199/
experience.’ Mmm . . . does that include the hot-dog stench? (Claire Prentice)
I Becketttand (Fringe) Action Theater, Marco’s (Venue 98) 228 97 16, until 30 Aug, 17pm, £5 (£4).
COMEDY PREVIEW
Steven Alan Green - Die On Stage, Loud American Bastard
New York’s infamous Chelsea Hotel has seen a lot of deaths in its time, but sometime resident Steven Alan Green has built his act on not dying. Rooted in the same self-destructive mire Bill Hicks crawled from, Green has done more than 15,000 farewell performances, the finale of each being an attempt to top himself with a handgun. Thing is, he can never quite pull it off.
’It’s gotten out of hand,’ he admits. ’It’s turned into a career and I can’t afford the PR. Thing is, I’m addicted to the laughter, and where there’s laughter, there’s hope.’
Is the death Wish for real, then? ‘I think all of us at some time want to throw ourselves out the window, and I’m playing with fire here, because the Fringe enhances the thing I'm addicted to. So if I’m to go out with a bang, at least I’ll be in the right place.’
(Neil Cooper)
I Die On Stage, Loud American Bastard (Fringe) Steven Alan Green, Southside Courtyard (Venue 76) 667 2272, until 30 Aug, 70, 50pm,
£5 50/[5 (ES/£4.50).
i THEATRE PREVIEW TheTownThatWentMad
Once upon a time, Volcano Theatre’s number were muscle-bound maniacs, forging a reputation with the sort of gymnastic Iiggery-pokery that’s exhausting to watch, let alone perform. For their latest Edinburgh trip, they’ve
come over all romantic, taking a novel slant on Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood,
Billed as a sequel to the Welsh bard’s finest work, a run in With the Thomas estate inSpired the company to look at what may have happened if Thomas had survived his last bender to knock off
l I l
THEATRE PREVIEW Acrobat
Acrobat: all trussed up and no place to go
Acrobat is an Aussie circus troupe who wield whips. display buttocks, walk the high-wire and swing the trapeze in gender-bending leather outfits that wouldn’t look amiss in Sadie’s Sex Shop.
Not the type of circus you’d take your granny to then? "r hat depends on how open-minded your granny is,’ says Lee Wilson, ex-stripper turned
Acrobat member.
It is, Wilson admits, a risque show. ’It has a lot of sexuality, and it's pretty fast and in-your-face.’ Comparisons with a certain French anarcho circus troupe are easily drawn but Wilson insists that Acrobat is no Archaos clone.
'We have a similar style,’ he admits. ’But our whole focus is on the acrobat. And we have more skill.’ So strong is that focus, that the company has eschewed the rock ’n’ roll lifestyle for a regime of no smoking, no drinking and lots of health food. Not quite what you’d expect from a group whose influences include trash, sleaze and drag queens.
Happily, Wilson and his colleagues do have vices. Like drinking their own urine. Not depraved at all according to Wilson, who insists it's the biggest health-kick since colonic irrigation. Bit hard to swallow that, though.
(Ellie Carr)
I Acrobat (Fringe) Assembly Rooms (Venue 3) 226 2428, 8—25 Aug, (not 75-20)
10pm, {TO/f9 (£8/f7).
the play’s proiected ’night scenes.’ ’TheTownThatWent/Vlad was Thomas’ original title for the play,’ according to Paul Davies, one of a triumvirate of directors on the piece. ’But he got cold feet. Our piece is dune Wlld but it’s lyrical too. lt looks at the romance of a small town, but also at how the characters are potentially dangerous it's showing that Wales isn't Iust about day trips to Pwllheli.’ (Neil Cooper) I TheTownThatWent/Vlad (Fringe) Volcano Theatre, The Pleasance (Venue 33) 556 6550, until 30 Aug (not 72, Zr, 26) 77pm, [8.50/[750 ([6/[5) Preview show, 9Aug, 77pm, £5.
Volcano Theatre: brushing up on their Thomas
COMEDY PREVIEW
PaulZenon
Paul Zenon is a man who knows where to draw the line. 'l’ve done a bit of fortune—telling and got involved in a few card schools,’ recalls the comic-
cuiTT-iiiaverick magician. ’You get to
a the point where you’re dOIng well but
i the next stage is getting your legs broken, or worse '
Paul Zenon is not conventional in the Daniels/Copperfield sense nor is he a freakshow of Jim Rose proportions, Yet among the list of obscure tricksters he pinpoints as influences, one name stands out On Geller is the only guy ; who has done the Job properly by ; convuicing people that he does 5 actually have supernatural powers by doing glorified tricks '
And what of the props? 'They’re all fairly InInIn‘..'IlI.st but there are Just lots of them everyday objects rather than glitzy boxes There are lots of things that I use that the airports don't like such as a flick-knife and a Qun’
iBrian [‘or‘alclsom
’ I Pat/i Zeno/I fringe) Pail/Zencw,
Spit.>_c}e.’.’enf (lent/o an 558 30 I0, 8—30 Aug (not 23, 28) 70pm, [7 50 (f 6 50) PTOVIOVV 8 Aug, 70pm, [4
STAR RATINGS
it it * it * Unmissable ; t t t it Very 00d it ii: iii Wort seeing E t * Below average I it You’ve been warned