3pm—6pm FESIAL
THEATRE PREVIEW COMEDY REVIEW Swan Lake —The Ballet of Kit And The Widow's New Clowns Show This is Swan Lake in an unusual guise. it * * Keeping faithfully to Tchaikovsky’s These chaps would make great party music throughout the duration of the hosts. They'd fill your Wine glass every production, the LatVian Youth Theatre two minutes and put on a darn good have transformed the famous classical spread. Creating an intimate air akin to dance piece into a ballet of clowns. an Austenesque piano sesh, With a Young and inspired director Malia fusion of campery and comedy, they Apine, who has performed With the chatter away between songs which Youth Theatre for eight years, wants to take in the inane, as well as making turn the traditional performance on its pertinent sooal and political comment. head, deciding that 'the actors should There's a smattering of satire and sing Tchaikovzsky, not only express his they wring endless humour out of music With dance,’ performing the childlike rhyme, but they’re cheeky script and arias in unusual and Without ever being downright ,. . . . . . entertaining ways. Thus, the show has outrageous — having both turned 40 In Love 2: outrageously funny evolved into an extravagant fusion of this year is no excuse. Their comic ballet, pantomime, opera, commedia timing remains faultless but get the Big Brother and the economy is based an honest and moving account, giving de/l’arte and animation film. claws out a bit more lads. on balloons. immediacy and power to Hugo's The company were so determined to (Claire Prentice) When the angel in question timeless and universal themes of come to the Fringe they overcame their I Kit And The Widow’s New Show summons tip a man before his time, poverty and greed. Classless society, lack of resources by filling a coach with (Fringe) The Cafe Royal (Venue 47) 556 she risks God’s wrath by falling for my arse. (Claire Prentice) LatVian tourists to cover their travel 2549, until 28 Aug, 5.20pm & him, but God has other plans. This is a I Les Miserables (Fringe) Red Shift expense to Edinburgh. If the creativity 6.30pm, £6/f850. charming if lightweight tragi-comedy, Theatre Company, Fringe Club (Venue and resourcefulness of the group is created by Shbn Dale-Jones and 2) 226 5738, until 30 Aug (not 25) anything to go by, this is likely to be an THEATRE REVIEW Stefanie Mtiller, who perform the show 4pm, £8. 50 (£6.50). adventurous production. with Jonathan Turner. The absurdist (Tanya Stephan) Dead on The Ground dialogue - With its cyclic repetitions I Swan Lake — The Ballet of Clowns * * * * and eXistential undercurrents — is COMEDY REVIEW (Fringe) Latvian Youth Theatre, Youth It's not easy being a novice angel — reminiscent of Beckett, but this is an In LOVE 2 With Janie lnternationa/at St Oswald’s (Venue 728) especially in a surreal, dystopian original piece which, when slicker and Anderson And Gregg Fleet 229 5562, 25—30 Aug, 5.30pm, £5 (£4). heaven Where the deity is an imperious better-attended, Will entertain and **** intrigue. (Andrew Burnet) 3" Tr ,' I Dead On The Ground (Fringe) High marks for this show, despite a
Hoipo/loi Theatre, The P/easance
2 a ‘ quality control problem Which holds it ' a (Venue 33) 556 6550, 3.45pm, unti/ l back.
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)5. . lave. '_ r. _ , " . i . y ‘ a, 30 Aug, £6/f7 (ES/f6) Fleet and Anderson's observations on . -' : (i > relationships from beginning to messy THEATRE REVIEW end are glorious ~— intelligent, insightful . and outrageously funny. Les M'serables The Atissie couple's comic timing and * * * * faCial expressions are a delight and the Just as Hollywood has ripped the life- material frequently hits the bull's-eye. blood out of many a damn fine story, Much of it is so fine that it is hard to similar felonies are commonplace in understand Why a couple of weaker the West End. Here Red Shift strip all sketches are left in. One in particular the glam trappings from Hugo's 19th abOut office relationships is well below century masterpiece. FOCusing on the par. plight of orphan Cosette and reformed Still, this is comedy With real bite. But ' ' criminal lean Valjean on the run from 5 be warned; it is bleak and cynical, and Bill Ritch: ‘Heather and bog juice run in my veins' JObSWOTIiI Inspector Javert, mankind is an unWise choice for a first date. THEATRE pREVIEW shown in its brightest and its most (Stephen Naysmith) murky colours I /n Love 2 (Fringe) Janie Anderson vagabond 10"" Played out on a rotating steel box and Gregg Fleet, Gilded Balloon When a storm broke over America's Yosemite forest in the 18005, locals and accompanied by live music -. hut (Venue 38) 226 2 757, until 30 Aug, would batten down the hatches and cower in their cabins. not song, the six-strong cast prowde l 5pm, [7 (£6). All but one: expatriate Scot John Muir would climb the highest tree he could find. 'He would buckle on and ride the wind,’ says Bill Ritch. The Stanley Theatre Group Ritch is the American actor and Vietnam veteran whose acclaimed show Accidental Death of an Anarchist last year related Muir's journey through self-imposed exile, to fame as a by founder of the US environmental movement. DAR'O F0 In Vagabond John, Ritch focuses on Muir’s four years in the Sierra Nevada Superintendent on his interrogation - torn between permanent retreat to wilderness and eventual return to techniques. “We the police were just having a civilisation. laugh with him". Paper hats? Stick the tail on Like Muir, Ritch claims 'heather and bog juice run in my veins', and he sees the Donkey? 0" the stroke Ofmidnight on links between Muir‘s story and his own. He points to the industrial accident ambumnce '3 (“"3" ‘0 the POW? Station- which temporarily blinded Muir prior to his wilderness years. [2'060'7’ ' °"° “mm” falls {mm a “and I ’T here is a similarity with my combat experience,’ he insists. During twenty fl°°'_‘f”"d°,w' sometime later P7397". is see_" A f“v'k‘i‘ty 9"“5ical years in the military, he saw friends shot and atrocities committed by his procwng M “0,7: In Short’ (.1 h'kmous some for the new a9e own side. A spell at Scotland's Findhorn Foundation community was like a ofpome cormpuon' ‘_‘- Songs; dance 8' satire reawakening. Venue 41 Cafe Royal ;_-., V :3, , ;:' 1 ' 9,2 'I hadn't realised what impact the War had on me. I'd shut down. The IT West Register Street ' ‘ “ ' ~ " ’ ' ‘ -' -' theatre became my return from the wilderness,’ he explains. (Stephen Edinburgh EH1 1“ Naysmith) Telephone: 0l3l $56 2549 I Vagabond John (Fringe) Theatre Of The Heart, Famous Grouse House (Venue , {mm Quaker Meeting House 34) 220 5606, until 30 Aug, 5.30pm, £7 (£5). "'d‘Y 3‘" “8"” ‘° 5mm“ 3°“ 7 Victoria 13m. August I997 at l7.|$ Tickets 220 6109
22—28 Aug 1997 THE usr 39