THEATRE PREVIEV Rum And Vodka
Sometimes it takes more than one night's drinking to drown your sorrows. Rum Arid ‘./od/-:a, a orie-riian show written by hot lrrsh writer Corior MacPherson, tells the story of a man at breaking pornt
'He baSIcally goes on a three-day bender,’ says perforrrier, Alexander Dowes ’lt's a sardonic look at being in your twenties in Dublin ’ lilacPherson, the 1997 Critics' Charlie Most Promismg YOung Playwright, and screenwriter of the recent filrn / Went Down, elaborates 'There is a SIOIytelling obsession wrth Irish people, Ithink it comes from Catholicism — it’s gurlt, and the need to constantly evaluate your ( liaracter and explore inir own experiences,’ The writer’s first monologue work is a hard-hitting and intimate portrayal of a rharacter in crisis, but also, he acknowledges, 'a gurde to Dublin pubs ’ (Hannah McGill) a; Rum and Vodka (Fringe) Lucid Productions, Theatre Workshop (Venue 20) 226 5425, 70-37 Aug (not 76, 23) 8pm, £7 (£5).
THEATRE PREVIEW You Dance The Swords Alone
From the Simple premise of an old man walking into a room, havrng JUSl buried his wrfe, Michael Begg's one performer play reflects on the life of an ageing Scottish war veteran. Performer Sean
66 "IE usr 6—13 Aug 1998
theatre 0 dance - comedy
Hay explains: 'Havrng been a member of a firing squad, he explores the nature of command and obedience throughout his life. It’s a tall order for a performer, to Jump about from old to young, but the piece is so rrch that working on rt is a bonus. There’s no costume changes, the stOrytelling is all centred on the performer.’ The play considers what Begg calls ’his guilt and accountability for the things he didn't say when he was younger, and when his wife was alive.’
(Steve Cramer)
a You Dance The Swords Alone (Fringe) Cerebus Theatre Company, Bongo Club/Out Of The Blue (Venue 743) 558 7604, 70—22 Aug (not 76)
8. 75pm, £8 (£6).
THEATRE PREVIEW Hamlet In The Mirror
Who hasn’t tried it, out loud, at least once? Hamlet's 'To be or not to be’ speech is the actor’s standard, and as such is pivotal to Manuel Dionis-Bayer's internationally acclaimed play. But Shakespeare is only the starting pornt for a parable about the nature of teaching and learning, sex and religion in which an ageing actor preparing to play Hamlet is vi5ited by a younger man; innocence meets experience and a complex relationship evolves. 'They fall in love and hate with each other. What begins as a master/disople relationship soon turns vampiric, and their power struggle is based around that universal soliloquy,’ says Dionis-Bayer,
A Spanish tragedy: Hamlet In The Mirror
5M
COMEDY PREVIEW
Rich Hall - The Shame Spiral/Otis Lee Crenshaw - Model
Citizen
Uncles. They're either your best mate or a total embarrassment. Rich Hall’s has been in jail. got hitched six times to six different Brendas, and has now followed Hall to Edinburgh to perform in his own right. Otis Lee Crenshaw, jailbird. C&W songwriter and shameless womaniser is.fronting his own band The Gadflys. Perhaps due to their natural antipathy to one another, Rich and Otis have never been spotted in the same room together. Rumour has it that they may, in actual fact, be one and the same.
‘I can’t stop him coming. it‘s a free country, right?’ says Hall. ’I kinda feel sorry for him and we don’t get on. I think he‘s jealous, really. But, you know
what? He deserves to be heard.’
Being a loser may run in the family. Hall failed to scoop the Perrier in 1996, the trauma of which he mocked last year he show which he insisted tip— toed along that thin line between comedy and a hostage situation. 'This year, it's just gonna be a straight hostage situation,’ he threatens. ‘Skip the comedy altogether. i’ll just get some Israeli terrorists to go out there for an
hour.‘ (Brian Donaldson)
re Rich Hall ~ The Shame Spiral (Fringe) Rich Hall, Observer Assembly (Venue 3) 226 2428, 7—30 Aug, 8.30pm, [ iO/f 9 (f9/f8) 2a Otis Lee C renshaw - Model C itizen (Fringe) Calder’s Gilded Balloon (Venue 38)
226 2157, 7H3} Aug, midnight, £8 (£7).
The Spanish writer, translator and scholar explains that Hamlet In The Mirror Will be performed bilingiially ’The idiom may be Spanish and English, but the language is theatre‘ (Hannah lVlCGlll)
Hamlet In The Mirror (Fringe) Theatre Workshop (Venue 20) 226 5425, 7045 Aug, 9 30pm, [6 50 ([4 50,)
COMEDY PREVIEW Jason Byrne — Camping On The Moon
As intervrew techniques go, Jason Byrne's is not so much off the wall as over the top and round the bend. In a Channel Four show to be piloted in the autumn, mixrng comedy and music, he Will be vexrng the likes of Robbie Williams wrth such teasers as 'What’s
show, follows last year's double header with pal Tommy Tiernan ’lt's like trying
The kid from shame: Rich Hall
your favourite .‘ilpliabet7' and ’Do you enjoy my toaster7'
‘I ask the iiiiposs‘ible,’ explains Byrne, helpfully 'But I want them to be as serious about It as me '
Camping On The Moon, his first solo
to pick up mercury, and it explodes into lots of blobs,’ he says. ’That's what I do.’ That and messing around With false hands (five pairs -— custom made) and the compulswe flirting wrth his audience. ’A message for the lovely laydeez? Just bring your favourite knees.’ (Rodger Evans) % Camping On The Moon (Fringe) Jason Byrne, Pleasance Cavern (Venue 33) 556 6550, 7—37 Aug (not ll, 78) 9pm, £8 50/[7 50 (USO/£6.50). Preview 6 Aug, 9pm, I 3.