festival
THEATRE REVIEW Hello Dali Atomic *****
'To Fart is an Art’. This is just one of the strange pearls of wisdom that Andrew Dallmeyer has plucked from the tellingly titled Diary ofA Genius, Salvador Dali’s autobiographical confessions, to produce a neurotic stew of death, sex, food and faeces. Maverick surrealist, fanatic, self-confessed genius, Salvador Dali is here exuberantly evoked in a stunning one-man show by Avi Nassa. Starting with his death, his corpse oozing putrefaction, the body of this unique Spanish painter is resurrected to once again shock and amaze audiences with his bizarre exploits.
As he holds court from his numbered dream machine, the audience dictates the order of events and obsessions by calling out random numbers. These include Dali's expulsion from the Surrealist movement by Andre Briton in 1939 and the artist's first experience of perfect beauty - seeing a woman painfully sodomised. Describing himself as 'the saviour of modern art‘, Dali delivers a scathing summation of twentieth century art, where Henry Moore is the village idiot and Picasso has few ideas. Eyes flashing, moustache erect and teeth bared, Nassa is eerily accurate in this psychedelic journey through
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Surreal life drama: Hello Dali
the subconscious mind of a man obsessed with Freud, cauliflowers and
coffee. (Catherine Bromley)
I Hello Dali . . . Atomic (Fringe) Whispering Eyes Theatre Company, C3 (Venue 726) 225 5705, until 30 Aug, 7.30pm, £7 (£5).
COMEDY REVIEW Baby Wants Candy ****
Musicals are usually built on the slimmest of concepts, but throw in some love interest, a couple of set pieces and a bit of period atmOSphere and it works. Using this premise, Chicago improvisers Baby Wants Candy create a brand new musical — 'for one night only’ — from a single title suggested by the audience.
The result is anarchic and hilarious. To the accompaniment of a stoical pianist the young cast hurl themselves at high speed through daft plots, rouse themselves with bouts of bad singing and wallow in every available cliche. Makes you wonder why Hollywood ever bothered with a screenplay. (Moira Jeffrey)
I Baby Wants Candy (Fringe) Gilded Balloon (Venue 38) 226 2757, until 29 Aug, 6.30pm, £7 (£6).
COMEDY REVIEW The Lennie And Morris Show
*‘k‘k‘k
For once Damien Hirst has a point, although in describing Lennie and Morris as 'Jacques Tati meets Ren and Stimpy’, he’s barely scratched the surface. A manic mash of cabaret and clowning, Ruth Glaser and Chris Cresswell's demented tour de force is an unhinged, charming pile of gentle radiant nonsense whose tenuous link with reason has long since lost its moorings. ’Balance del Anatomica’, ‘Horse Ballet Pathetique', 'Ode To A
Banana’: the daft-as-a-brush aesthetic wanders arbitrarily, both delightful and alluring if at times a shade erratic. And from here? Fame or psychotherapy, frankly, with odds stacked on the latter. (Barry Mcpherson)
I The Lennie And Morris Show (Fringe) Komedia @ Southside (Venue 82) 667 2272, until 29 Aug, 7.40pm, £5.50 (£5).
COMEDY REVIEW PaperSon iii
Byron Yee’s autobiographical one-man show is a warmly humorous account of the comedian’s search for his Chinese heritage. As an ’ABC’ (American-born Chinese) Yee didn’t feel compelled to trace his roots until the early 905, when his attempts to pursue a Hollywood acting career resulted in auditions for a string of cartoon restaurant owners named Wong or Chong.
Although his monologue is a little slow in parts, Yee is an involving performer with a fascinatingly funny tale that is also more than a little moving — particularly in the episodes relating to his rediscovery of his dead father’s history. (Allan Radcliffe)
I Paper Son (Fringe) Byron Yee, Cafe Royal (Venue 47) 556 2549, until 30 Aug, 6. 75pm, £6.
STAR RATINGS *iitfi Unm'ssahle *iii me goon Wort“ seem;
iii Hr Below average * You've been warned
Kneejerk Theatre
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No oltl luvuies. but some nice new lawles.
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Holyrood Tavern (venue 84) 7-22 August at 4.40pm
Now completely refurbished. Free brochure 0131 653 4275.
Roman Eagle Lodge venue @ 2 Johnston Terrace
0l3l 226 7207 daily at l;45pm
Brunton.
The unpretentious theatre
art loving, comedy laughing, attraction visiting, theatre going, hill walking, scotland touring, club dancing, beer swilling, sport crazy, film watching, music listening, hotel staying money spenders?
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26 Aug—9 Sep 1999 THE LIST 39
411*