PLAYING THE VICTIM coo. Philosophy and scatology
The London company. Told By An Idiot, is one of those cute and deeply endearing ensembles that one wants to take home and cuddle. Full of visual wit and flair in movement, it even manages to make something rather sweet out of the Presnyakov Brothers’ unpleasant script.
The story of Valya (Andrew Scott), a really quite nasty young man whose hobbies include infuriating his parents (Paul Hunter and Hailey Carmichael) and thinking of ways to avoid all activity, is played out between his home life and his work as the stand in for victims of crime in police re-enactment videos. Here, he works through his passive aggressions with a police inspector (Michael Glenn Murphy) and his sergeant (Ferdy Roberts). A succession of comic set pieces bring out several philosophical paradoxes and some dark nihilism at the heart of
the play.
Director Richard Wilson has emphasised the Russian origins of the story, a wise decision, for there’s something about the cultural distance of the play that allows it to play out its relentlessly scatological humour without becoming offensive or dull. It’s not a perfect play, though, for it finishes with a metanarrational epilogue that raises too many questions to sit comfortably on its simple structure. All the same, it’s performed with verve, and a good deal of style. (Steve Cramer)
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AGUA VIVA coco. Heartfelt theatre
'Is true lone enough?" we are asked in this
p; ssionate tale of star (:r< ssed lovers and fractured feelings. Agua ‘./ii.~'.'i gives ‘.'()|(I(,‘ to the heart: what would it say when faced ‘.‘.’lIIl the (toinpleXities of modern living? the response is a heautrfulh (toinposed [)l(}(3(} that mixes the (I()llI()llt()()t£ll\ ‘.'.’|II) the traditional. the spoken word With dance and soul searing l\ll(i|f§lll. As a young (touple's future hangs in the halantte we \.'./at(‘.h it tip With rules. then emotion and. lllIllllitIt?|\,', the cruel hand of fate. “lit; shov. draws \(Nl into a i3\'lllI)()|l(T and enchanting world that you'll he loath to leave. (Corrie Millsi
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7 ASSILON PLACE coco Refuge gee physical theatre
An expressionistiti comedy about refugees sounds in extremely poor taste. not to mention trailing at the hack of the queue in the barrel of
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'll()‘.'(?.’lt(?llt and 'nusiti. fully, (it)'lt.'lltllll(i£tt(? the ssues of a<:<:eptan<:e. misplaced hope and despair that surround the ; sglum (:onundrum. Apparently. lalia is the onlfi. l uiopean (Z()lll[)£tl)\ to work {1(I(I()l(Illl(_] to Mo,erhold's Bio'neehanies. If that sounds as familiar as the (I()ll(llllf§|()ll to
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THE LIST FESTIVAL GUIDE 77