Festival Theatre
Telephone Booking Fringe 0131 226 0000 International Festival 0131 473 2000 Book Festival 0845 373 5888 Art Festival 07500 461 332 YOU FANCY YOURSELF Evocative immigrant experience ●●●●●
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Walden’s only set. Fresh pine sap: an un-urban smell, from a world utterly at odds with the chattering mania of the Fringe. Magnetic North has brought HD
Thoreau’s account of two years spent living out of civilisation in the woods to plain, lovely life; in this most oversaturated month of an oversaturated age, its message, to live simply but deliberately, has never been more timely. The railroads, which seemed to Thoreau to be speeding civilisation into unnecessary haste in 1854, have just been replaced by the lightening-fast communication of social networking.
Ewan Donald’s warm, finely-tuned performance makes the production. His Thoreau, taking the time to contemplate and enjoy even the sounds and meaning of his own speech, is no antisocial hermit. He shares his experiences with the audience, encourages us, facing each other in the round, to find communion in his delight and wonder in the world. His ideas may be easily appropriated by Luddites, but at its core, this is a
passionate, positive call to us all just to stop, and breathe. (Kirstin Innes) ■ Dovecot, 315 3054, until 29 Aug, 3pm (plus extra performance at noon on Saturdays), £10 (£8).
GO TO GAZA, DRINK THE SEA Strong political drama ultimately proves relentless ●●●●●
Justin Butcher and Ahmed Masoud’s production is a bleak reminder of the human consequences of the Zionist aggression in Gaza, particularly focusing on the recent bloodbath enacted in the last days of the Bush government. Its story focuses on a young man
who takes refuge on Gaza beach when the IDF incursion threatens his home village. There he meets a figure, half Mephistopheles, half angel, who digs himself out of a shelled tunnel, and takes his charge on a grim tour of the war zone.
This format allows for an
examination of such issues as the Israeli use of white phosphorous shells, as well as several atrocities and
the views of an Israeli conscientious objector who objects to her country’s policies. Throughout, the soulful musicianship of Nizar Al-Issa is showcased with some heartfelt songs about the ongoing murder and oppression, while Jane Frere’s phosphorous-coated set, consisting mainly of hundreds of shoes, is deeply affecting. But the tone is perhaps too unrelenting, and there’s a danger that the show might simply be reiterating events we already know about. (Steve Cramer) ■ Assembly Hall, 623 3030, until 30 Aug, 2.30pm, £13–£15 (£11–£13).
It’s amazing what one woman armed with just two costumes and a wooden trunk can do. During the course of just over an hour Maja Ardal very convincingly recreates Edinburgh of the 1950s through the voices of 11 distinct characters. The central one is a young Icelandic immigrant girl, Elsa, who arrives in the Scottish capital with her working class parents and is packed off to a school in Bruntsfield. Having lost no time in becoming best pals with a wee lassie who lives in a flat at the top of her tenement block stair, Elsa finds integration into school life a lot more tricky thanks to her accent and the unwanted attention of bullying classmates.
Aside from being an evocative portrait of youth in another age, You Fancy Yourself (the phrase the bullies use to justify their treatment of Elsa) neatly addresses the issues of immigration and assimilation through the tension Elsa experiences between holding on to her Icelandic character and becoming Scottish. Loosely based on Ardal’s own childhood (she came to Edinburgh from Iceland and now resides in Canada), the show about a homecoming is charming and funny and it feels very authentic. (Miles Fielder) ■ St George’s West, 0844 477 1000, until 30 Aug, 4.45pm, £10–£11 (£8–£9).
WALDEN In praise of life lived at a different pace ●●●●● It’s the smell that hits you, as you shuffle to your seat in the sparse wooden seating bank that constitutes
CONTROLLED FALLING PROJECT Australian act wows with an elegant mix of physical theatre and acrobatics ●●●●●
The muted colour scheme of the 1930s laboratory instruments cluttering the stage make a charming backdrop for the agile performers in Controlled Falling Project, a theatrical display of acrobatics from Australia’s This Side Up. Speaking few words, the four performers paint a scenario in which a professor conducts experiments in ‘controlled falling’, his three guinea pigs testing their bodies’ limits by effortlessly bouncing off each other and into the sky. The Udderbelly’s cavernous interior has been an
attractive destination for circus-style acts since it was set up in 2006 and This Side Up makes use of the venue’s full dimensions, from its wide floor space to its high ceiling. The performers’ almost dance-like routines are awe-striking but not sensationalist; most focus on balancing across everyday objects – including a particularly impressive chair sequence – and there is
one act where a huge metal ring is spun to surprisingly lyrical effect. Moments of their vigorous, physical show are dark
too. The professor uses small figurines of the muscular performers to instruct their movements, bestowing upon the action an element of underhand manipulation that subtly asks us how far we should really go to examine the boundaries of human capability. The three acrobats here, however, are well-versed in their art; when it looks like they might suffer an unexpected fall, a few audience members shriek in fright before they expertly land on their feet and calm any such fears. Despite these triumphs, the narrative gimmick is
loose and the abrupt ending is an anti-climax after the heady heights the performers reach in the preceding hour. But overall, this is a mesmerising, family-friendly performance that showcases astonishing feats, without being overly-flashy. (Yasmin Sulaiman) ■ Udderbelly’s Pasture, 0844 545 8252, until 31 Aug, 3.50pm, £11.50–£14.50 (£10–£12.50).
96 THE LIST FESTIVAL MAGAZINE 27 Aug–10 Sep 2009