Festival Theatre
For up-to-the-minute Festival news follow us on Twitter: @thelistmagazine SHAKESPEARE THE MAN FROM STRATFORD Spellbinding mix of thundering speeches and historical storytelling ●●●●●
perhaps there’s an argument to be made that Hamlet is essentially a one- man show anyway. In boiling an unwieldy play down to a size that can comfortably be played by one actor, in an hour, it becomes more immediate and accessible, without losing too much of its impact. The elegant framing narrative, establishing the whole show as the final performance of Eastern European theatre-cleaner Sarah, riffs delicately off Shakespeare’s story, as well as tipping a hat to the best known immigrant female Hamlet, Ms Bernhardt.
Although she is, actually, a great Hamlet, Marlowe’s performance as the other characters can veer into hamminess at times (her take on Polonius, for example), but she’s reined in, strange as it might sound, by the extraordinary grace of her co- stars, created by Georgian puppet- masters Fingertips and so subtly manipulated that each flutter of a tiny wooden hand can convey great emotion. (Kirstin Innes) ■ Assembly Rooms, 623 3030 until 29 Aug (not 24), 5.20pm, £11 (£10).
LIP SERVICE Matter of fact and moving study of human emotions ●●●●●
essentially a one-person show, with Marlowe doing all the voices, but then
Simon Callow’s Fringe show is a magnificent three-course banquet of storytelling that will prove irresistible to anyone with a passing interest in Shakespeare. Writer Jonathan Bate builds a biography of the Bard told around extracts from his works, moving through his early days as apprentice glove-maker to his ascendance as the most lauded playwright of his (or any) age. Callow’s performance is flawless,
demonstrating how he earned his stripes as a great classical theatre actor. But Shakespeare is the undisputed star of this piece, Callow wisely standing aside and letting the words speak for themselves. His delivery has the effortless intimacy of a fireside chat; you forget that he’s actually speaking from a script. By the end the audience is spellbound.
Thundering speeches aplenty (by God, can the man project) and juicy historical storytelling sit alongside chameleonic turns including a brilliant rendering of the clown in The Two Gentlemen of Verona (student theatre companies take note: this is how you modernise Shakespeare). One reservation might be that those without a fairly solid grounding in Shakespeariana could get a bit lost, but overall, it’s an astonishing performance. (Siân Hickson) ■ Assembly Hall, 623 3030, until 30 Aug (not 23), 2.30pm, £20–£22 (£18–£20).
MY HAMLET That’s the way to be or not to be ●●●●● This reinterpretation of Hamlet is interesting on several levels beyond the marketing tagline (‘Linda Marlowe does Hamlet! With puppets!). Yes, it’s
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74 THE LIST 19–26 Aug 2010
Bravery, authenticity, vulnerability. It seems these are three things that Becki Gerrard wants to prove during her autobiographical solo show. Her theatrical device – being totally naked throughout, and making it very clear just quite how comfortable she is about it (a three-minute vigorous scissor kicking dance workout eliminates any doubt) – may underline the level of honesty and exposure she’s aiming for, but it somehow detracts from the actual storytelling. Piecing together her family tree through faded photos, old family videos and sweetly mundane domestic anecdotes, the 25-year-old Dundonian paints a very three- dimensional picture of the girl she is, and how she came to be that person. Her gutsiness (inherited from her grandma), the single varicose vein behind her knee (from her dad’s side of the family), the try-hard tendencies (perhaps a reaction to the implied death of her sister) are all explained through her matter of fact, and occasionally very moving, performance. Although it makes for an interesting study of one human’s emotional make-up, it seems the process may perhaps be ultimately more cathartic for her than it is rewarding for her audience. (Claire Sawers) ■ C soco, 0845 260 1234, until 27 Aug (not 25 & 26), 5.55pm, £8.50–£9.50 (£7.50–£8.50).
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EXTINGUISH One man stares down several abysses ●●●●●
Ezra Le Bank is one of those people who it might genuinely be pretty entertaining to watch reading a phonebook: his voice is musical, finely- timbred, and he uses it like an instrument, and his physicality is awesomely controlled: muscles don’t move on his face unless to further the effect of his words. Fortunately the Yellow Pages can wait for now as he’s written Extinguish, an utterly fresh, theatrical and philosophical reinterpretation of our tired old human fascination with death.
This is a one-man show in the truest sense: Le Bank hands out
programmes, tears the tickets, and sits in the audience making gentle conversation until it’s time for the single lamp – the only technical requirement – to go on (he does that, too). What follows feels freeform, but the slickness of the performance – performances, in fact, 27 of them – is testament to the craft and skill involved. Extinguish dances in and out of the consciousness of a series of
characters, recounting their own deaths, brushing up against some for a few minutes and some for only a couple of lines, but all of them gorgeously written and realised. There’s a teenager with learning difficulties, a US sniper in Baghdad, a tortured painter, all of them entirely distinct from each other without costume or lighting change. In sections entitled ‘The Politics’, ‘The Struggle’ and ‘The Poetry’, he rubs
us up against the death myths of various cultures and religions and looks at emotional and artistic responses to death, weaving in the ridiculously varied forms of tai chi, slam poetry and dance. And yet, despite the scope and weighty subject matter, this is neither portentuous nor pretentious, just honest, lyrical, intelligent theatre. Extinguish was, at time of review, playing to single-figure audiences. It
deserves better, and you deserve to see it. (Kirstin Innes) ■ the Space on the Mile @ Jury’s Inn, 0845 508 8387, until 28 Aug (not 22), 4pm, £7 (£5).