2016 Edinburgh Fringe Show #10
Callisto: a queer epic
Howard Coase
Four stories of the recent and far past and the much farther
future intertwine in Howard Coase’s new work, Callisto: a queer epic, to explore same-sex relationships – all
with the common thread of “Callisto,” the fourth and largest moon of
Jupiter. Time and space, fact and
fiction, earth and the outer realms of the galaxy mix and mingle among the
stories as men and women lust and love those of their own sex, struggling to
accept and/or struggling to be accepted. Eight actors play multiple parts and
personalities that cross every boundary imaginable, and each does so with great
skill and sensitivity.
The play begins and ends in 1675 London with the trial of
Restoration opera star, Arabella Hunt (Gráinne O’Mahony), and her wife, Amy
Poulter (Georgia Bruce), long disguised as her actor husband until discovered
by a stage rival during rehearsals for Cavalli’s La Callisto. Theirs was the
first recorded lesbian marriage in history, and each actress portrays the full
beauty and constant danger of such a bond in those times.
Tammy Frazier (Emma D’Arcy) leaves in a second story her
porn-watching husband in Nebraska to become in California “Tiger Go-Lightly,” a
new star of the sex film industry for Callisto Studios. There she eventually meets the new love of
her life, Daisy Lew (Mary Higgens), a love that is solidified only after the
two commit an act with bloody consequences.
A third thread involves WWII Nazi-code-busting hero, Alan
Turing (James Watterson), as he finds escape and solace in his mathematical
explorations while mourning the love of his life, Christopher Morcom. He also forms a deep relationship with
Morcom’s mother, Isabel (Phoebe Hames), who has resorted to Catholicism as her
healer of her loss. Alan has come to
Isabel to confess taking from her some of her son’s letters and to tell her it
is her son who actually made the first discovery of Pluto, long associated by
astronomers as just another moon (or ‘callisto’).
And then to the far future of 2223 on Callisto itself where Lorn
(Domini Applewhite), a Maker of artificial worlds, works diligently to create a
setting that resembles the forests and streams of Earth. He also keeps recreating an beautiful, A.I.
man, Cal (Nicolas Finerty), eventually discovering his love for Cal is more
than just a virtual dream.
Each of these tales and their many characters of every
eccentricity blends one into the other over the course of the play, with each
actor taking on a main and many minor roles.
Thomas Bailey directs this exceptional cast with an eye toward
invention, pushing boundaries, and tugging heartstrings. The result is a play that informs, challenges,
electrifies, and mesmerizes all at the same time due to its structure, content,
visuals, and emotional impact.
Rating: 5 E
******
2016 Edinburgh Fringe Show #11
Hamlet in Bed
Michael Laurence
Richard Jordan Productions & Brian Long Productions
“Oh, I have this thing,” the man dressed in black at the
mike declares. “I am Hamlet, and Hamlet
is me.” Michael’s passion for playing
Hamlet is only out-matched by his drive to find out who the mother is that
abandoned him at birth. Michael Laurence
stars in his own Hamlet in Bed, a 2015 Off-Broadway
production and a riveting play about a man who will use whatever deception
necessary to get the woman he perceives to be his mother onto a rehearsal stage
with him – she as Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother, and he of course as the famed son.
A discovered diary bought from a New York street vendor
leads Michael to Anna May Miller (Annette O’Toole), a washed-up Shakespearean
actress who now drowns twenty-year-old, haunting memories in any local dive bar
she stumbles into. Michael devises a
ploy and plan to lure her back to the stage to star with him in an avant-garde
production of Hamlet, with the entire play occurring only in one bed. As the two become friendlier in their intense
rehearsals, Michael begins to plant more and more hints that their mother-son
relationship is something beyond just that on a script.
Reprising their New York roles in this year’s Fringe, both
actors give stunning, jaw-dropping performances. On a stage that is blank save two mikes and a
mattress (designed by Rachel Hauck), Scott Zielinski has designed a lighting
scheme that heightens and accents the mounting drama as it unfolds, further
enhanced by outstanding sound design by Bart Fasbender. In such a setting, each actor calls on a wide
range of expressed emotions and physical prowess to enact the inner struggles
and the outward tensions that mount as the play progresses. Shakespeare’s script and their own planned
and unplanned scripts intertwine for a real-life drama that is as acute and
gripping as anything the Bard himself could have imagined. What each must come to grips in order to face
the truth of the other’s role in his/her life brings audience to seat’s edge
and their hearts to an aching for what is seen and felt.
To have the chance to be awarded such a gift of a play this impactful and performances this powerful is why the Fringe Festival draws its hundreds of thousands each year to Edinburgh. How lucky we few in this setting picked Hamlet in Bed among the hundreds of theatrical choices afforded us.
Rating: 5 E
******
2016 Edinburgh Fringe Show #12
Giant
There’s a boy in an attic in a home in a town in a world in
a universe. And there are a lot of boxes
everywhere, boxes full of Tommy’s past all the way back to the beginning of
time. As his Nann reminds him, “We’ve
all got a brain full of boxes.”
In full fun and mighty seriousness, six clowns create in
panoramic, fast-mode fashion three generations of Tommy’s family as the
beginning blur of many passing scenes and sequences of The Human Zoo’s highly
creative, sometimes bizarre, always entertaining Giant. Props and people fly
furiously in and out of side doors, a clothes closet, and a refrigerator; onto
a ledge and up into the attic; under and over tables and of course, in and out
of boxes. While things never settle to a
normal pace, a story does begin to flow of Tommy’s first job, first love, and
first real understanding of who he is and can be.
Freddie Cossley is the wide-eyed, innocent-faced Tommy with
clown-rosy cheeks who falls for a perpetually interning Alex (Florence
O’Mahoney). He lives in a
three-generation home with his single mom, Julie (Fleur Rooth); his brother and
boss, Ethan (Nick Gilbert); and his grandparents, Margaret (Nann) and Jeff
(Rosalind Hoy and Hedley Roach). His
life is in constant motion and emotion as an incredible choreography of events
and people pass through each day as he strives to figure out what he really
wants in his life and with whom. Clown
actors play multiple, ever-changing roles around him, with each main character
of his life taking center stage at some point to highlight in hilarious manners
some aspect of his/her life’s story.
In the end, the highly creative, imaginative geniuses of
Human Zoo Theatre Company leave us with the clear message that we learn along
with Tommy: We are everything and every
body who has come before us, all boxed up somewhere in our minds, souls, and
beings.
Rating: 5 E
******
2016 Edinburgh Fringe Show #13
Ushers: The Front
House Musical
Yiannis Koufsakos (Music); James Oban and Iannis Koufsakos
(Lyrics); James Rottger (Book and Additional Lyrics)
C
The West End musical “Oops! Did It Again” is about to begin
another matinee performance; and ushers are poised in the aisles read to sell,
sell, sell. The red-tied, black-coated
cast of theatre servants greets us in rousing, full-voiced harmony and high
steps, coming down the aisles to the stage with “Good Afternoon, Welcome.” With our spirits and expectations fully
aroused, thus begins Ushers: The Front
House Musical, a new creation about the in-the-aisles, in-the-foyers, and
sometimes in-the-supply-closet lives of those folks we mostly ignore except
when we need another drink or treat.
As we soon learn, the drama, villainy, and love trysts we
see on any given stage play quite the back-row seat to the same that occurs
among this venue’s set of ushers. A
troupe of mostly aspiring, out-of-work actors, most of these ushers share the
dream of Lucy (Millie Davies) who sings in a voice that strengthens in beauty
and power with each advancing bar, “I always thought to be opening upon a West
End stage ... but now I’m here selling
programs and ice creams”). Fellow usher
Rosie (Sophie Allen) is less interested in being a star than in bedding a star
as she sings with sexy prowess in her stripped-down, black bustier, “I Have a
Thing for Leading Men.”
The cast voices among these ushers are all strong and
refreshing. A prime and perhaps best
example is when Ben (Alex Mackinder) sings “Time To Let Go” as he contemplates
losing his ushering boyfriend, Gary.
Belting his magnificent baritone vocals in deep sadness and desperation,
Ben blasts in clarity without an ounce of distortion or over-singing. Gary too brings a fine tenor voice that hits
the right notes in “A Boy Meets a Boy,” and together they are one of the show’s
highlights in their touching, well-sung duet, “Loving You Is All I Know.”
But every backstage drama needs a villain; and Clarke Keable
totally fits the playbill as an evil, money-hungry, womanizing house manager named
Robin Pockets. Each time Mr. Keable
steps forward for Robin’s moment in the spotlight, he lets loose in a
full-voiced, light opera mode that rips along in rapidly sung lyrics, that
quivers in melodrama, and that sends the audience into total guffaws.
Musical Director Becky Brookes and Choreographer Kennedy
Cassy have awarded us not only the toe-tapping opening number with full cast
but also knock-out numbers to close the first act (a mash up of “It’s the
Interval” and “Time to Let Go”) and to close the show itself (a curtain-calling
finale complete with outstanding tap routine by the entire cast).
Ably directed with a clip fast and fun, Nicola Orrell has
given us an Ushers that sells itself
as a program well worth the price of its purchase and an evening of total
Fringe Festival delight.
Rating: 4 E
******
2016 Edinburgh Fringe Show #14
Naked Magicians
The Pleasance
The title says it all.
Everyone of the wide-eyed gay men and screaming single women (of whom
there is a theatre full) is at Naked
Magicians not for the magic, but for the baring of skin they hope to
see. Christopher Wayne and Michael Tyler
declare up front, “Good magicians don’t need sleeves; great magicians don’t need
pants. So we literally do magic with our sleeves up and pants down.” And while they begin their slight of
hand, mind-boggling antics fully clothed, eventually they please all by
revealing their stacked abs, tight butts, and well ... you can guess the
rest.
But first, they titillate, stimulate, and surprise each
on-stage volunteer as well as the entire audience with magic tricks that are
nothing short than amazing (even if many of them are ones most people may have
seen somewhere before). These two are
nothing if not gorgeous and great entertainers, full of muscle in just the
right places as well as humorous banter and big-hearted personalities. For a late-night Fringe Festival warm-up for
hot time in the ol’ town, Naked Magicians
is a winner.
Rating: 4 E
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