Pleasure, wit, confusion and other reactions

As a spectator I look forward to be impressed, caught, delighted and amused. These reactions altogether are quite of a big goal. But causing at least one of them is already a good score.

So, as a spectator of performances at a festival named Fringe (experimental theatre, performance d'avantgarde), I expect to set some points and thus be impressed, caught, delighted and amused.

To be frank, it is a truth universally acknowledged that the Fringe is no longer fringe but rather commercial, but anyway I prepared myself even for disappointment.

Some big productions, like Told by an Idiot&National Theatre of Wales and Steven Berkoff's Oedipus, were of a high level, no big surprise, yes a great job. I think both could be our contemporary more "traditional" theatre, in different ways, both in a positive sense: the former made an interesting use of puppeteering and transposition; the latter had an mind-blowing use of the chorus -that revealed an undoubtful Lecoq's origin - although a little flaw in the graphic design of the backcloth, a remix between a Renaissance geometric perspective and ugly quotes of Dalì's landscapes (this I didn't really get).

A delightful surprise was "Snails&Ketchup", a poetic aerial dance piece, a touching story told by the body and mimics of fabulous Ramesh Meyyappan.

Ramesh Meyyappan in "Snails & Ketchup"

Analogue's "2401 Objects" is absolutely worth seeing, not only because of good performance and witty representation of characters and time, but also for the clever use of setting and multimedia. It isn't for nothing they just won a Fringe First Award. The only flaw (that might be me having missed the info) is why 2401 objects and not 2402, 137, 5, 446003 or any other number at random?

The interactive installation "What Remains" was amusing 'till the point where naturalistic acting without a fourth wall dissolved the charming of theatre fiction and turned my mood from entertained into perplexed. The play takes you into a playful and creepy tour through the world of a crazy Maestro obsessed by perfection: a series of chambers in the Anathomy Department of Edinburgh's Medical School were an easy guessed set. Such a shame we had to applaud to the bowing performer in the end. Unlike when you exit the House of Horror in a funfair, the spell was broken and no scary feeling lingered.

I had great expectations about "Wondrous Flitting", for the surrealistic plot seemed to be ironically playing with sacred & profain. Potentially mouth-watery. But no: in my opinion direction and acting style misunderstood the play. If I were the playwright I'd be quite upset with the director. Then I found out playwright and director were the same person (!). Is it always the author of the play the one who gets it the rightest way?

"Emergence" by the female group Pachamamas is still getting to shape but I couldn't help getting emotional with the theme: what happens to our family relationships, in particular between a mother and a daughter, when we choose to step out into the world and we're away from home? Besides their type of physical theatre is quite familiar to me. They are sincere and humble when treating a personal issue to tell a story.

"Audience" by unpronounceble-for-me Belgium company Ontroend Goed deservers a post on its own for it raised too many questions and went beyond the like/not like issue. Some time soon I'll write about it.

Enjoy Edinburgh!

Here's the list of what I saw. 

The Dark Philosophers  - Told by an Idiot & National Theatre of Wales

Wondrous Flitting - by Mark Thomson

What Remains - Grid Iron

Emergence - The Pachamamas

2401 Objects - Analogue

Oedipus by Steven Berkoff

Snails & Ketchup - Ramesh Meyyappan

Audience - Ontroend Goed