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drinks Monday 1 September 08 Edinburgh Reunion in London
Topping And Butch Hit Leicester Square 26-27 September 08
FAIRLY TALES
Verdict: haunting and evocative storytelling
Edinburgh - C02 Oxygen Basement Bar - August 02
The stage is dark, the lid of a packing-trunk opens with a glow of light, revealing four people clustered around it. Today, they're Juliet (Jules) FitzGerald, Maggie Gordon-Walker, Stephen Hancocks, and Ciaran Murtagh.
They're off into the audience collecting words, around which today's stories will evolve. They write the words in books, which are then hung on the wall at the back of the stage - no cheating.
Ciaran is the first to narrate. Their opening word is 'Sand', and he spins a miniature tale around it. Stephen takes up the theme. Jules develops it.
Jules takes the first book, which says 'Railway Driver'. Graham always wanted to be a railway driver, she says, but he was very short-sighted. He passed all his train-driving exams, but his bad sight always let him down. He collected trains, and lived in a train carriage, but still the ultimate prize eluded him. Fortunately, in the end, contact lenses saved the day.
Anyone tempted to add, re Potters Bar, 'And that, My Lord, concludes the case for the defence', should remember (a) that this show includes children in the audience (though it's not specifically a children's show), and (b) the cast do a late-night show for adults, Filthy Tales, which caters for all tastes.
Stephen explains that the other three are burning to create poems about the next word, 'Pedal'. To keep a quiet mood, we're asked not to clap, but to show appreciation by rubbing finger and thumb together. Ciaran's first, with a poem about a mountain-bike losing its chain. Maggie tells about meddling with the neighbour's accelerator pedal. The next performer tells of driving a pedallo across the seas. It's the end of the poets. There's a wild susurrus of applause.
The next word is 'Wind Chime'. Stephen extends his arms to be a tree. Jules is a tree-hugging hippy in a headband who discovers that bits of Stephen's dead branches make wind chimes. Maggie's a planner keen on driving a road through Stephen. Ciaran's a trainspotter, keen on London Transport, and anti-roads. Ecology wins in the end, and Stephen lives to chime another day.
Maggie gets 'Bacon' and rustles up a bizarre tale about Anna Smith, with a mission to save bacon from the frozen counters of supermarkets. She meets a variety of unusual characters including a dancing pig ('Hello, you ate my sister'). Kieran times the other three as they tell stories about 'Stars'. Stephen gets a minute, Maggie 30 seconds, and Jules 10 seconds.
Ciaran accepts the challenge of the final word, 'Separate', to tell a horrific story about a dad (Stephen) with Siamese twins (Jules and Maggie). He doesn't have specialist knowledge, but he has 'a bloody big saw'. Separation is not a success, 'Once he had a lovely daughter: now he had two halves of a lovely daughter'. Eventually, they are stitched back together and 'grew old together: never alone'. With its saws and seamstresses, it's told in cartoon language, but the perceptions are deep, and profoundly moving.
Fairly Tales is a new show every day. The storytellers take words from the audience and tell stories around them without rehearsal. It has an impromptu quality which gives freshness, and the expertise of the narrators as first-class actors to bring the stories they create to life. Fairly Tales benefits from remarkable music created specifically for the show by Rupert Lally. It haunts, and creates an evocative setting for the unfolding magic of the performance.
Storytellers (alpha order): Juliet FitzGerald, Maggie Gordon-Walker, Stephen Hancocks, Hugh Jones, Ciaran Murtagh, Lesley Stone. Four of these perform on any particular day.
Devised by the company. Based on a format by Hugh Jones. Design - Mayou Trikerioti. Lighting design and technical operation - RobMcWhinnie. Original music - Rupert Lally. Programme design - Dennis Barber Ltd. Cover design - Hugh Jones. Co-producers: The Black Sheep, and Outlaw Theatre Company.
END
John Park
reviewed Saturday 24 August 02 at CO2
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