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drinks Monday 4 August 08
THEATRE IN THE POUND
Verdict: 6 fringe shorts for £1
London - Cockpit Theatre - 28 November 02
Theatre in the £ is a monthly evening of fringe shorts, with all tickets at £1. A typical evening starts 7pm, ends 10.30pm, with 6 acts 20 minutes long, a couple of intervals, and a licensed bar. It's a chance for writers and actors to try out their work, and audiences to see a selection of acts which may vary from the terrible to the magnificent: a feature of this glorious evening is that there's no control of content by the theatre. (But no jugglers - the Cockpit's great set of expensive lights is over the stage).
On this night the performances were (actors are in alpha order within each piece):
Gonna Blow. The first act of a new play by John Brown. Actors: Erin Christy, Richard Costello, Kate Dineen, Mark Wyman. Director Simon Green. Costello (Ant) and Wyman (Kat) play housemates whose bachelor routines are interrupted by the arrival of Dineen's earth spirit (Thera). Costello's character's tempted but nervous about sex with Dineen's rampant but puritanical minx. Wyman's character's convinced something's Gonna Blow, and the arrival of Christy's drop-dead gorgeous landlady may trip the fuse. Fine acting, writing, direction and performances. Superb piece of theatre.
The Try Out. Warren Peas writes and performs a piece that questions why anyone would want to be a stand-up.
Generation Gap. Kurt Shields and Arthur Wyman perform songs. Piano by Michael Wild.
Came an Elf. Annie Sutton electrifies in a sensational piece by David Erdos. She's part woman, part feral spirit of the forest. The quality of writing is astounding, with barely a spare word. Erdos has done such a fine job with his script, that it's invisible within Annie Sutton's astonishing performance: she simply becomes it. Sutton creates a pagan entity which chills while pulsing with the earth's fecundity. Her acting is of the very highest quality, shocking in the power of her evocation.
The Jewish Wife. From 'Fear and Misery of the Third Reich' by Berthold Brecht (1935). Directed by Lucy Campbell. Performance credits (programme): Andy Michell, Lesley Willett, Gina Fergione. Wife Judith prepares to flee scientist husband Fritz and Germany's anti-Jewish measures.
The Storyteller, Ell'Bena-Dryl and The One and a Half Nights from the Ancient Books of What's Important. Title flags up appalling boredom ahead, but no. Kate Dineen plays a spoof storyteller to a script by Thomas Crowe, which ruthlessly sends up storytellers as a breed. It's an occupation superbly parodied in 2001 by Viz ('The Modern Parents'), but still the adult education colleges churn them out, and children run in fear of adults with stories to tell and sticks of wood to lay out on the ground. Ell'Bena-Dryl's a narrator with a grudge, fond of Eastern potentates, wary of Donkeys called Derek. Dineen's hilarious, with a finely tuned and sustained comic performance.
END
John Park
reviewed Thursday 28 November 02 / Cockpit Theatre
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2008
