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Fringe AM - Cult Leaders Dissected
Edinburgh - Assembly Rooms St George's West - August 03
Daily live chat show 10-11 am on a range of topical or controversial themes, with speakers from the Festival, Fringe, Book Festival, and Film Festival.
Topic: Charismatics, Gurus, Cult Leaders.
Speakers: Playwright Mike Riddell, writer of Edinburgh Fringe play Jerusalem Jerusalem (REVIEW), playing at venue Augustine's. Members of the cast join the discussion. Interviewed by John Park, editor, Fringe Report. Performers: (Jerusalem Jerusalem Chorus, in alpha order): Clare Adams, Keri Hunter, Trenamarie Nathan
Fringe AM today covers charismatics and their followers. Controversial New Zealand dead poet and cult leader James K Baxter takes centre frame. He's the subject of Mike Riddell's play Jerusalem Jerusalem. Mike Riddell talks eloquently about cult head Rev Jim Jones who persuaded 913 of his followers into mass suicide at Jonestown, Guyana, on 18 November 1978. And guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, whose legacy seems benign, Sir Winston Churchill, and Saint Thomas More.
Mike Riddell notes that the Catholic Church has historically had difficulty with James K Baxter (a catholic). Michael Hill explains the challenge of playing a catholic priest in the controversial Jerusalem Jerusalem. However the Bishop of Dunedin (the Scottish-founded city in NZ that's home to the company) has visited the play without - so far - damning Riddell & Co from the pulpit.
Cast including Emily Duncan, Gregory McCormick, Rosemary Riddell (who also directs), are present. What's it like when director and writer share the same bed? Rosemary Riddell says husband Mike's suitably defensive about script cuts, but apparently not to the extent of marmalade fights over the breakfast table.
Patrick Davies is unrecognisably clean after a bath and change. Here he is, well-scrubbed, young and handsome. Nightly he's disguised in beard, robes and dirt in the smelly lead role of Baxter. He describes playing one of NZ's most controversial characters, and the practical task of learning 6,000 words of script. He explains with disarming modesty how he sustains the huge emotional charge of his character every night - 'Fear'.
Pete K, technical manager of Jerusalem Jerusalem, says that NZ celebrities are now beginning to approve of Baxter, from the safe distance of 30 years (he died in 1972). Pete K's filming the tour documentary, including this discussion. Mike Ridell tells how the 16-strong company raised 100,000 NZ dollars NZ to fund getting on the plane. Through living so closely and by necessity economically together, they've got to know each other well. The result is the intimacy and tight production of their play.
Today's Fringe AM is topped and tailed by stunning performances from the play's Greek Chorus. Clare Adams, Keri Hunter, Trenamarie Nathan take the stage to elated applause. They give their superbly integrated dance, song and chant with art and delight - a glorious couple of sets. It's especially amazing at 10 am - when most respectable Fringe performers are crashed out in a debauched haze, generally in other people's beds. And that's something randy James K Baxter would have thoroughly approved.
END
John Park
reported Wednesday 13 August 03 / Edinburgh / St George's West
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2008
www.fringereport.com
