RAPPORT FRINGE ... MARGINAAL VERSLAG ... FRINGE BERICHT
Reviewing fringe theatre, film, art and performance in London and internationally credits
home
|
about
|
news
|
gossip
|
venues
|
brighton
|
dublin
|
edinburgh
|
film
|
features
|
interviews
|
awards
|
fashion
|
recipes
|
drinks Monday 5 January 09
|
newsletter
|
links
|
contact
Your ideas on sponsorship? details
Plat du Nuit - The Comeback Special
Verdict: Probing the boundaries of theatre
Edinburgh - Gilded Balloon - August 03
Wheelchair-bound pianist Keys McAlpine and faded matineé idol Teddy Dish are back on tour as Plat du Nuit - Dish of The Day. But are they musically competent? And will their simmering hostility go nuclear?
The lads are on with This Is Our Opening Song / It Goes On Far Too Long. The set's a chrome stool and mic stand for Teddy; a table with a bunch of roses, cup, saucer, and mobile phone. There's an electric piano and mic for Keys, with small blue beer-light.
Teddy's glam, but Keys is not to be out-dappered. His wheelchair's polished, he's in grey linen jacket, black shirt, yellow tie, horn-rimmed glasses, and flashes a steel ring on the 2nd finger of his left hand - so, they're not married. Teddy's in black leather trousers and shoes, white linen jacket, matching black open-neck shirt - with lapels over the jacket á la Butlins - and a rose pinned to his lapel. Last time they split up, it was Teddy who ran: 'I left, breaking his heart like a sailor might casually break wind'.
It's the intro to a fine rock and roll piece, Baby, Let's Break Up. Teddy goes for a costume change, returning in blue denim jacket, and white vest shirt. The jacket's off for Oh - Banstead, Surrey - 'a power ballad, we're taking you on a journey'. And with visual aids: Teddy draws a black curtain revealing, on black background, the silver-etched skyscrapers of Surrey's most charismatic suburb. As he puts it: 'Banstead - what does it mean?'
It's 'get to know you time'. Teddy puts on a black shirt and white jacket, sits in the front row, and explains, in Mid-Atlantic accent, their two most-asked questions - Why the phoney accent? Why the wheelchair? All is revealed, and sharks are involved.
Songs include: A spoof West-End musical song Shaving Against The Grain. A duet dedicated to Teddy's past in boy-band Days Of The Year ('365 boys - it took us 3 weeks to break up), The Future Chews You Up And Spits You Out. The show's highlight, The Windshield Lover, recalls Teddy's encounter with a dead pedestrian he'd 'skittled' in a bus queue while drunk-driving ('You know you burst into my life'), and fallen in love with ('This paralysed beauty with the pebble-dash face') - it's gloriously obscene and well-written.
There's Teddy's magnificently dire (and costumed) Venus Fly-Trap: The Musical - strap-line 'An insect that falls in love with a house-plant' - featuring Teddy as fly Prince Theolonius and Keys as wheelchair-bound flytrap Queen Tutenlectra. Insecticide Side By Side sets the tone, ending with It's A Love That Will Never Die / You're A Green Plant And I'm A Fly.
Plat Du Nuit concludes with the duet Echo Love.
Plat Du Nuit is a complex piece of work, highly experimental in its treatment of theatre, and falling outside most conventional categories. Jim Johnson (Keys McAlpine) and Adam Riches (Teddy Dish) create two startling and original characters in a play that continually nudges the boundaries of conventional theatre.
At one level, it's a story about two characters in delusion about their talent. At another it's a comedy (with some strapping one-liners). At another, a poignant drama about disability - both are disabled in different ways. At another, a question about the nature of performance - as to whether it is it a drama, or 'real' cabaret, from the tawdry world of c-class clubs and stages, and the dream-filled losers who fodder them.
It's a world that, as actors, both have recently explored with associated production companies: Jim Johnson in Sad, and Adam Riches Dummer. Plat Du Nuit continues the high quality of the work of these two gifted performers.
Credits: Written, performed and directed by (alpha order): Jim Johnson (Keys McAlpine, piano) and Adam Riches (Teddy Dish, singer). Technical director - Jacob 'Jake' Wiltshire. Company - Tigco Productions.
END
John Park
reviewed Sunday 24 August 03 / Edinburgh / Gilded Balloon
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2008
www.fringereport.com
