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Latest items? Unedited? Fringe Report Uncut
Blue Velvet
Verdict: Monsters in the mind?
There's a sense of impending menace from the moment Jeffrey Beaumont (Joshua Goddard) finds a human ear.
He brings it home in a carrier-bag, takes photographs - and confides in girl-next-door Sandy (Chantelle Moore) what he's going to do.
Jeffrey suspects that night-club-singer Dorothy Vallens’ (Suzanne Schaefli) is involved. He plans to take the ear to the police and break into her flat.
David Lynch's film 'Blue Velvet' happened in a small American town. This play is set in a more anonymous place, with a disturbingly more universal resonance. When Dorothy discovers Jeffrey, accuses him of voyeurism, strips him and gives him a blow-job, a deep sense of strangeness intrudes.
The Fantastics (Laurence Jackson and Lucy Samuel) double as police-officers - suggesting there is normality somewhere. But their main function is to change scenes by moving and becoming the furniture. This fantastical furniture is variously seating, a telephone-stand, and a bed. It can curl round the actors offering comfort and support. It partially hides the sex-scenes - suggesting extremes.
Jeffrey is drawn further into the sexual, drug-induced and violent scenarios that Dorothy, Frank Booth (Alex Walker) and Ben (Chris Harker) control. Sandy is his contact with the real world; until the fantasy intrudes - and is destroyed in one short, sharp, explosive scene.
Jeffrey’s journey thrills, threatens, shocks and surprises. Does he imagine it? As the Fantastics disappear under his bed, enigma remains.
Cast Credits (alpha order): Joshua Goddard – Jeffrey Beaumont. Chris Harker – Ben. Laurence Jackson – A Fantastic. Chantelle Moore – Sandy. Lucy Samuel – A Fantastic. Suzanne Schaefli – Dorothy Vallens. Alex Walker – Frank Booth.
Company Credits: Directors – Kate Wasserberg & Donnacadh O’Briain. Set Design – Ingrid Hu. Costume design – Fiona Hopkins. Technical Operators - Venue Staff, Donnacadh O’Briain. Original Screenplay - David Lynch. Script adapted from screenplay by Kate Wasserberg & Donnacadh O’Briain. Company – A Hoodlum Massacre.
END
(c) Peter Andrews 2004
reviewed Wednesday 18 August 04 / Gilded Balloon
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012
www.fringereport.com
