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drinks Monday 2 June 08
DUBLIN ... Colman Higgins describes the scope and history of Dublin Gay Theatre Festival ... and reviews two of its shows ... Down Dangerous Passes Road ... Confessions of A Mormon Boy /// LONDON ... film on now ... La Question Humaine / Heartbeat Detector /// BRIGHTON ... It's on till 26 May and here's at least 20 Things you might want to know about Brighton Fringe /// PEOPLE ... Who was there at Fringe Report's First Monday 5 May - photographs & article /// CULTURE ... One Culture ... film screening 30 May booking now ... details
Denim
Verdict: Comedy characters
Edinburgh - Pleasance Courtyard - 3-29 Aug 05 (not 15th) - 19:35
Denim is an hour of gentle comedy from character comic actor Steve Oram, with Kerry Gilbert and Alex Kirk.
All three dress in denim as mall-shoppers and mall-thieves to sing Denim. It's a ballad to middle of the road shopping-centre paradise, and tops and tails the show.
Stand-up Brian (Steve Oram) in baseball cap, chrome-green shellsuit top, black trousers, is a Beckenham geezer, born 1973. His pretty wife Denise (Kerry Gilbert), in grey shell bottoms and white top, is pregnant, but manages a slaggy pole-dance. Alex Kirk is their mate, who improvises as a doctor. They get in a car (chairs), but from where Brian's steering, Beckenham's switched to left-hand drive.
Alex Kirk and Kerry Gilbert are shop-lifting dad and disapproving daughter. They sing a Shirt-choosing and stealing song. American gay porn actor Darren Taylor (Steve Oram) reads from his memoirs, recalling his role in 'a homoerotic pastiche of The Godfather, Chip Off The Old Cock'; reflects on English mixer taps; dictates instructions to his manservant Peter (Alex Kirk); and remembers catching frisbees in the cheeks of his bottom in Baywatch.
Kerry Gilbert (a quarter of sketch group Edbert McGilbin) gives a comedy highlight of the night singing Waiting In The Coffee Shop For My Dad and smearing her face with beans - 'Now I'm crying tears of beans'.
Homophobic Gay Scottish Tramp (Steve Oram) in red knitted cap, duvet cloak, padded jacket, not much else, and dirty face, has most available prejudices, plus a can of beer. It's a brilliant pastiche of Scotland's London ambassadors and one of the night's several sharp vignettes of comedy characterisation.
Alex Kirk, as shoplifting dad, has a short song Shoplifting Gets 10 Out of 10; and sings an unusual song with a stuffed dog. Professor Bruce Du Vivier (Steve Oram) in jacket, tie, grey trousers, and glasses, and his autistic PhD student Jenny Curtis (Kerry Gilbert) in red sweater, sensible skirt, and bunned hair, give a lecture on archaeology. Bruce disintegrates mentally, and Jenny goes blank on the audience.
American country-and-western singer Steve Woman (Steve Oram), accompanied by Miss Dorothy Perkins (Kerry Gilbert) in cowboy hat and peach mini, sings All You Need Is Corrugated Iron. He's in lumberjack shirt, gold choker, blue jeans (denim, of course), cowboy boots, bouffant hair. Steve Woman sings a pervy song about following a fellow-drinker home, the Lou Reed-like Connection 'from my new album, Wishing My Legs Would Work'. Steve Woman's speeches are littered with bon mots 'Putting a man into space is like putting a pig into boxer shorts. It ain't quite as good as you think it's going to be.' He's joined by H Samuel (Alex Kirk) in stetson for a cowboy song Winchester
It's an enjoyable hour from 3 gifted performers with the benefit of a shared background in legendary, but sadly now finished, Ealing Live!. With its emphasis on teamwork between performers, there are no egos trying to outdo each other, and tonight is a good example of how three talented people can share a stage easily together - and it shows.
The graceful and pretty Kerry Gilbert brings her sharp sense of the comedy inherent in ordinary life-experiences to a set of characters, each of which she creates differently.
Alex Kirk is a roguishly handsome lad, well-known from many tv appearances and countless parts in comedy and drama on the fringe. His characters tonight range from the almost-real to the hopefully imaginary, all delivered with charisma.
Steve Oram tallish, slimmish, good-looking chap with a face a passing grandma would call bonny. It's the ish that's handy in his characterisations, letting him slip easily into an enormous range of skins over recent years. They're always people almost-known, the litter at the edges of everyone's lives. His frankly mad Professor Bruce Du Vivier; jack-the-lad South London Brian; b-list actor Darren Taylor; nutcase Scottish Tramp; c-list singer Steve Woman, are characters from the sidelines, often passed uninspected. Steve Oram turns his optimistic spotlight on each of them, and in doing so, releases their humanity - and allows their beauty to be revealed.
Cast Credits: (alpha order): Kerry Gilbert, Alex Kirk, Steve Oram.
Company Credits: Writer, script and lyrics - Steve Oram. Backing tracks performed and written by Steve Oram. Director - David Sant. Technical Operator (tonight) - Nic Watson; (Edinburgh) - Pleasance Staff. Agent - Lisa Thomas at Karushi. Producer - Underhand.
END
John Park
reviewed Wednesday 6 July 05 / Hen & Chickens Theatre
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2008
