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Latest items? Unedited? Fringe Report Uncut
Behind The Net Curtains
Steve Furst
Verdict: Stunning dramatic characterisation
Hemel Hempstead - The Old Town Hall - July 05
Behind The Net Curtains is 60 minutes of drama and comedy. There are 7 characters in sequence, live and on film, all played by Steve Furst.
Dave Pike is a failed stuntman with a string of disasters such as the death of Oliver Reed in his past - and a recollection of Rod Hull's philosophy. In the preview, he appears alone on film. For Edinburgh, he introduces his protege.
Clive Perkins is a sadly with-it middle-aged solicitor giving up all to join a teenage street-gang.
Jinaid Al Shareef is a Lebanese failed terrorist and ex Iraq restaurateur. His kidnap in Beirut of journalist Jim Smedley turned sour when Jim turned out only to be the Hampstead and Highgate Gazette's puzzle-setter.
Percy Slocombe aka The Feeder, in brown wig and horn-rimmed glasses, with high-waisted trousers, struts worryingly. He's bought food for his unseen 38-stone wife Madeleine. 'With every pound gained, I'm more aroused', he confides.
Maurice Glickman aka Morri Mo Money in bouffant curly wig is the publisher of Pamphlet of Flange, and proprietor of Morri Mo's Pornographic Palace of Pleasure. Slogans include 'Oral without. Without teeth', and 'Madge sucks like a Dyson'. This character is dropped for the Edinburgh show.
Queenie is the 'son of an aristocrat house', with protruding lip. He houses a horrifying and unexpected cachet of violenc. It's a fabulously sinister characterisation - the high spot of the show.
Mickey Gibbs, chav landlord. 'I am a white tiger pouncing on a gay musician.' An ex-convict in baseball cap, he exudes menace as he outlines house-renting strategies. His views on Australians and asylum seekers are included.
Steve Furst is a writer and actor of profound and risky subtlety. In Behind The Net Curtains, he creates and delivers a set of characters ranging from the oafishly comic (Dave Pike), to the horribly strange (Queenie), and dangerously satirical - for different reasons - chav landlord Mickey Gibbs, Jinaid Al Shareef, Maurice Glickman. Every detail is observed; the costumes are exact and form a crucial part of the characterisation; the walks, the way clothes are worn, the stances - it is Imax-level characterisation.
The show presents characters, but looks very sharply at the relationship of character and performer. It is, for example, in practice not considered polite (to put it at its gentlest) for someone who is not a Jew to perform a gross character (Morri Mo Money aka Maurice Glickman) - or any character - who is a Jew. On the other hand, a performer who is a Jew cannot, under the same rules of present society, play an Arab stereotyped as a terrorist.
And no white man, such as Steve Furst, may play someone black, particularly someone violent talking in exaggerated street language. (Ali G uses an elaborate mechanism of not being black, and as comedy). Although the performer is white, some may feel that landlord Mickey Gibbs doesn't come across as a white man. He's presented as middle-aged - too old to be white and using cross-cultural language. It's a very risky position for a performer to take.
Risk, and using comedy to drive a spike into extreme characterisation are key elements of Steve Furst's writing and performance. This is not a show for the easily offended. It is worrying, strange, perceptive, funny, disturbing, intelligent, dramatic. There are no dull moments.
Cast Credits: All characters by Steve Furst - Dave Pike (narrator); Clive Perkins (solicitor); Jinaid Al Shareef (kidnapper); Percy Slocombe (feeder); Morri Mo Money aka Maurice Glickman (pimp - not in Edinburgh show); Queenie; Mickey Gibbs (chav landlord).
Company Credits: Show and film written and directed by Steve Furst. Technical Operator (Edinburgh) - Nic Watson. PR - Paul Sullivan and Kim Morgan. Management - Richard Bucknall at Richard Bucknall Management. Venue Credits Old Town Hall, Hemel Hempstead: Technical Operator (tonight): Jess Johnstone. Artistic Director - Sara Railson. Box Office - Jo Bull, Wendy Hodgins.
END
John Park
reviewed Wednesday 13 July 05 / Old Town Hall, Hemel Hempstead
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012
www.fringereport.com
