#edfringe2016: Ghost Quartet: Summer Hall ★★★★★

Dave Malloy - Photography by Ryan Jansen

A 9pm showing of Ghost Quartet, by Ghost Quartet, was how I spent my last night at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Set at the Roundabout, a large tent at the back of Summer Hall, encased musical curiosities and explorations of ghost stories read to fringe audiences in a spectacular blend of music styles. Jazz, slow rock, gospel, ballad or emo, call it what you want, but one thing's for sure and that's that the music is a collection of crafty creativity you've never heard of before. 

The music and lyrics were composed and written by New York-based Dave Malloy, and he has accolades to boast. Success from his off-Broadway hit Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 grabbed punters attention, and Ghost Quartet is a testament that his individual score writing prevails. 

There in a carpet floored, round swirl of eager music lovers, Molloy, Gelsey Bell, Brittain Ashford and Brent Arnold took to the small circle stage facing each other with a wide range of peculiar instruments at hand. This included an erhu, dulcimer, ukulele, Celtic harp, metallophone and their exhilarating, harmonising voices.

As the marketing suggests there are moments where audiences are left in the dark, encouraged to listen to the music for itself and pay attention to the pivotal details of the ghostly tales. However, the performance as a whole isn't linear or perhaps it is and I may have missed the punch; there are patchy mentions of a broken camera, a talking bear, a Thelonious monk, an astronomer, a man that dies in a subway and lost sisters reunited, but all seem unrelated, and somehow related. 

Arnold is an intelligent cellist. Malloy is the man with a capital M - a pioneering rhythm-maker, while Armold and Bell produce the most amazing vocal sounds that can bring you to tears in their solo ballads. 

Engaging talent, enthusiasm, and passion are harmoniously harnessed by Ghost Quartet. I'd highly recommend this to anyone who loves soul and the idea of clapping and stomping until their hands and feet hurt, to the sound of loud percussions instruments. 

Edinburgh Fringe 2016 has ended, but click here to find more information about Dave Malloy and hear samples of Ghost Quartet here.

Piaf at the Charing Cross Theatre ★★★★

Cameron Leigh as Piaf ©Gabriel Szalontai 

This year marks the century of the iconic French chanteuse Edith Piaf. To celebrate, Charing Cross theatre unleashes Pam Gem's play, Piaf, directed by Jari Laakso, which was first staged in 1978. The play is quite an eye opener. It pulls away the glamour of Piaf's singing career for the part of Piaf’s life that we are not so familiar with.

As much as she was the Carnegie Hall super star, the play describes Piaf's earlier poverty-stricken life, as potty-mouthed Édith Giovanna Gassion, brought up by prostitutes, and addicted to alcohol and drugs. 

Piaf (Leigh) with husband, Marcel (Zac Hamilton) ©Gabriel Szalontai 

The script is clear-cut. The scenes move from episode to episode of her traumatic life. They are neatly interlinked with her record-breaking songs including Padam, Padam and La Vie en Rose. It’s what keep the play musically alive alongside Cameron Leigh’s perfect performance of the international cabaret star.

The talented performer-musicians are also strong forces on stage, playing several roles in Piaf’s tragic journey. Stephanie Prior is impressive as Marlene Dietrich as well as Piaf's nurse. Samatha Spurgin is brilliant as Piaf's old time friend from the brothel, Toine. 

Leigh with Brian Gilligan, Mal Hall, Zac Hamilton, Philip Murray Warson and Kit Smith ©Gabriel Szalontai 

Brian Gilligan, Mal Hall, Zac Hamilton, Philip Murray Warson and Kit Smith add dashes of humour and electricity to the production, performing a variety of male roles that ruled Piaf's life including German soldiers in WWII, doctors, Louis Leplée (the club owner who discovered Piaf), Theo (her last husband) and police detectives who suspected her of murder. 


Leigh is the tour de force of the show. She nails the title role vocally, characteristically and physically. If you ever wanted to know what Piaf was like in real life, Leigh is your best bet. She can re-enact her every emotion effortless. Seeing her perform Non, je ne regrette rien is a gut-wrenching experience. Many members of the audience had tears in their eyes. However, one wonders if she really was as coarse as Gem depicts her - with an East London cockney accent but, just, the French version.

Scenes where Piaf discovers her husband, Marcel Cerdan had died in a plane crash or suffers from a car crash in 1951, with broken arm and ribs, are convincingly performed by Leigh. The audience pity Piaf's hard life.

If you’re a fan of Piaf, get a ticket now. Cameron Leigh's performance is simply mind-blowing.

Piaf (Leigh) with Toine (Samantha Spurgin)

Currently showing at the www.charingcrosstheatre.co.uk until January 2nd. Click on the link to purchase tickets. 
Director: Jari Laakso; Musical Arrangement and Supervision: Isaac McCullough; Movement Director: Katya Bourvis; Designer: Philippa Batt; Lighting Designer: Chris Randall.
Piaf is produced by Gillian Tan, Blackwinged Creatives, Steven M. Levy and Sean Sweeney.
For more theatre reviews on Trend Fem, click here. 
Dress rehearsal of Cavalleria Rusticana / Pagliacci at the Royal Opera House (Dec 2015)

Hapgood, Tom Stoppard, Hampstead Theatre (Dec 2015)

Henry V, The Royal Shakespeare Company, the Barbican (Nov 2015)

Harold Pinter's The Homecoming, Trafalgar Studio (November 2015)

Completely blown away by Cameron Leigh who sings the lead role of Edith #Piaf. @CharingCrossThr @PiafLondon pic.twitter.com/5qM6222jA8

— Mary Grace Nguyen (@MaryGNguyen) December 12, 2015

Reeps One - Debut art exhibition of the Beatboxing Champ

Originally featured on: http://www.ldncard.com/blog/reeps-one-debut-art-exhibition

A.D.O (Attention, Deficit and Order) is Reeps One aka Harry Yeff debut art exhibition that brings his musical talent - beat boxing - into the visual art world. Winner of the numerous beatbox championships and described by NME as a “vocal percussion on another level”, Yeff managed to impress spectators last night through his cleverly fresh exhibition that was categorized into four aspects: ‘visual art, sonic musical performance, the union of the audio and visual and the theoretical, neurological and anatomical insight.’ The exhibition may sound like a mouth full, but turned back cap Yeff spoke to everyone and anyone about his art, bringing clarity and order to what appeared disorderly.

Yeff is original, as a performance artist and visual artist that can talk articulately about why and how he creates what he does. The force behind the exhibition derives from Yeff’s past where he was initially diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder and dyslexia at a very young age. However, by human error, he was told later on that it was a misdiagnosis.  Through this experience, he expresses how irrelevant labels and names are in people’s mental processes, which society says otherwise. 

As you enter the exhibition, you see a flawless girl’s face photographed by Ben Hopper, with thick pen marks and trails prescribed by Yeff called ‘Slant Array#3.’  Then, enter the first room with a chess board in the centre surrounded by a mass of what looks like graffiti art through over indulgent black felt tip pen marks and cartoon drawings on large white pieces of paper. However, on closer inspection, it’s actually logical. Yeff’s piece, ‘Beatbox Theory’ presents his thought processes and musical sequences when producing sounds with his mouth. Through ‘Marks and Thought Process,’ a collection of 12 paper drawings, Yeff explained how the chessboard and its players go through a paradox when strategizing which pieces to move that suddenly transform into a spontaneous reaction which represents his thinking process as he draws.

 

 

In one room, viewers can watch videos of Yeff producing art, beat boxing in the studio and performing at the Elgar Rooms at the Royal Albert Hall. In another room, there was an opportunity for people to attempt beat boxing on the mike and watch their vocal cords produce symmetrical cymatic patterns. 

 

The highlight of the night was his live audio and visual performance where he beatboxed a combination of deep funky house, jungle and dub step tunes. Behind him was a backdrop of a live view of a speaker with white power and liquid bouncing, fluttering and shaking to the vibrations of his beatboxing bass sounds with the support of Linden Jay and Zach Walker.

 

Some may think Yeff’s art conveniently sits with Banksy and Shepard Fairey but since he is an established music artist as well, his work won't need to fit in. He has set a new trend, which he has clearly conveyed. The exhibition runs until the 27^th but this Saturday 22^nd he shall be drawing live and beatboxing in the dark.