#edfringe2016: Theatre Témoin - The Marked ★★★★

The Marked caught me off guard. I knew it was a puppets show, but it was only until after I saw it that I realised that it had a special message about child abuse and alcoholism. Theatre Témoin has worked together with Everyday Theatre Cheltenham to raise social issues in an inventively raw way.  Its masks, designed by Grafted Cede Theatre, may be grotesque, yet their eyes and expressions are completely human.
  
Set in London’s groggy back streets and alleyways, Jack sleeps rough and sees demons whenever there’s a bottle of alcohol in front of his eyes. Theatre Témoin creates dramatic imagery of Jack’s horrific past through a puppet-made mother with blood flowing through her eyes and long spider-like arms whenever she takes to the drink.

There’s loud noises (you might want to cover your ears), and strobe lights in violent domestic scenes shown through neat and sharp puppetry work. The most unsettling scene is seeing Jack’s mother break a bottle and stab Jack, the little puppet boy, on the neck. Yet there’s a tiny bit of humour with talking Pigeon puppets, some that come in human-size as Jack’s company on the lonely streets. 

Not everything seems to make sense in The Marked, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The moral of the story is clear - drink responsibly, especially if you have children, but also remember that children soak things up fast from a very young age, which eventually creeps up with them later on in their adult life. 

Director Aillin Conant gives us a lesson worth remembering, and its cast shake and move on the stage with energy and dynamism. Extraordinary performances are worth naming here. Dorie Kinnear plays the pregnant girlfriend who hides away  in squatting areas with her abusive boyfriend, played by Tom Stacy. Bradley Thompson is a vital force performing the role of abused victim Jack. His character is much to sympathise with, and he cleverly captures the soul of a boy seeking his mother’s love. 

In The Marked, the imagination is there to raise these issues to a broader audience. For topics that can often be difficult to discuss, Theatre Témoin breaks the foil and allows its audiences to have a larger debate about it. 

This show has ended at the Edinburgh Fringe. More information about Theatre Témoin can be found here. They are showing The Marked in London, Cheltenham and throughout the UK until Spring 2017. Click here for more information. 

#edfringe2016: Manual Cinema - Ada/Ava ★★★★

 Lizi Breit (Ava) and Julia Vaarsdale Miller (Ada)

Ada/Ava by Manual Cinema is a quirky presentation of shadow puppetry and emotional sentimentality, and there’s no hiding from its creators; they reveal the creative process live to the audience as it happens. Manual Cinema takes you on a surreal journey of two elderly twins, close as best friends, ever since childhood, until one of the sisters dies.

It is the sad realisation that Ada and Ava are no longer together, which devastates and resonates the most with this show, which Manual Cinema captures beautifully through its touching narrative and unique artistry. 

Directors Drew Dir, Sarah Fornace, Ben Kauffman, Julia Vanarsdale Miller (who also performs as Ada) and Kyle Vegter have been successful in North America and won an award in 2014 at the Tehran International Festival. They made their European debut at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe at the Underbelly, which had many audience members give the theatre company a standing ovation on the day I attended. 

The craftsmanship takes place on simple projectors with ready-made images for projecting onto a large white screen. Below Lizi Breit (Ava) and Julia Vaarsdale Miller (Ada) mill around, creating the story of the sisters with various masks, hair buns and old granny clothes to match. 

Ready-to-use cut-outs and stencils are carefully placed to show the audience an animated tale of life, death, and memory. Flying back to their youth, the twins are shown playing fondly together in the sea, watching their feet catch the splashes of waves, yet melancholy arises when the dead sister becomes a skeleton - a fear the other sister doesn’t want to accept. 

Musicians Maren Celest, Michael Hilger, Kyle Vegter and Alex Ellsworth play a huge part of the show by creating the solemn, atmospheric music with a guitar, Rhodes piano, cello, clarinet, synthesizer and live sound effects. This emotional tale can be dramatic and deeply philosophical. One may feel the need to call a loved one immediately after seeing this. 

Ada/Ava are not longer showing at the Edinburgh Fringe, but click here for more information about Manual Cinema. 

#edfringe2016: Opera Bohemia - La Traviata ★★★★★

La Traviata is Opera Bohemia’s seventh production and for the first time they are performing a work by Verdi. The independent opera company has been touring around Scotland ever since July and last night they performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in St Cuthbert’s Church.

There’s no denying the vitality of music in La Traviata – based on the story that has inspired films including Pretty Woman and Moulin Rouge - which explains why the venue had packed out. Music Director Alistair Diggs has a way of conducting, which is almost like a performance in itself. He gave clear instructions where the ensemble of musicians followed, giving a refined performance and gravitating the music towards a more poetic and highly structured tone. The pace was neither fussy or rushed.

Catriona Clark is a starry diva as Violetta - the courtesan who dies of consumption. Clark is a vocal lecturer and consultant, outside of her opera singing, which speaks volumes about her own abilities, which is supremely impressive. Her ability to move up and down scales with little effort, or at least what seems like little effort, is astounding. Her performance of sempre libera was thrilling and had audiences gleefully bouncing to and fro in their seats. She also engages with the text and presents an excellent understanding of Violetta's disposition, making her performance a memorable one I'd happily see again.

Together with Alfredo, performed by Thomas Kinch, they convince the audience of a true romance. His characterisation is confident and fresh, and he sings with clear Italian and warmth to suit. Aaron McAuley as Giorgio Germont combines all those anti-hero characteristics one would expect from a selfish father. Yet McAuley pays special attention to Germont’s better qualities in the last few acts. His voice is also rich and his duets with Clark in act II are pivotal.  

This La Traviata sparkles with great voices, sentimentality, and thoughtfulness.  Even the detailed staging by Director Doughlas Nairne, is carefully managed, which changes in each act. It seems as if Opera Bohemia has covered every corner of their production, and what was performed in a small church seems as rich as an opera staged in a grand opera house. 

Opera Bohemia is no longer showing La Traviata at Edinburgh Fringe but will be at Old Kirk, Kirkcaldy on 27th August and in St John's-Renflield Church, Glasgow on 28th August. Click here for their website with more information. 

#edfringe2016: DugOut Theatre - Swanson ★★★★★

Imagine being stuck in the middle of the sea in a pedalo with a bunch of strangers with clashing personalities. The world has ended, there’s no way out of the flood, all you see is endless water and you’re left playing boring games like I spy or never have I ever. Not to mention you’re stuck paddling with a toff, vegan hippy, competitive fitness freak and a, somewhat, know-it-all. Well, imagine no more as Tom Black and Sadie Spencer’s have already written a hilarious play that’s currently showing at the Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33). 

DugOut Theatre’s Swansong is a bizarre concoction of a cappella singing, swan impersonations and cutting comedy. Watch as these four characters argue, sing and giggle over their post-apocalyptic mess. After carnivorously killing a passing swan, of which the vegan hippy enjoyed devouring, they decide to become new world warriors in hope of rebuilding the next generation. It’s a comical response to first world problems. 

They use a notebook as a place to list things they miss, such as chips and mayo, Provence and moon cups, and write down stories for the new generation. Sadly, the last page is limited down to either Bruce Willis or a poem about plums in your icebox.

Throughout the performance, the foursome sings calming ritual songs with the lyrics ‘Serene swan, beautiful swan…’ which only enhances the founders of the new world story. Ed Macarthur, Tom Black, Nina Shenkman and Charlotte Merriam are remarkable performers, and really know how to add extra punch to Black and Spencer’s words. George Chilcott's direction makes this an original and authentic show, totally worth running to see on the last days of the Edinburgh Fringe festival. 

Swansong runs at the Pleasance Theatre at 5pm until 29 August (not 16). Click here to purchase tickets. Click here for more information about DugOut Theatre. 

#edfringe2016: Magnetic Opera - La bohème ★★★★★

“Fucking Daily Mail” says Marcello as he, Rodolfo, Colline and Schaunard huddle together around a table to keep each other warm. It’s an empty room of hope with a lampshade, bookshelf and table to seem like home, except there’s no heat. The men need each other to keep their spirits high when the economy isn’t great in their pocket. Magnetic Opera teleports the frostiness of Puccini’s much-celebrated opera, La bohème to Lauriston Halls at Edinburgh Fringe, and it has all the imagination, talent and stage trickery to bring the Parisian 1830s to modern-day poverty.

Director Thomas Henderson’s production encompasses 360 degrees of talent from soloists, lighting design by Tom Turner to the orchestra of Magnetic Opera. Calum Fraser draws out the luster of Puccini’s score with Magnetic Opera's nine musicians, who perform with grace and fine detail. For Lauriston Halls, their musical touch is more than enough to capture Puccini’s music mastery. 

Francesca Matta and Ian McBain perform La bohème –a tale of love and lost in poor and cold conditions – as the lovers, Mimì and Rodolfo. Unexpected, Mimì knocks at Rodolfo’s door to ask for some light and they instantly fall in love, but love is torn apart when Mimì dies from the cold. This sentimental opera is performed heroically and touchingly by Magnetic Opera. All young singers charm and beguile the audience with amazing vocal flair and tenacity. 

McBain’s sings one of the most famous and romantic opera arias "What a cold little hand" with beauty and lyricism while Matta performs ‘Yes, they call me Mimì’ with sweetness and tremendous vocal power. James Schouten and Catriona Hewitson provide animated interpretations as macho Marcello and temptress Musetta - the parallel couple who swear and shout at each other even if they adore one another. 

After enduring Musetta’s flirting with every man at Café Momas, singing ‘When I go along’, Schouten’s Marcello caves in and sings delightfully with her and the gang including Jerome Knox, Sam Carl, Christopher Head who perform as Schaunard, Colline, Benoît and Alcindoro. 

Perhaps La bohème is the perfect type of opera to perform at the fringe. Think about it. Fringe is about performing artistic creativity, storytelling and presenting talent and expertise with very little budget, without the prettiness and polish of a grand establishment. Puccini encapsulated the aftermath of the revolution in France with artists struggling to make ends meet, and, as we know, through independent festivals like Edinburgh Fringe talent and passion for the arts is worth sharing to everyone, on any type of stage. 

Magnetic Opera are performing at 6pm on the 26th and 27th at Venue 163. Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Click here to books tickets. Click here for more information about the company. 

They are performing a new production of The Medium at London's Barons Court Theatre. Click here for more information. 

#edfringe2016: Katie Brennan's Quarter-Life Crisis ★★★★

 Jimmy Jewell and Stephen McGill present Katie Brennan's Quarter-life Crisis at the Underbelly – George Square that has toured around the Fringe scene and settled in Edinburgh for the last three weeks. What’s a quarter-life crisis anyway? I had to think about it because I know what a mid-life crisis is. It means 25-years-old, right? 

Being a twenty-something means (or meant) something different to everybody.  For Katie Brennan, it’s everything from finding any job in the big city, impressing the boys in the bedroom, trying to not misbehave at your best friend’s wedding, (but failing badly,) keeping up with Carrie Bradshaw trends on a budget and dreaming to be whatever you wanted to be – that is if you have a clue of what that is exactly. Paying expensive rent or dealing with unexpected stains on your satin dress comes part and parcel for Katie unfortunately.

She sings great songs performed with pianist Joseph Atkins. Her vocals sound as if they had fallen out of a musical, and she is a joy to listen to. Atkins also composed the musical slash cabaret tunes with witty lines that literally shoot at you when you least expect them – he is brilliant on the keys. The gags and humour can be graphic and too-in-ya-face, but it’s ideal for an audience awake at 10.50pm with G & T to keep them warm, which Katie pulls out of her bra.

An evening with Katie will not disappoint. It's full of laughs, and one to make you feel nostalgic about 90s pop songs including the likes of Spice Girls, Aqua, Britney, Vengaboys and much more, yet there’s also a touching source of hope and positivity to give the folks some life lessons. That includes killing our insecurities as if they were vampires and goblins and singing Doris Day’s Que Sara Sara, with the audience, to wash away the blues.

The show is going on until 29 August 2016 at the Underbelly - George Square. Click here to purchase tickets. 

#edfringe2016: Unseal Unseam, an electroacoustic opera - A White Boy Scream Production★★★★★

In the United States, 20 people are physically abused by a partner every minute, and 1 in 4 women in England and Wales experience domestic violence once in their lifetime. These disturbing numbers indicate the injustice that takes place at home, in private, and the lack of voices that are never given the chance to speak before it is too late. Straight from the West Coast, Unseal Unseam, by A White Boy Scream production, is an artistic performance showing at Venue 13. It comprises of many art forms, where the experience is, unbelievably, palpable, leaving audiences emotionally exhausted by the end of it. (Well, that’s how I felt anyway!)

Director and scenographer, Shannon Knox provides a mash-up of improvised music, opera, film, art installations, voice techniques and graphic imagery. Sound designer William Hutson, and videographers Giuliana Foulkes and Asuka Lin work with Knox to make it all happen. This immersive experience makes audiences feel so many things, including anger and hatred for the male figure in the film who causes physical pain to our vulnerable victim Judith.

Composers Sharon Chohi Kim and Micaela Tobin have dished out parts from Bela Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle and Arnold Schoenberg’s Erwartung. The Hungarian and German composers have one thing in common, which includes melodrama and atonality; it is the way that their intense and highly atmospheric music feel real and seem to happen before your very eyes. 

Being a big fan of Bluebeard’s Castle made it easier for me to see some parallels between the abstract objects used in this performance and the many rooms Bluebeard’s wife enters before her ultimate demise in the opera. In a similar way, the stages of objects are utilized with deep effect. Armory, Blood Garden, Domain and Lake of Tears are just a few of these stages written on a piece of paper in real time, by the man behind the screen. At the same time, different types of torture take place on video, from wrapping aircraft cable around Judith's head to painful teeth flossing – the tortuous type that leaves blood on your lips. This grotesque list goes on.

Judith - the innocent victim - is performed by Tobin with stage wife Sara Sinclair Gomez. Both in long dresses, they move across the stage as the performance moves with the cycle of domestic violence. They produce beautiful vocal sounds in one duet, which goes back to Shakespeare’s Othello, specifically Desdemona’s Willow Song – it is the point where she knows her aggressive and jealous husband is about to murder her. There is a poignant scene where Sinclair Gomez looks as if she is suffocating Tobin. This reminded me of the harrowing moment the Moor attempts to kill is pure wife.  

From start to finish, there's five contact microphones active on stage, which heighten the sounds and echoes of each object: coins dropped in a jar, five foot long chains bashed onto the floor, sand poured onto the table and two butter knives repeatedly stabbing a white panel. The experience is uncomfortable and unsettling. Audiences won't come here for a good time, they'll come to learn and experience something new. Unseal Unseam is a political piece of art about domestic violence utilizing a kaleidoscope of artistic skills, sound techniques and philosophy to bounce onto. It's worth making a loud noise about. 

They are showing at Venue 13 until the 27th August. Click here for more information www.unsealunseam.com and purchase tickets here.