Truly Ad-Mire-Able

Swamp Juice

Underbelly

Bunk Puppets and Scamp Theatre

(Originally published here)

*****

The award-winning Swamp Juice – from Bunk Puppets and Scamp Theatre – dazzles and entertains audiences of all ages. A story for children yet made with stagecraft for all, the puppeteering in this gloriously silly but astonishingly fun show is incomparable; the 3D sequence, in particular, must be seen to be believed.

Jeff Achtem performs his own devised piece to a three-person band, which provide a modest and technically astute backdrop to the otherwise solo show. The story is that of a swamp and the man who wants to dominate the animals in it. The only bit of discernible narrative is between the man and Birdy, an apparently nondescript chicken that flies, swims, and is extremely over-protective. We meet snails, worms, and monsters – and Achtem isn’t afraid to be scary, although he warns us of when he will be with the most charming of smiles – and travel on and through water.

However, the story doesn’t really matter. It is the brilliant and almost filmic sequences of shadow puppetry that delight the entire audience. The moments of audience interaction are not overplayed and there is never any sense of being patronised by Achtem, even when he is handing out inexplicably wobbly props to unsuspecting (but nonetheless willing) members of the audience. The equipment onstage is simple – mostly made of recognisable household objects – but has the power to astound. We can zoom in, cut between scenes, show two things at once, be in the dark but still see, and have fish fly in our faces.

The 3D sequence deserves a special mention as one of the most astounding visual effects that I have ever seen in a theatre. Although you don’t think it will be successful, the outstanding innovation behind this piece of work had grown men ducking in their seats to avoid being hit by a jellyfish – or rather, the shadow of a jellyfish, most likely made out of something as simple as tissue paper.

This is family entertainment at its best – adults will be as interested in Swamp Juice as children. It’s sure to be a hot ticket and will sell out quickly – there were people standing in the aisles on its first night – so book early to watch this remarkable performance.

Ups and Downs

Duality

ZOO Southside

Pair Dance / Colchester Arts Centre / Escalator East to Edinburgh

(Originally published here)

**

Pair Dance’s piece aims to combine movement with other technology, and to create a work that embodies “multimedia” by showing that dance and projection (specifically in 3D) can co-exist. The show that has been produced is, in reality, a somewhat stilted production, which although having some shining moments feels flat and borders on uninteresting.

Harriet Macauley, co-founder of the company and director, choreographer and a dancer in this piece, attempts to map a modern-day lifestyle by demonstrating sterility, repetition and the machine-like workings of everyday life. In the first part (“Interview”) the dancers are intimidated by the audience’s judging eye, cleverly alternating between graceful floor sequences and brutal – and occasionally ungainly – falls. The second part, “Machine”, is a section that fails to be memorable and after a while feels unnecessarily long, the point about repetition made quite early on and less powerful in its continued extrapolation.

‘Battle’, however, is the weakest section. A predictable and fairly conventional pas de deux, this sequence involved a lot of circling and running, interspersed with stilted and lack-lustre fight sections. The additional speech that was inserted did not help to illuminate this section or assuage the slightly cringe-worthy atmosphere around it. This subsequent ‘Scientific’ section, billed as one of the show’s selling points with its inclusion of 3D imagery, was underwhelming in terms of content and technically flawed. In fact, that the inclusion of 3D imagery – images of the same dancers in the piece – seems an odd decision to make. Even if the 3D had been perfect, why watch mediated projections of dancers instead of the dancers themselves? Any content in the choreography of this section was overlooked because of its gimmicky form.

The piece’s saving grace comes in the final section, which was the most powerful despite the notable lack of conventional choreography. A combination of particularly good scoring (by Richard Leonard), and a simple but meaningful use of the dancers at this point made this moment powerful and thought-provoking. Sadly, this revelation comes too late for most, and one is left with the thought that the forms with which the piece experiments work better alone: perhaps not a conclusion the company was aiming for.

Vital Watching

Vitamin

ZOO

Carlo Jacucci

(Originally published here)

*****

It’s pretty hard to describe this one-man show without either sounding obtuse, ignorant or both. What “Vitamin” entails is fifty-five minutes of inexplicably wonderful comic theatre that gets you to laugh uproariously, pretty much continuously, for reasons that are either beyond my faculties or remain totally mystical.

Carlo Jacucci (Ecole Phillippe Gaulier) is our guide – or rather, our entertainer – for the evening, taking us through completely unrelated but consistently brilliant sketches that range from the bizarre – ‘The Saddest Song in the World’, played on the accordion accompanied by various vocal wailings – to the sublime: I have never seen a caterpillar impersonated so accurately and with such charm. We wander, apparently randomly, through a series of technically brilliant and madcap sequences that are ‘about life’, a claim on the programme that is both met and destroyed in this production.

Jacucci is a master clown, always deadpan and always in control of the increasingly hysterical audience, throwing out his opening gambit (a nod, and a suave ‘goood…’) at precise intervals, inviting them to continue reeling in their seats. He uses nonsense to confound us and truth to win us over, never taking himself too seriously, nor ever being fazed by anything the audience does. An example of his steady confidence: he summarised the first few minutes of the play to latecomers in physical form – twice – and still managed to keep us on his side.

There is no doubt that this is a clown act that you want to succeed. It doesn’t make sense, there is no narrative and there is no political message, but if you want to laugh and laugh this is the show for you. Jaccuci has struck gold with his secure, knowledgeable and charming style, and he will leave you laughing uncontrollably at what could only be described as pure physical comedy.

Great Rambling, Wrong Room

Rambling in an Empty Room

Sweet Grassmarket

Chien Tzu-Ting, Huang Ching-Yu / The Key Physical Theatre

(Originally published here)

***

This dance project from Taiwan is entirely improvised by its two performers in a style similar to Western contemporary dance. What results depends on their interpretation of the music, lights, interaction with each other and blind sense. This is a great idea in theory, but the extent to which it works for an entire show is limited: there are moments when the dancing stops completely, or one of the dancers’ otherwise faultless attention drops off and something doesn’t work as well in execution as in theory. The constant switches in lighting also do not help; you feel occasionally as though the dancers are trying to keep up with a slightly over-excited technician wreaking havoc with the footlights.

The dancers, however, are masters at what they do. There are endless contact improvisations that almost appear rehearsed in their synchronisation; duet-like sequences with the two performers effortlessly coordinating their movement; and stunning solo amalgamations that demonstrate high levels of creativity and fitness.

The show is worth a watch for the grace of the performers, but you can’t help but think that it has been staged in the wrong place. A stint of dance improvisation would perhaps work better where observers were less pressured into accepting the movement provided: “rambling” elsewhere, outdoors perhaps, or in a live gallery. This said, the dancers are skilled enough to just about get away with it in its current format, and what they produce makes for forty minutes of high-octane, cheerful and skilled performance.

Needs A Tinkerbell

Peter Panic

Pleasance Dome

Function Theatre

(Originally published here)

***

James Baldwin’s “Peter Panic” is billed as a response piece to last year’s London riots, placing the known and loved Peter and Wendy of JM Barrie’s “Peter Pan” into a bizarre, intriguing and occasionally offensive piece of new writing. Set in a familiar-looking room that swelters claustrophobically in the August heat, the play explores issues of blame and national unity alongside an almost Oedipal triangle (if such a phenomenon exists).

The country’s gone to the dogs, the looters have been told they can do what they want and no one is allowed to get pregnant: adoption is the only way forward. Wendy has grown up and married the Prime Minister – a liberal democrat who is nauseatingly sexist and oddly distracted – and they adopt Peter, now a thirteen-year-old with some social misconduct problems. The play is set the evening before Wendy’s birthday, and decisions have to be made over who is responsible for the country’s downfall – and more importantly, who should be blamed.

It’s a fascinating take on the potential political machinations behind the riots last year, and although occasionally containing unnecessarily “explicit content” – it’s my belief that the whole love-triangle fiasco could be removed without too much detriment to the rest of the play – the acting is good and the final twist a clever one. The re-employment of other recognisable Barrie characters – the Lost Boys, the fairies, Tinkerbell – is clever, and there are moments of comic brilliance.

When the play finishes – fairly dramatically, with some of of Barrie’s own lines being used to great effect – you come away with a sense that you’ve just seen something that is clearly politically motivated without much explanation as to why. The message is convoluted by the other tensions of the play, making it overall a useful and uncomfortable hour that perhaps lacks a little focus.

Foer Too Much Happened

Everything Else Happened

Assembly Roxy

Dream Epic

(Originally published here)

***

This adaptation of the short stories of Jonathan Safran Foer, whilst having moments of brilliance, ultimately comes short. The lead-up to the final (albeit wonderful) reveal is a little too long, and there are moments where the piece feels unjustifiably obtuse both in terms of writing and presentation. That said, the performance includes one of the best, almost silent, monologues that makes up for the first forty-five minutes – at least in part.

The piece is split into four monologues that seem unrelated but hold resounding significance when the common factor is revealed in the final monologue. It would perhaps have been helpful to have had some sort of indication of the information that links the four together, as the company are already trying many complex things with each section of text. Perhaps one less unknown earlier on would have made for a less confusing experience.

However, the piece has merit in its artistic decisions: there is a clever ongoing motif with people speaking from the dead through the medium of a tape recorder, and GIF-like projection which, although occasionally distracting, is used to its full potential throughout the piece. We hear monologues from an over-protective grandmother, a grieving husband, and an ageing magician, as well as the apparent spokesman for the family who presents a brief and beautiful explanation of the different types of silence that they all use in conversations.

It’s worth going to see this just for the last monologue – although the others too are interesting and well-acted, if not somewhat hastily delivered – but it comes too late to explain away the confounding format in which the information we are provided with in the former three is presented. This unfortunately detracts from the otherwise emotional tug that the piece attempts to effect.

Human Nietzsche

Swamp Juice

Underbelly

Bunk Puppets and Scamp Theatre

(Originally published here)

*****

The award-winning Swamp Juice – from Bunk Puppets and Scamp Theatre – dazzles and entertains audiences of all ages. A story for children yet made with stagecraft for all, the puppeteering in this gloriously silly but astonishingly fun show is incomparable; the 3D sequence, in particular, must be seen to be believed.

Jeff Achtem performs his own devised piece to a three-person band, which provide a modest and technically astute backdrop to the otherwise solo show. The story is that of a swamp and the man who wants to dominate the animals in it. The only bit of discernible narrative is between the man and Birdy, an apparently nondescript chicken that flies, swims, and is extremely over-protective. We meet snails, worms, and monsters – and Achtem isn’t afraid to be scary, although he warns us of when he will be with the most charming of smiles – and travel on and through water.

However, the story doesn’t really matter. It is the brilliant and almost filmic sequences of shadow puppetry that delight the entire audience. The moments of audience interaction are not overplayed and there is never any sense of being patronised by Achtem, even when he is handing out inexplicably wobbly props to unsuspecting (but nonetheless willing) members of the audience. The equipment onstage is simple – mostly made of recognisable household objects – but has the power to astound. We can zoom in, cut between scenes, show two things at once, be in the dark but still see, and have fish fly in our faces.

The 3D sequence deserves a special mention as one of the most astounding visual effects that I have ever seen in a theatre. Although you don’t think it will be successful, the outstanding innovation behind this piece of work had grown men ducking in their seats to avoid being hit by a jellyfish – or rather, the shadow of a jellyfish, most likely made out of something as simple as tissue paper.

This is family entertainment at its best – adults will be as interested in Swamp Juice as children. It’s sure to be a hot ticket and will sell out quickly – there were people standing in the aisles on its first night – so book early to watch this remarkable performance.