As Edinburgh gears up (or grinds to a halt) for the month of August as the Festivals descend, observatory at the National Art Service is here to offer views and reviews on performances of all shades. Seeing as the Fringe is well under way, it's high time we started reviewing some shows. First up, Beachy Head by Analogue Productions.
It is a shame when a production puts too much energy on the slick transition, rather than the genuine interaction. Beachy Head encapsulated the choice theatre companies have to make about where they put their resources. That is always a difficult choice to make, but important none-the-less. To disregard the possibility of the simple beauty possible by the best performances, Beachy Head will be no more than a visual curiosity, a well made but ultimately vacuous examination of suicide.
The storyline consists of the aftermath of a particular suicide at Beachy Head - a Stephen Mitchell (Sam Taylor) who takes his own life one stormy (of course) evening. We meet his wife, Amy Mitchell (Emma Jowett), distraught by her husbands untimely death. We meet Joe and Matt (Lewis Hetherington and Daniel Tobin respectively) who are documentary film makers who, having captured Stephen's fall during the filming of another documentary, become intrigued (obsessed?) about his case. They see themselves in him - sharing, handily enough, the same age and start to get embroiled in the grief of Amy. In the course of the documentary we also meet Dr Rachel Sampson, who conducts autopsies on the bodies of many of the Beachy Head suicides.
The story is straightforward enough and relatively well told. The script, by Dan Robellato, Emma Jowett and Lewis Hetherington, relies far too much on expositional dialogue to move itself forward. Some characters usefully need to have things explained to them, which is useful for us, I suppose, if a little tedious. The doctor character provides lots of useful facts and opinions about the difference between a body and a person, between a brain and a mind. The characters of the documentary makers are presumably meant to allow us to have interpreters of the drama, which seems reductive and not particularly much else. There were some limp attempts at humour - the only one that worked relied on recorded sound and neither performance nor script, funnily enough. I always wonder about a play with three writers. Wonder isn't necessarily the word, to be honest.
You can see that the directors, Liam Jarvis and Hannah Barker have taken a few leafs out of Katie Mitchell's recent work - they use the conceit of live filming to create another visual layer, mixing the live with the projected. Unfortunately what they did not manage to get to grips with was the power of Mitchell's work: making the audience see different, look differently. The reliance on CGI-style effects felt forced and unnecessary. It reminded us of the fakery we were seeing, rather than the other-truth that could have been created. The potential of multi-media work is immense and performances like this do a disservice to the possibilities of it.
The set design - partly done by Jarvis the director, with Laura Hopkins - is undoubtedly very put together and plays lots of fun and visually striking tricks. The scene changes all flow beautifully and some of the innovative ways of setting, resetting and framing the stage are all worthwhile. But that will never take from the fact that if you put an unfinished painting in a beautiful frame it will still not be great art. One can only imagine that the honesty and detail of performance was sacrificed in favour of bits of set that can move. The only performance of note was by Sam Taylor as the man who jumped off the cliff. While still not fulfilling the true potential of the role he ably handles a tricky passage of text before the faithful action. With a more considered and comprehensive direction he and his fellow actors might have had a chance.
For a show that poses some interesting questions and has some interesting ideas and a set more Fringe shows would kill for, they have just never managed to make the product coalesce into more than well choreographed scene changes. Which is, after all, just not good enough. This show may well do very well in this Fringe, but there is more that this could have been and that unfulfilled potential left me generally unmoved.
4 out of 10.
At the King Dome in the Pleasance Dome throughout August.
- James Grogan
It is a shame when a production puts too much energy on the slick transition, rather than the genuine interaction. Beachy Head encapsulated the choice theatre companies have to make about where they put their resources. That is always a difficult choice to make, but important none-the-less. To disregard the possibility of the simple beauty possible by the best performances, Beachy Head will be no more than a visual curiosity, a well made but ultimately vacuous examination of suicide.
The storyline consists of the aftermath of a particular suicide at Beachy Head - a Stephen Mitchell (Sam Taylor) who takes his own life one stormy (of course) evening. We meet his wife, Amy Mitchell (Emma Jowett), distraught by her husbands untimely death. We meet Joe and Matt (Lewis Hetherington and Daniel Tobin respectively) who are documentary film makers who, having captured Stephen's fall during the filming of another documentary, become intrigued (obsessed?) about his case. They see themselves in him - sharing, handily enough, the same age and start to get embroiled in the grief of Amy. In the course of the documentary we also meet Dr Rachel Sampson, who conducts autopsies on the bodies of many of the Beachy Head suicides.
The story is straightforward enough and relatively well told. The script, by Dan Robellato, Emma Jowett and Lewis Hetherington, relies far too much on expositional dialogue to move itself forward. Some characters usefully need to have things explained to them, which is useful for us, I suppose, if a little tedious. The doctor character provides lots of useful facts and opinions about the difference between a body and a person, between a brain and a mind. The characters of the documentary makers are presumably meant to allow us to have interpreters of the drama, which seems reductive and not particularly much else. There were some limp attempts at humour - the only one that worked relied on recorded sound and neither performance nor script, funnily enough. I always wonder about a play with three writers. Wonder isn't necessarily the word, to be honest.
You can see that the directors, Liam Jarvis and Hannah Barker have taken a few leafs out of Katie Mitchell's recent work - they use the conceit of live filming to create another visual layer, mixing the live with the projected. Unfortunately what they did not manage to get to grips with was the power of Mitchell's work: making the audience see different, look differently. The reliance on CGI-style effects felt forced and unnecessary. It reminded us of the fakery we were seeing, rather than the other-truth that could have been created. The potential of multi-media work is immense and performances like this do a disservice to the possibilities of it.
The set design - partly done by Jarvis the director, with Laura Hopkins - is undoubtedly very put together and plays lots of fun and visually striking tricks. The scene changes all flow beautifully and some of the innovative ways of setting, resetting and framing the stage are all worthwhile. But that will never take from the fact that if you put an unfinished painting in a beautiful frame it will still not be great art. One can only imagine that the honesty and detail of performance was sacrificed in favour of bits of set that can move. The only performance of note was by Sam Taylor as the man who jumped off the cliff. While still not fulfilling the true potential of the role he ably handles a tricky passage of text before the faithful action. With a more considered and comprehensive direction he and his fellow actors might have had a chance.
For a show that poses some interesting questions and has some interesting ideas and a set more Fringe shows would kill for, they have just never managed to make the product coalesce into more than well choreographed scene changes. Which is, after all, just not good enough. This show may well do very well in this Fringe, but there is more that this could have been and that unfulfilled potential left me generally unmoved.
4 out of 10.
At the King Dome in the Pleasance Dome throughout August.
- James Grogan
advanced array of Links of London charms robes de quinceanera . They all accept that signature glassy agency aural them forth with been so absolute contemporary fake titoni watches fake titoni watches . Let's just accept a attending into some of the things that may absorption you; Glassy biker boots, Bedrock & Cycle Key chains red high heel shoes red high heel shoes designer evening dresses , endearments such as 'love you' tory burch for sale tory burch for sale , 'Access All Areas' engraved in
v neck wedding dresses v neck wedding dresses one shoulder dress one shoulder dress some types of fruits and vegetables such as berries, apple, pears, and some other vegetable is much recommended to do. fake rolex However, if you bother to eat those fruits and vegetables, you can also simply have multivitamins. By providing enough vitamin and minerals as the nutrition for your body cell, sweetheart neckline dresses sweetheart neckline dresses healthy and beautiful lips could
flowers girls dress wedding w?ll bcelebrated . Of course, mt thtime , wedding being held thcommunity area thbride d thgroom. Marrangement w?th th. Pl wh wϦd bthwedding dresses th thbride wϦd wear. Thtraditional ones, bride uses twear one f thceremony d th