A fine mix at the Fringe
2/03/2011 11:54:00 a.m.
Reviewed by Lynn Freeman
A CRAZY outdoor circus, a satirical twist on our current fixation with vampires, a curious small town love story – all part of the 2011 Fringe Festival mix.
Campground Chaos at Frank Kits Park is pure magic, from the tui trapeze artist to the flamed sausage-bearing unicyclist to the flying picnic table finale. This company of buskers set their circus in an ultra kiwi campground where anything can – and does – happen.
Joseph and Mahina (Bats) is a new play by one of the most productive playwrights in the country, Thomas Sainsbury. Two actors, Renee Lyons and Sainsbury, one first time director, Hera Dunleavy, and a story set in a small town where the closure of the meat works has devastated the community. An insecure Joseph arrives to work with the church youth group, and falls for 17 year old Mahina who’s full of spirit and determination to get out of town. Lyons is a knockout as Mahina, It’s a charming play that will linger in the memory.
Love in the Time of Vampires (Bats) is full of foul demons, psychopathic behaviour, blood, bad taste, melodrama and general weirdness. Shakespeare specialist David Lawrence has the overacting time of his life. Writer/Director Pachali Brewster has an over- abundance of material to satirise, he’s not afraid to dispense with good taste and the stage and actors are blood-splattered, as is the stage. It goes on far too long. Drowning in Veronica Lake (The Garden Club) remembers one of the Hollywood manufactured sex symbols whose flame went out faster than many other young starlets with more beauty than talent. Alex Ellis portrays Lake’s vulnerability, immaturity and desperation - along with her bravado, alcoholism and willfulness which made her few friends in the movie industry. Her mother was a nightmare, her stepfather a leach, and she loathed the peek-a-boo hairstyle that made her famous. Phil Ormsby’s script is elegantly written.
This Rugged Beauty is a deliberately curious little number You never quite know what is going on with the love story, When you close your eyes, as instructed, you may end up a bit damp or wind blown or even holding a plant. Hugely original and the last scene with the whales is strangely affecting.
So Much to Live For at Bats is also on the strange side, with ghostly characters trapped in a kind of limbo by their fears, be it love, failure or loneliness. There is a lot of engrossing material here, but it does flag before getting to the finale.
A CRAZY outdoor circus, a satirical twist on our current fixation with vampires, a curious small town love story – all part of the 2011 Fringe Festival mix.
Campground Chaos at Frank Kits Park is pure magic, from the tui trapeze artist to the flamed sausage-bearing unicyclist to the flying picnic table finale. This company of buskers set their circus in an ultra kiwi campground where anything can – and does – happen.
Joseph and Mahina (Bats) is a new play by one of the most productive playwrights in the country, Thomas Sainsbury. Two actors, Renee Lyons and Sainsbury, one first time director, Hera Dunleavy, and a story set in a small town where the closure of the meat works has devastated the community. An insecure Joseph arrives to work with the church youth group, and falls for 17 year old Mahina who’s full of spirit and determination to get out of town. Lyons is a knockout as Mahina, It’s a charming play that will linger in the memory.
Love in the Time of Vampires (Bats) is full of foul demons, psychopathic behaviour, blood, bad taste, melodrama and general weirdness. Shakespeare specialist David Lawrence has the overacting time of his life. Writer/Director Pachali Brewster has an over- abundance of material to satirise, he’s not afraid to dispense with good taste and the stage and actors are blood-splattered, as is the stage. It goes on far too long. Drowning in Veronica Lake (The Garden Club) remembers one of the Hollywood manufactured sex symbols whose flame went out faster than many other young starlets with more beauty than talent. Alex Ellis portrays Lake’s vulnerability, immaturity and desperation - along with her bravado, alcoholism and willfulness which made her few friends in the movie industry. Her mother was a nightmare, her stepfather a leach, and she loathed the peek-a-boo hairstyle that made her famous. Phil Ormsby’s script is elegantly written.
This Rugged Beauty is a deliberately curious little number You never quite know what is going on with the love story, When you close your eyes, as instructed, you may end up a bit damp or wind blown or even holding a plant. Hugely original and the last scene with the whales is strangely affecting.
So Much to Live For at Bats is also on the strange side, with ghostly characters trapped in a kind of limbo by their fears, be it love, failure or loneliness. There is a lot of engrossing material here, but it does flag before getting to the finale.
