#edinburgh2013

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Mmmm, maybe a little late...Edinburgh 2013 Review: HeLa, Summerhall (Adura Onashile and Oxide)

Although technically you might  have to classify it as such, to bill ‘HeLa’ as “half lecture, half theatre” seems an injustice to this poignant, thought-provoking, enlightening venture from Adura Onashile and Oxide. ‘HeLa’ is an exploration into the depths of cancer cell research from the early 1950s, focusing on cell samples taken from 31 year old Henrietta Lacks in 1951; cells which continue to change and influence scientific research to this day. The performance uncovers the woman behind the cells and serves as a gut-wrenching reminder of hideous days of racial segregation, “whites only water fountains” and “’black’ waiting rooms”. The piece raises important ethical issues surrounding medical research and uncovers atrocities that have historically been swept under the carpet. An informative and relevant piece, if a law was passed to make this essential viewing, I'd have strong words with anyone who made a fuss.

5/5

[thecardigancollection]

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Day Four

Today nearly killed me. Up early and back late, a full day of stuff in-between.  Starting with an early trip across Edinburgh to go to the Improsium – an annual gathering of all the improvisers in Edinburgh. It feature three guest speakers, Al Sammuels from Baby Wants Candy the improvised musical, Troy Conrad, the creator of Setlist, the improvised standup show and Cariad Lloyd, from Austentacious. The whole event was put on by the Maydays, and two of them Heather Urquhart and Jules Munns, ran the discussion, where we talked about the student improv, game of the scene and a third thing I’ve forgotten.

 After this I went to see Rosemary, the first offering from the Seckford Theatre company. Their play Rosemary,  written by director John Williams, examines the events surrounding the life of Rosemary West. I will admit that when I went to see the play I went with a certain level of apprehension, I am the first to admit I do not ‘get’ physical theatre and am generally uninterested in tragic stories. However Rosemary was captivating, rising questions whithout being preachy, eerily haunting in the performing with its young cast given ghoulish appearance by makeup. The Polaroid Cameras used to represent the press in the play were occasionally irritating in the blinding flashes into the audience, however this is such a trivial comment that it deserves to be only touched on in passing. An excellent play that bellies the young age of the cast.

After this I met up with Tim and we went to see Truthmouth, a one man show by Joseph Morpurgo. Truthmouth  is a piece of theatre delivering ‘real words’ from people, although. The vast range of this brilliant performer was brought out as he delivered monologues from a plethora of characters, not to give too much away, a highlight is the Snake from a n Old Nokia phone. A free show in the Lounge at the Counting house at 3:45. Be sure to get there early as the room is small and the show is deservedly popular. This is a show that completely embodies the spirit of the fringe at its best.

 We then headed to George Square, where we sat down for an hour and a half. It was nice, I had nachos. We also met up with another friend of mine Angelina who ran Improv at the London School of Economics. We then headed off to see our next show at the Pleasance Dome

 The Beta Males are a fantastic sketch group originally from Jersey, bringing a blend of Silliness and wit to the fringe once again in their superhero themed Superopolis. The premise gave way to a whole host of brilliant and bizarre characters from lollipop-man a literal lollipop with superpowers through to the Human Defense league an anti superhero team of superheros. My favourite has to be Strongth a parody of the hulk who talks about his troubles in love. All in all a witty delight packed with energy and humor. Highly recommend seeing.

 We had to hightail or way to the Assembly rooms after this to see Baby Wants Candy. An improvised musical company from America. Today’s show was Harold the Canadian Turns His Life Around. A story of substance abuse, hockey and Alternative parenting techniques. It is incredible to see an improvised musical done at all and when it is done as well as Baby Wants Candy does it, you are really in for a treat, synchronized dance numbers and belting songs completely off the cuff. What caps all of the brilliance of this off is that you can see the performers having so much fun as they do the show. Another one that everyone ought to see. 

Finally we went to our final show of the night Cariad and Paul. At 11 pm in the pleasance dome, the show has a sort of magic akin to a fairy tale about it. Taking only one word from the audience as a suggestion, the two wove a series of simple yet satisfying narratives and truly human characters into a hypnotic hour long show. All of this was built upon by a cellist playing in the background giving the whole show a whistful air that was incredibly pleasant to see at the end of a very full day of shows. The run is heavily limited –only four more shows, but well worth getting to see if you can.

[edinburgh2013blog]

Day Three

I have clicked on to fringe time. I woke up at 10:30 and felt wonderful.  Tuesday is the day off for Pistols at 3:55 so no flyering! ‘Woop woop’ This meant that today we hit the ground running and got straight on to shows today. We headed over to the mile and down to the Underbelly to book tickets for shows then up to the fringe box office to book tickets for something else which I’ll talk about later.

 The first of todays shows was Domestic Science calling themselves the fringe’s only science lunchtime party.  It takes the form of a couple talking all things science, with some humour and a few experiments thrown in for good measure. The show also features guest spots. Today there were offerings from the fantastic Sci Fi improv team of Project 2 and the memoirs of a ghost hunter. The show is family friendly upbeat and interesting, presenting audiences with experiments they can do at home as well as explaining how and why the results happen.  The show occasionally dipped in energy, and suffered from some technical blips but it was a sound show and had a lovely silliness to it throughout.

 Straight after this we headed over to the Under Belly to see Impromptu Shakespeare. Impromptu Shakespeare is (as the title Suggests) an improvised Shakespeare play. One hour of hilarious bard tribute. Todays show, inspired by themes of Japes and Servants, produced a piece about marriage, disguise and tomfoolery involving the dead. The cast had the audience in stitches right from the off with strong characters who brought laughs a plenty. The improvisers stuck fairly close to Shakespearean dialogue patterns with modern elements thrown in which blended well into quite an authentic show.  Occasionally you could see the cast break each other with what they were saying and there was some slight corpsing, however it was too fun a show to notice what slight slips of stagemanship that there were. Impromptu Shakespeare is up at the Fringe for the first time this year and I hope it returns next time around.

 A long hike around the castle led us to Shhh! The improvised silent movie.  This troupe of Italian Improvisers had devised a very unique show to deal with a very unique problem. It is easy to forget amongst the razor sharp verbal wit of the fringe that some people don’t use English as a first language. The cast of Shhh found a way around the problem quite spectacularly. Taking the suggestion of a job a 45 minute piece of mime and physicality, with the occasional projected caption. A very physical improv show forms in front of you, with slapstick humour at its core and a jaunty piano accompaniment throughout, giving a very genuine experience of the early days of silent film. The troupe of players all deserve to be praised for their specificity and acting ability, conveying a complicated plot to the audience with almost no loss of comprehension. A gem of a show and well worth the long walk round to Gryphon Venues to see it.

The last show of today was something from my flatmates; Casual Violence, up here with two shows House of Nostril and Om-Nom-Nominous. It was the latter of these we saw at the Voodoo rooms this evening, Casual Violence are, as well as being thoroughly nice people, very talented sketch writers and performers. Om-Nom-Nominous is a bleak and humorous series of sketches with a wonderful darkness to them. Bold and captivating, the macabre montage of sketches is the best of collection from 4 years work. The performers were comfortable enough to address the audience when unavoidable accidents happened but were straight back into character after and the piece flowed well.  Their cool handling of a technical malfunction with a pair of props showed the professionalism and quick wit of these excellent performers.