The Caucasian Chalk Circle ****
3BUGS weave a convincing illusion of thrown-togetherness around their production of Brecht’s scathing polemic against class and wealth divides.
Tea Dance ****
A gentle introduction to a couple of simple ballroom dance steps, with two genial instructors and a break halfway through for cocktails and canapés. Just the ticket.
Pas Perdus ****
Do many hands make light work, or do too many cooks spoil the broth? Les Argonautes seem determined to find out, and do it entirely through trial and error.
Death of a Samurai ****
If you or I tried cross-pollinating plot elements from Shakespeare and Japanese exploitation cinema with aspects of characters from anime, manga and folklore we’d end up with some hideous, limping mutant thing.
101 ***
If the intention of 101 is to push us to define our own boundaries, it doesn’t really push hard enough; everything’s well within the tolerance of a typical Fringe audience. But it seems more likely the intention is to give people the power to opt out, then show them that they don’t need to use it, even when doing things that might be a little way outside their normal theatre comfort zone.
Sub Rosa ****
Six ghosts stationed around the building recount the tale of the Winter Palace music hall and the power struggle between its manager, Mr Hunter (a Mason) and the newest chorus girl, Flora – and it isn’t a tale for the easily-made-queasy.
The Master and Margarita
Where Bulgakov’s novel is a sweeping satire concerned with entire classes and communities, the OUDS production focuses closely on the individual characters: a more dramatic approach, but one that reduces the scope of the themes and ideas from a communal to a capital level.
Maff Brown – Looking After Lesal **
You probably had to be there.
Stripped ****
Hannah Chalmers proves herself a versatile performer in this one-woman show, dropping comfortably into an array of archetypes.
