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Monthly Archives: August 2017

Gunshot Medley, Venue 13 – Review

Pros: The production values are excellent in every respect. Cons: Not suitable for audiences in search of easy entertainment. There is something intimate and profound about Gunshot Medley that stays with you long after you’ve left Venue 13 in Edinburgh. This must have to do with the sweet whispers of the High Priestess (impersonated by playwright and director Dionna Michelle Daniel) or with the piercing eyes and husky voice of the slave Betty (Morgan Camper). Standing in the middle of a field covered in ...

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Plan B For Utopia, Pleasance Courtyard – Review

Pros: Strong physical performances and lovely music Cons: The theatre wasn’t big enough to house all our dreams Since the premiere of Joan Clevillé’s Plan B for Utopia in 2015, we’ve seen the referendum vote to leave the EU, the election of Donald Trump, and the continued spate of terror attacks. With impressive clarity of vision, Clevillé has succeeded in creating a choreographic language that resonates with humanity and remains relevant in these rapidly changing times. Fittingly, the two performers ...

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One Step Before The Fall, Zoo Southside – Review

Pros: Powerful physical performance Cons: The relentlessly punishing choreography feels pointless at times On a thrust stage, performer Markéta Vacovská pushes herself to her physical limits as she explores the intensity of a boxer’s experience. Whirring limbs become a blur as she punches to the point of exhaustion. At other times she appears to be receiving the blows, shaking her head from side to side repeatedly before reeling backwards and landing sprawled on the floor. Vacovská’s strength and stamina are ...

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Lula del Ray by Manual Cinema, Underbelly Med Quad – Review

Pros: Mesmerising and unprecedented. Cons: Watching the puppeteers work in the foreground is fascinating but can also divert the attention from the main screen above their heads. Living in a caravan stationed in the middle of the desert, by a vast satellite field, Lula Del Ray lives a solitary life. Her favourite pastime is to sit on the edge of a satellite dish and look at the moon. Swinging her feet in the empty space below, she wonders about the men who ...

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Good With Maps, C Primo – Review

Pros: Nate Edmondson’s original music score is a journey in its own right. Cons: The plot’s dramatic elements aren’t properly developed. British expat Noëlle has inherited from her beloved dad a passion for cartography and, inspired by her childhood readings, she decides to embark on an enlightening journey along the Amazon river. When she comes back, though, she discovers that her father has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s. Recollections from her past empowering adventure merge with the chronicles of his degenerative illness, ...

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Profundis, Zoo Southside – Review

Pros: Elegant, clever, playful choreography. Cons: Only thirty minutes long – perfect for the fringe, belongs in a joint billing elsewhere. Choreographer Roy Assaf’s open, flexible style of working has resulted in a confident collaboration with National Dance Company Wales which shimmers from within like a well-cut diamond. A brief 30 minutes long, the piece probes at our desire to create meaning, which might easily result in something vague and pretentious elsewhere but is approached here with light-hearted clarity. A ...

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