Itoseng – Pleasance – 3 stars
In A Thousand Pieces – Gilded Balloon – 3 stars
The Caravan – Pleasance – 3 stars
It may be Edinburgh International Festival that’s branded this year’s all too prescient programme as ‘Artists Without Borders,’ but beyond the Fringe’s surface trivia, there’s much in the way of serious work in accord with its aims.
From South Africa comes Itoseng, a searing indictment of post-apartheid township life, in which a young man, Mawilla, navigates his way through a still poverty-stricken landscape where shebeens, cheap liquor and easy sex are bought and sold on tap. Mawilla’s true love Dolly falls prey to prostitution, the government don’t so much not give a damn as not have a clue, and none of it is in any danger of getting any better.
Written and performed by Omphile Molusi, the Johannesburg based actor who came to Britain care of the Brett Goldin Bursary Award, itself name after an actor murdered on the eve of a visit to Stratford-Upon-Avon, this first person account is clearly a labour of love. As Molusi twists and turns his way through the sorry mess of his homeland, there’s a pride and dignity at play in a work that tackles the liberal orthodoxy that all is well in South Africa now. It isn’t, and it’s vital that works like Molusi’s highlight the monetary and spiritual poverty on his own doorstep. Molusi himself lives in the village of Itoseng. Translated into English, it means ‘Wake yourself up.’
Borders are meaningless too for the three young women thrown in at the deep end of In A Thousand Pieces, as they attempt to hit home the horrifying consequences of international sex trafficking and the slavery that ensues. Through a pot pourri of devised scenarios, recordings of interviews with both real life survivors of the trade and the men and women on the street who you want to shake into responding to a horrific set of statistics, Elle Moreton, Jemma Mc Donell and Kylie Walsh may start off like pretty maids all in a row, but gradually unravel to reveal a grim picture of one of the more hidden forms of abuse.
While undoubtedly sincere, beyond some intense physicalisation, The Paper Birds can sound unconsciously plummy in a way that’s at times at odds with the sheer brutalism of material. Even so, it’s a committedly off-kilter and impressionistic way of looking at an awful state of play that’s far more powerful stylistically than any straight-up documentary rendering.
Closer to home is The Caravan, a verbatim off-site piece performed in an actual caravan that documents the floods of 2007 that decimated parts of England with a vengeance. Through the words and experiences of working class couples in Hull and their slightly better off Worcester contemporaries, all played by four actors knee-deep in an offstage quick change routine, a thumbnail portrait of a divided nation emerges that’s instantly recognisable for its nit-picking ordinariness. It highlights too a painfully recent natural disaster that’s barely mentioned these days.
At times there’s something very Creature Comforts about the cosy, up close and personal characterisations woven together by the Look Left Look Right company, who hope to tour Mimi Poskitt and Ben Freedman’s deftly edited thirty minute production. Through each encounter, however, a small but crucial social patchwork emerges that’s in turns amusing and gently incisive about the institutionalised bureaucracy that follows a disaster, ill-prepared and all at sea. It may not be New Orleans, but last week’s near biblical rain-storms in Edinburgh will have provided extra added authenticity as well. Even on a dry day, however, The Caravan is worth hitching a ride for.
The Herald, August 13th 2008
ends
In A Thousand Pieces – Gilded Balloon – 3 stars
The Caravan – Pleasance – 3 stars
It may be Edinburgh International Festival that’s branded this year’s all too prescient programme as ‘Artists Without Borders,’ but beyond the Fringe’s surface trivia, there’s much in the way of serious work in accord with its aims.
From South Africa comes Itoseng, a searing indictment of post-apartheid township life, in which a young man, Mawilla, navigates his way through a still poverty-stricken landscape where shebeens, cheap liquor and easy sex are bought and sold on tap. Mawilla’s true love Dolly falls prey to prostitution, the government don’t so much not give a damn as not have a clue, and none of it is in any danger of getting any better.
Written and performed by Omphile Molusi, the Johannesburg based actor who came to Britain care of the Brett Goldin Bursary Award, itself name after an actor murdered on the eve of a visit to Stratford-Upon-Avon, this first person account is clearly a labour of love. As Molusi twists and turns his way through the sorry mess of his homeland, there’s a pride and dignity at play in a work that tackles the liberal orthodoxy that all is well in South Africa now. It isn’t, and it’s vital that works like Molusi’s highlight the monetary and spiritual poverty on his own doorstep. Molusi himself lives in the village of Itoseng. Translated into English, it means ‘Wake yourself up.’
Borders are meaningless too for the three young women thrown in at the deep end of In A Thousand Pieces, as they attempt to hit home the horrifying consequences of international sex trafficking and the slavery that ensues. Through a pot pourri of devised scenarios, recordings of interviews with both real life survivors of the trade and the men and women on the street who you want to shake into responding to a horrific set of statistics, Elle Moreton, Jemma Mc Donell and Kylie Walsh may start off like pretty maids all in a row, but gradually unravel to reveal a grim picture of one of the more hidden forms of abuse.
While undoubtedly sincere, beyond some intense physicalisation, The Paper Birds can sound unconsciously plummy in a way that’s at times at odds with the sheer brutalism of material. Even so, it’s a committedly off-kilter and impressionistic way of looking at an awful state of play that’s far more powerful stylistically than any straight-up documentary rendering.
Closer to home is The Caravan, a verbatim off-site piece performed in an actual caravan that documents the floods of 2007 that decimated parts of England with a vengeance. Through the words and experiences of working class couples in Hull and their slightly better off Worcester contemporaries, all played by four actors knee-deep in an offstage quick change routine, a thumbnail portrait of a divided nation emerges that’s instantly recognisable for its nit-picking ordinariness. It highlights too a painfully recent natural disaster that’s barely mentioned these days.
At times there’s something very Creature Comforts about the cosy, up close and personal characterisations woven together by the Look Left Look Right company, who hope to tour Mimi Poskitt and Ben Freedman’s deftly edited thirty minute production. Through each encounter, however, a small but crucial social patchwork emerges that’s in turns amusing and gently incisive about the institutionalised bureaucracy that follows a disaster, ill-prepared and all at sea. It may not be New Orleans, but last week’s near biblical rain-storms in Edinburgh will have provided extra added authenticity as well. Even on a dry day, however, The Caravan is worth hitching a ride for.
The Herald, August 13th 2008
ends
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