The Bongo Club, Edinburgh
3 stars
They’re serving apples as main course down in Eden, and Adam and Eve are about to have a belly full of each other. Under the roguish eye of a musical waiter, this Adam and Eve are hungry to find somewhere they’ve never been before beyond mere comfort food. Such is Genesis as depicted in writer Leeala and her Elements World Theatre company’s laterally minded contribution to the capital’s Middle East Festival Of Spirituality And Peace.
Moving downstairs from The Bongo Club’s actual café place to its main nightclub space, the audience are led through a rough and not always ready experience which, subtitled A Scene From The Café Of No Tomorrows, suggests an excerpt from a far larger work. What Leeala (aka Lee Gershuny), and director Corinne Harris are actually up to beyond the hand-me-down spirituality is create a piece of generic Zen philosophy concerned with living in the moment and with each other in a rich but always tempting world.
With actors Robert Wiliamson and Corinne Harris accompanied by Waiter John Sampson also forming part of The Lucida Trio’s house band, this is a wilfully messy, seemingly freeform affair, where pared-down epigrams are disguised as dialogue to make its point. As noble an idea as it is, it’s not saying anything that can’t be found in pop psychology self-help books. Again, this in itself is fine, but it needs to reach out beyond itself to embrace more than just an idea. As with the apples, at the moment, at least, this is mere aperitif.
The Herald, February 23rd 2007
ends
3 stars
They’re serving apples as main course down in Eden, and Adam and Eve are about to have a belly full of each other. Under the roguish eye of a musical waiter, this Adam and Eve are hungry to find somewhere they’ve never been before beyond mere comfort food. Such is Genesis as depicted in writer Leeala and her Elements World Theatre company’s laterally minded contribution to the capital’s Middle East Festival Of Spirituality And Peace.
Moving downstairs from The Bongo Club’s actual café place to its main nightclub space, the audience are led through a rough and not always ready experience which, subtitled A Scene From The Café Of No Tomorrows, suggests an excerpt from a far larger work. What Leeala (aka Lee Gershuny), and director Corinne Harris are actually up to beyond the hand-me-down spirituality is create a piece of generic Zen philosophy concerned with living in the moment and with each other in a rich but always tempting world.
With actors Robert Wiliamson and Corinne Harris accompanied by Waiter John Sampson also forming part of The Lucida Trio’s house band, this is a wilfully messy, seemingly freeform affair, where pared-down epigrams are disguised as dialogue to make its point. As noble an idea as it is, it’s not saying anything that can’t be found in pop psychology self-help books. Again, this in itself is fine, but it needs to reach out beyond itself to embrace more than just an idea. As with the apples, at the moment, at least, this is mere aperitif.
The Herald, February 23rd 2007
ends
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