Fringe ReviewEdinburgh 2008Anna the Slut and the (almost) chosen oneGenre:
Venue: C soco (venue 348) Chambers StreetLow DownAncient sumatra and an American college campus are brought together in this entertaining take on the coming of age drama. Review
Andrew Hungerford's play brings together a Sumerian legend about the goddess of sex with a college coming of age drama. The mythical tales are narrated beautifully by the Bartender (Michael Burnham who has a mellifluous voice designed for storytelling) while a clever shadow play illustrates the story of how Ianna the goddess wins her powers in a drinking competition and then sets out to steal the underworld kingdom from her sister. Meanwhile in the present day Greg is having a terrible birthday waiting for his friends to show up. Little does he know that the bartender is not quite who he appears to be- and neither is Anna the sexy vamp who turns up promising to take someone home that very night.
So we have the gods living on earth, a geek, a jock, their funny friend and the physics grad who plays a mean game of pool. Perhaps not the most original cast of characters but the plays success is in creating a well paced narrative that brings the two stories and the six characters together. This is excellent, intelligent, nay scholarly writing that nevertheless has its share of great one liners, polished prose and wry and witty commentary. The acting is generally strong. The casts inexperience shows at times in a slight lack of confidence with the space but there are also some demanding physical set pieces that are very well executed. There is some inconsistency with the directing- a couple of scenes felt to me a bit static and I was a little distracted counting up how many drinks were bought and consumed but apart from a bit of sloppy stage business the quality of the performances was consistently good. Kyle Nunn as Greg gave a nice, understated performance with naturally good comic timing. I wasn't sure about Stephanie Brait as Anna at first but after her first scene alone with the bartender I warmed to her performance- there is an intelligence that informs her delivery when she doesn't have to pretend to seduce. While this show lacks the confidence of execution that would come with a more experienced ensemble it is a solid piece of theatre that is raised above the crowd by its clever stage design and use of puppetry and by a script that sparkles. For that I give it 4 stars.
Reviewed by Robin Manuell 09/08/2008 Website :http://hungerwarrior.ofdoom.com/ |
You will need flashplayer version 8 or above to see this content |