2007<\/p>\n
What I Heard About Iraq
\nBy Simon Levy
\nHolden Street Theatres\u2019 Directors\u2019 Choice 07<\/p>\n
George Orwell\u2019s Animal Farm
\nAdapted by Guy Masterson
\nPerformed by Gary Shelford<\/p>\n
Fern Hill and Other Dylan Thomas
\nPerformed by Guy Masterson<\/p>\n
Holden Street Theatres
\nUntil March 31<\/p>\n
Tom Crean \u2013Antarctic Explorer
\nWritten and performed by Aidan Dooley
\nBakehouse Theatre until March 23<\/p>\n
Murray Bramwell<\/p>\n
Holden Street is again one of the strongholds of Fringe theatre this year and the manager of the complex, Martha Lott, is also making her debut in the Director\u2019s Choice season with Simon Levy\u2019s play What I Heard about Iraq. Perhaps it is because so many aspects of the Iraq war have left us speechless, it has not often been a subject for film makers – and playwrights even less so. Interestingly, like David Hare\u2019s Stuff Happens, Simon Levy, basing his text on an essay by Eliot Weinberger, stays close to documentary detail. As they say in Dragnet, it is the facts, ma\u2019am.<\/p>\n
Martha Lott has created a simple tableau for the five performers seated on video monitors in front of a projection screen with a collage of newspaper headlines spread along the stage floor. Levy\u2019s play is a chronology of public statements \u2013 all taken from press sources and Lott\u2019s production intercuts archival news vision also. Each actor begins \u201cI heard that \u2026\u201d and proceeds with statements from politicians, the military, journalists and the wretched citizens in the middle of this catastrophe. <\/p>\n
Actors Renato Musolino, Nicholas Ely, Nathan Porteus, Jada Alberts and Tamara Lee present this often grimly funny narrative with witty impersonations of Bush, Blair and Howard. But the overall effect is compelling, reminding us, literally, of the order of things \u2013 and how disorderly and mischievous the telling and remembering of such recent history has been. <\/p>\n
Also at Holden Street are some familiar UK performers returning with new shows. Guy Masterson, remembered for his Under Milk Wood has added a further Dylan Thomas vehicle, Fern Hill. Thomas\u2019s splendid lyrical poem of childhood and death is the centerpiece of a daisy chain of lesser known Thomas pieces. The political poem The Hand that Signed the Paper and the finely observed Hunchback in the Park are admirable inclusions as are the deightfully comic radio pieces .The Dylan Thomas favourite, A Child\u2019s Christmas in Wales \u2013 well-known from the writer\u2019s own recordings \u2013is performed with direct and understated humour by Masterson. By wisely avoiding the baroque theatrics of the writer himself, he reveals the work for the masterpiece it still is. <\/p>\n
George Orwell\u2019s Animal Farm, that parable of the corrupt cycle of power based, rather pointedly, on the Bolshevik Revolution, is given an energetic presentation by Gary Shelford but Guy Masterson\u2019s adaptation is overlong. The tale still has more than two legs in these times of political chicanery but Shelford, proficient though he is with all the voices, is bogged down in exposition. Strategically trimmed by forty minutes, however, and this show would be more equal than most others.<\/p>\n
The fact that we have never heard of Tom Crean is the point of Aidan Dooley\u2019s beautifully crafted monologue on the young Irishman who joined the Royal Navy at fifteen and found himself at the end of the earth on Antarctic expeditions with Scott and Shackleton. His is an amazing story, told with engaging flair and shrewd detail. Aidan Dooley, wearing authentic looking kit, on a set comprising a tarp and upturned sled, brings to life a remarkable man whose wry observations tell us much about class and the Empire, but also about human constancy and that quiet courage which is the most admirable . This is outstanding theatre, do not miss it.<\/p>\n
\u201cFringe Review\u201d The Adelaide Review, No.312, March 16, 2007, p.21.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
2007 What I Heard About Iraq By Simon Levy Holden Street Theatres\u2019 Directors\u2019 Choice 07 George Orwell\u2019s Animal Farm Adapted by Guy Masterson Performed by Gary Shelford Fern Hill and Other Dylan Thomas Performed by Guy Masterson Holden Street Theatres Until March 31 Tom Crean \u2013Antarctic Explorer Written and performed by Aidan Dooley Bakehouse Theatre until March 23 Murray Bramwell Holden Street is again one of the strongholds of Fringe theatre this year and the manager of the complex, Martha […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","category-fringe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=357"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":808,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357\/revisions\/808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}