50 Acts - Wendy Houstoun

50 Acts – Wendy Houstoun @ Dance Base

A lively performanace combating ageism

★★★

Review by Stephanie Green | 23 Aug 2012

Published in The Skinny Magazine.

Stunning videos and humourous use of text, mime, speech and movement, make this an inventive piece of experimental physical theatre, full of authenticity about being age 50+.

Former collaborator with Lloyd Newson's DV8, Wendy Houstoun  surprises us with various random acts.  Very active and flexible, she rushes around, frequently with intentional falls, acknowledging the fear of frailty.  But she combats ageism with ironic humour, wearing a hard hat, complaining at youth telling 'old' people, at least over age 33, to stand aside, and a great scene when anger takes over and she smashes vinyl records with a hammer to a music-score. The humour turns bitter and the juxtaposition of a speech about cuts by David Cameron is particularly effective  played against a film of chorus girls while Houston sits in a chair as if in a care-home.

Throughout the piece, Houston draws attention to artifice and theatricality by referencing what she is doing: "Now I will stand here," as she stands, or later "Now I will gesture" as she gestures. It is clever, but rather distancing. Perhaps it was why, though charmed and touched at times, I was not deeply moved. But does that matter? Originality and humour go a long way.

Three performances only Fri 17-Sun 19 Aug at 9.30pm Age guidance 14+ All tickets £12 (£10) Running time 1 hour Dance Base, 14-16, Grassmarket, EH1 2JU 0131 225 5525 www.dancebase.co.uk

Alan Bissett: The Red Hourglass

Alan Bissett: The Red Hourglass @ The National Library of Scotland

★★★★★

Review by Stephanie Green | 18 Aug 2012

Published in The Skinny Magazine

Long awaited, after the smash-hit success of The Moira Monologues, Alan Bissett's new drama, is an equally hilarious series of monologues all played by Bissett himself, but this time with a political edge. We are in the creepy, Gothic world of spiders kept in a scientist's tank. What terrible experiment are they there for?

This is fear with a satirical edge as Bissett marvellously embodies his characters, with an impressive mimicry of accents. First, hunched in a black hoodie, he plays the common spider, or the house spider as he prefers to be known, the smallest and the most Scottish, so feeling kinda inferior. Then he is a recluse spider from Brooklyn feeling claustrophobic, who longs to return to his small family, only 31,000 kids so far; a tarantula with plenty of latin machismo; and lastly, but most deadly, the Black Widow Spider (whose markings give the play its name),  the 'psycho' who Alan plays with a seductive Deep Southern lisp like Blanche du Bois.

Bisset's cleverest role is the tank (prison?) counsellor whose jargon is sent up, only seemingly caring, indicating the more serious undercurrent in the play, a critique of them and us. Who is the victim and who is the predator?

National Library of Scotland, George IV Bridge, EH1 1EW 15-16 August and 18-25 Aug at 7pm (1 hour) Age 16+ Tickets £12 (£10) via The Fringe Box Office Tel 0131-226-0000 www.edfringe.com http://www.alanbissett.com

I am Son – Sanpapié

I am Son – Sanpapié @ Dance Base

Are we westerners?

★★★

Review by Stephanie Green | 18 Aug 2012

Published in the Skinny Magazine.

An existential quest, this is an ambitious piece exploring the contemporary emptiness of Western/European society in its post-war context, but sometimes less is more.

Although there are fine moments of choreography by Lara Guidetti and the white costumes and props are sometimes visually stunning, this surreal montage of fragments, informed by the post-modern 'poetics' of Heiner Müller, has far too many props: masks, tailors' dummies, red noses, hearts/balloons, a flag, projected text and too many themes: consumerism, the '68 revolution, pornography, the red noses suggesting the commedia dell'arte, national identity (whether Italian, or European or Western), so that what potentially could be a strong piece is overloaded.

This work grows out of its avant garde influences from Bob Wilson and Pina Bausch's Tanztheatr to Matthias Langhoff. But these influences saturate I am Son rather than being transformed into something more authentic. The section where Lara Guidetti alternates between moments of a Christ-like crucifixion and being beaten, to knowing smiles at the audience is chilling and effective, making the audience complicit, but the onanistic sequence is so repetitive it becomes tedious. This uneven quality shows that with a more rigorous, focused approach, this choreographer could achieve something powerful.

16-25 Aug (not 20) Times vary. Tickets £10 (£8) Running time 45 mins Dance Base, 14-16, Grassmarket EH1 2JU Booking 0131 225 5525 www.dancebase.co.uk http://www.dancebase.co.uk

Fruitful Ties and Bone Dust - Steinvor Palsson/Mathew Hawkins

Fruitful Ties and Bone Dust – Steinvor Palsson/Mathew Hawkins and Lucy Suggate The Bodyfarm @ Dance Base

An inspired double-bill

★★★★★

Review by Stephanie Green | 17 Aug 2012

Published in The Skinny Magazine

Fruitful Ties by former Royal Ballet member, Matthew Hawkins and Steinvor Palsson is outstanding: an elegant, stylish and stylised multi-layered piece, performed to a Concerto Grosso by Handel,  it playfully introduces lemons and ties to Hawkins and Palsson's classically inspired choreography. The superb costumes by Pearl reference 17th Century Inigo Jones' masque-dance, close bodice and feathery neckline and hems, wittily designed from ties. The punning title indicates this is also a piece about memory.

A soundtrack, rather like memory, fading in and out, suggests how objects, a lemon for instance, can help recall. Tied together with reins of ties, then stepping in and out of a cat's cradle, they step in and out of past and present: formal Baroque leg flourishes and modern slapstick. A masterpiece performed by two exquisite dancers.

Bone Dust by Lucy Suggate is also accomplished and ironic: a Dance Macabre with a difference. In the dark, out of a scary, billowing black tutu on the floor, a skull emerges. Lucy then talks about dance 'beyond the rot' in a highly amusing soliloquy. So often text introduced by dancers is of poor quality but Lucy is exceptionally talented as dancer and playwright and her dance imitating a cartoon skeleton's movements is a delight.

16-25 Aug (not 20) Times vary. £10 (£8) Running time 40 mins Dance Base, 14-16, Grassmarket, EH1 2JU Tickets 0131 225 5525 http://www.dancebase.co.uk

What the Folk

What the Folk @ Dance Base

Irish Craic.

★★★★★

Review by Stephanie Green | 09 Aug 2012

Published in The Skinny Magazine.

With all the famed wit and verve, hospitality, and gift of the gab of the Irish, not least a cup of tea and a piece of cake (Oh go on, go on), this is a dance event with a difference.  Oh yes, there's plenty of song and dance (Irish step-dancing like you've never seen before, high-kicking in the cleared space of a kitchen.  For this event does not take place in a studio.  We were taken to a secret location, invited into the temporary home of the dance company, Siamsa Tire, from Tralee in County Kerry, for a hilarious, spell-binding and heart-warming  50 minutes of craic.

In between the jokes, the stories about their childhood learning how to dance, the Psycho Mums who push their progeny with manic ambition into the  Feis, (or the Fish) the four dancers broke into strict competition style step-dancing, then the more relaxed North Kerry Munnix.  And they are talented Gaelic singers too. We heard stories about the people of  Siamsa Tire, the National Folk Theatre of Ireland, and felt we knew them as friends by the end. What is, who is and what the folk?   And boy, those kicks were pretty high!

What the Folk! National Folk Theatre of Ireland Meet at Dance Base and you will be taken to a secret location Fri 3-Sun 19 Aug (not Mon 6 or 13) at 3pm & 6pm For Age 12+ All tickets £12 (£10) Running time 50 mins.http://www.dancebase.co.uk