****
Wednesday 5 June, The Rondo Theatre
An enigmatic little curio which reflects well on all those involved, this writing debut and new company seems like a pretty good use for a Fringe slot, and one that needs repeating.
A number of thoughtful parallels to Ancient Greek theatre; fortunately for you, to enumerate these would take up too much of the review so let’s smile and pass on: this was an exercise in taking some ideas out for a run together to see what happens. Giving an idea flesh is of course one of those Greek things that the theatre has always done: Sally Whyte’s dialogues managed to put some weighty thoughts into fast talking but fairly normal & naturalistic conversation so that the structure rarely creaked.
Ellis J Wells as the Faun dominated every scene he was in and was perhaps missed in the last third: I did find it a little difficult to see him as ‘magical’, and his accent a little bewildering, but he was convincingly ‘other’ than the women. A structural difficulty meant that the two biggest events of the narrative are disputed and happen previously or offstage, and we are also looking at how big emotional events get buried or sublimated, so Stephanie Weston as Dot has to carry a lot without recourse to anything ‘dramatic’ (as in Drama-Queen), whereas the wayward easily distracted butterfly child (Ellen Schofield) has all the resources of teenage energy, angst and enthusiasm to make an impact. But the reconciliation of mother and daughter feels real enough, and emotionally wraps up the piece.
Anything this new is going to be different next time out, but here is some work that is worth the effort.
Dr Zeno
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