Previews: Award-winners

En Route

Australian alternative theatre ensemble Bettybooke—now rebranded as One Step At A Time Like This—have had a good couple of years. The troupe's latest show, En Route, won a series of accolades at 2009's Melbourne Fringe before going on to score the Best Theatre Production prize at this year's Adelaide Fringe. Live art in an urban setting, En Route uses the city streets as a blank canvas for a production that’s never the same twice. Transplanting the action from Australia's modern cities to the ancient cobbles of Edinburgh for this year’s Fringe is likely to shed a whole new light on the production.

 

Speechless

A joint venture between Cardiff theatre Sherman Cymru and writer-director Polly Teale's Shared Experience company, Speechless is a child of successful marriage. Sherman Cymru won awards from The Scotsman, The Herald and Amnesty International for 2008's Deep Cut, while Teale took home the Best Director gong at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards back in 2003. Speechless is the the true story of June and Jennifer Gibbons, identical twins who communicate only with one another. Exploring the deep emotional bond between two sisters living in isolation from the rest of the world, Speechless seems set to continue the two theatres' legacy of powerful, introspective drama.

 

Decky Does A Bronco

Edinburgh natives The Grid Iron Theatre Company took the 2000 Fringe by storm with the original run of Decky Does A Bronco, winning, among others, a Fringe First award for their efforts. Now returning for a tenth anniversary tour the production, an outdoor staging by eight trained acrobats, seeks to rekindle the praise of ten years ago. Lauded at the time for its incisive exploration of the relationships between five Scots teenagers and their reactions to tragedy, the resurrection of Decky Does A Bronco will hopefully show a superb production maturing with age.