Fringe Round Up

Sometimes, it becomes impossible to know what the Fringe will serve up next. I have seen magic shows disguised as meditations on human nature (thank you, Derren Brown). I have seen musicals based on gypsy music that offer free tarot card readings. I have seen apocalyptic clowns, exploding businessmen. I have watched an audience turn up at a show expected to be entertained with a mild satire, and getting The Tiger Lilies shocking them into silence. I have even listened to a lecture on an imaginary parallel universe.

Discovering Kymerica (Sweet ECA) pretended to be an academic introduction to this alternative world. Eames Demetrios has instituted a project to mark places in our world where Kymerica has crossed over, and his slightly too long lecture sketched out the universe’s dominant ideas and ideologies. Tantalising and suggestive, it refused a systematic analysis- although the free book and website might fill in the gaps- it was something between a discussion of his own art work and a brief history. More professionalism in the delivery would help to protect the fantasy- the problems with the projector and Demetrios’s tentative speech undermined the seriousness- but the new vocabulary that Kymerica uses, as well as the brief mentions of gods and national identities, suggests an interesting take on anthropology. The sideways look at a fictional world inevitably brings new insights to our reality.

A Gypsy Prayer for the South (C Central) was composed and directed by polymath Zoran Tairovic. A story of love and betrayal, set in an abstract city and filled with melody-heavy tunes that do fill the gap between gypsy music and the musical. Rather scaled down compared to the original conception, it uses mime and dance to support the complex- but fast paced narrative that is slightly lost due to the language barrier. It does have passion, a difficult reunion, a subtle moral and plenty of mystery and magic: all of the performances are engaging and professional. Caught in a small venue, it lacks scope and depth. However, Tairovic’s score and lyrics are often achingly beautiful and the dance interludes have an expressionistic edginess. This could be the beginnings of a greater success.

Far more within my own theatrical familiarity is Teata Novogo Fronta’s Phantomysteria (Old College Quad). It begins with a military voice declaiming from Genesis, fills the courtyard with sulphurous smoke, burning bodies, frightening clowns and kitsch American celebrities. This sort of performance art needs a genre name. It is punk, high concept, surreal and intense, making a political point that is often blurred by sheer noise and activity. This show ended with Godspeed You Black Emperor at full blast, a slide show of atrocities and more Biblical declamation- but not before a McDonalds burger was venerated, a big car drove around the stage to the tune of a homoerotic musical satire and various characters were shoot dead or exploded.

Always confusing, frequently funny, this is a theatrical parallel to cartoons or free jazz. It ought to be chaos, but it hangs together, making a point about violence that is ambiguous enough to be applied universally or personally. The pleasure is in the mayhem- and, of course, trying to untangle it over coffee after the show.