Michael Cox reviews Morning, Mark Thomas: Bravo Figaro, The Intervention and The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs.
A day of new, or newish, plays today. And for the first time this Fringe, I am bouncing between different venues rather than reviewing from the one spot. I'm looking at new plays, so Scotland's home for new work seems like a fair place to start: the Traverse.
Playwright Simon Stephens seems to have a habit of going for the controversial. Sometimes it works, and occasionally it works brilliantly. Morning (**) is not one of those times.
The play, about a teenage girl on the destructive path to hell, is a bleak look at humanity. None of the characters are very likeable and the plot seems more like an excuse to show that young people are not always nice and innocent. That's fine, but a lack of one semi-sympathetic character or an interesting plot to grasp onto makes the ride, at best, an unpleasant look at the dregs of society. It isn't bad, it just isn't nearly as clever, insightful or original as it seems to think itself.
Still, the production has a few saving graces. The characters might be uninteresting at best and horrid at worst, but the company of young people all make very good cracks at portraying the flaccid caricatures. The post modern staging is also quite effective and actually gives the production a bit more dramatic weight than the script warrants.
Anyone who thinks that teenaged drama is about hormonal angst or identity crises about the future may take more out of this than I did, but once you accept that young people can be as destructive, or vile, as adults, then flimsy plays like Morning lack any bite or relevance.
Much better is Mark Thomas: Bravo Figaro (****), a rather excellent monologue about Thomas' family, particularly his father.
There are many traps that monologues focusing on the artist's examined life can fall into, and it is a major credit to Thomas that he manages to avoid them all. He does not present his past as rose-tinted, it isn't self-congratulatory and his father is a bunch of interesting contradictions: horrific and yet touchingly humane.
It's rather difficult not to feel a lump in the throat near the end of the play, most of which is peppered with laughs. Entertaining, never egocentric and always interesting, Bravo Figaro is a touching love letter from a son to a father.
There's an excellent play buried beneath what is currently running at the Assembly Rooms, but as it is now The Intervention (***) is mostly a missed opportunity.
I say mostly because it has one fantastic component. Phil Nichol is brilliant as Zac, a middle-aged man with a drinking problem. His family, friends and loved ones have come together for the titular intervention, but all does not go to plan as friendships are tested and skeletons brought out of the closet.
There are some very funny, and poignant, moments to be had, but most of them centre around Nichol's commanding performance. When he is not onstage, the weakness of the other players and the script come screaming out. It's not that the rest of the cast are bad, they just aren't close to matching Nichol's energy and commitment. It's a shame because when it works, it works rather well.
Perhaps the most controversial play in America within the last year is The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs (****). Written by Mike Daisey, the play is both a look at Apple's history and a journey of discovery when a lover of Apple tech goes to China to see where the products are made and discovers a frightening truth.
I say this is controversial because, famously, Daisey performed the play and had claimed it was all true. It has since come to light that he had in fact tweaked the facts and had been accused of lying. He has since edited the script to incorporate the truth more, but how much is dramatic licence is still open to debate.
Perhaps the greatest strength of this current production on the Fringe is that Daisey himself is not performing. It is an actor playing a part, and in this case it is one of Scotland's best young performers: Grant O'Rourke. He has a terrific natural ability to tell the story, being engaging and, at times, touching. It is a brave, powerful performance that is at times shocking in its detail but always warm and funny.
No matter what the historic truth of the script is, Daisey's writing performed by O'Rourke is powerful stuff, and it will not only make you think about how much we take the global economy for granted but make you question the price we are willing to pay for having quality goods at a cheap price.
Morning and Mark Thomas: Bravo Figaro are at the Traverse. The Intervention is at the Assembly Rooms and The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs is at Gilded Balloon. Check programme or website for dates and times.
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