Michael Cox reviews Red Tap/Blue Tiger, Away From Home and The Great Gatsby.
I once attended a playwriting workshop where it was agreed by a number of acclaimed writers that there was no such thing as a bad play—only an under-developed one. Going by that theory, Red Tap/Blue Tiger (**) is one of the least developed plays I’ve encountered in some time.
It’s a shame because there are a number of potentially good themes here: personal responsibility, nature/nurture development and the repercussions of reality sting TV programmes, to name but a few. And the five-strong company are happy to get in the thick of the script, completely committing to the whole sodded affair with impressive gusto.
But in the end, it’s hard to give a damn about a play when every character is a thug who demands little to no sympathy. Antiheros are fine, but the audience needs at least one way in—something this DOA script fails to produce. Edward Firth is impressive as lead character Norton, a force of nature, an ‘act before you think’ young man who might have a heart-breaking past but no excuses for the atrocities he commits, and Roanna Lewis does the best she can with Mina, an annoyingly foolish little girl in a woman’s body. Luke Dunford is the most sympathetic character as best-pal Dean, but the script seems to want to make him stupid at moments he should know better, perhaps just to keep the plot chugging along to its predictable, inevitably bloody conclusion.
It’s a shame that this cast is so badly served, but with unlikeable characters and constantly missed opportunities, Red Tap/Blue Tiger is a painful experience for all the wrong reasons.
On the complete opposite spectrum is Away From Home (****), an hour-long monologue about a male escort who falls in love with a client. Complicating matters is that the client is a celebrity footballer, and making this worse is that he has just signed to play for the arch-rivals of the team our protagonist supports.
The set-up might have a few clichés (escort with a heart of gold who really wants love and strained parental relationships, to name but a few), but the football angle and the sarcasm that peppers the script make this a rather refreshing, and at times rather blunt, production to watch. Written by actor Rob Ward and Martin Jameson, the play is packed with themes, managing to cover a huge spread of issues without ever being preachy or predictable.
But the real stand-out is Rob Ward’s excellent performance. Creating a sympathetic character who is easy to root for, Ward is cheeky, world-savvy and compelling to watch. He easily switches his portrayal of characters, playing parents, friends and other clients with ease. But it’s the relatable humanity he brings to main character Kyle that makes this a great production.
If only the production of The Great Gatsby (***) had as much humanity, it would have been all the better. This 65-minute production uses dance and film to tell F. Scott Fitzgerald’s timeless classic of the man attempting to reclaim his past love. It also uses modern songs and scantily clad chorus members who look like they should be performing in Chicago.
Adaptations of classic works can be a tricky business, and there seems to be a belief that you need to make older stories ‘more accessible’ for the younger generation. The choreography here is iffy, and many of the song choices are obvious at best, pathetic at worst. The use of modern music is a genuine mistake for two reasons: it drowns out the story and, more tellingly, the juxtaposition of song and Fitzgerald’s text shows how vapid the lyrics to the songs chosen can be. Weakest of all is the choice of having Nick Carroway’s narration pre-recorded: much of this is lost in volume with the songs, and the actor playing him is far less animated on tape than he is live.
But all is not lost. Buried in questionable theatrics are some rather good performances, primarily from the lead characters. The use of film works much more than it doesn’t, particularly with its vintage feel of classic silent movies. Most stellar of all are those moments where Fitzgerald’s words are actually able to break through some of the cacophony. Fitzgerald performed live is frankly better than much of the text currently being muttered in Edinburgh, and those few moments where it’s just Fitzgerald’s words allow the drama to come wonderfully alive, only for things to once again come crashing down in mediocrity with the insertion of another pop song.
The end result is a performance that’s just good enough. By no means a failure, this Gatsby is altogether fine but certainly not great.
Red Tap/Blue Tiger performs at Assembly Roxy until August 25 at 1345. Away From Home performs at the Assembly George Square Theatre at 1520 until August 25. The Great Gatsby performs at Assembly Roxy until August 24 (not 18).
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