Michael Cox rambles on about venues and musicals before reviewing Spring Awakening, Parking Shmarking and How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse: Reloaded.
One thing about the Fringe that I like (even though I know many who don’t) is the identity that many of the venues have. There is no assurance of quality in a venue; I have seen bad stuff at the Traverse and excellent productions at tiny cafes. But there is still something about each venue that has its own personality and quirks. It might just be a psychological thing, but I just have a different expectation when I walk into the Assembly Rooms on George Street than I do walking in to the Pleasance Courtyard.
And one of the things I miss this year is the musical theatre venue that had popped up for a few years. Musical theatre is, in my opinion, a much maligned art form. It can be as silly as farce, sappy as a soap opera, thrilling as an adventure and as compelling as tragedy, and it disheartens me whenever I hear people tell me how much they hate musicals, full stop.
So, I’m glad that musical theatre still has a major presence this year, and I’m even happier that RSAMD’s One Academy Productions have been able to survive the loss of the musical theatre venue and find another suitable space. Now working with the Pleasance, this year they have three productions.
Today, I saw their big one: Spring Awakening (***). A recent Broadway and West End hit, the musical takes the classic, and highly censored, play by Frank Wedekind and adds punk music to it. Students don’t just talk about masturbation, sexual abuse, abortions and other taboo subjects; here, they grab a mic and rock out about it.
I can just hear the musical cynics click their tongues at this, but it actually works remarkably well. Rock has always been about angst and rebellion, and if there’s a story out there that carries those seeds, this is it. And the key to any rock musical isn’t just in voice quality but in vocal energy, and this group certainly has that in spades.
But it is still a flawed production. As I’ve never seen the musical before, I’m guessing this is mostly due to cuts, changes and concessions that needed to be made to fit this into a fringe schedule because most of the scenes feel like they are too short. The facts are all there, but the allowance for emotional depth is mostly not, and characters that should be full of life come across more as echoes and stereotypes.
Also a sticking point is the way that the adult characters are handled. By only having two actors play all of the adults, and then having them portrayed mostly as stock characters, the emotional stakes that the youths face feels limited. We don’t want the kids to win, we just want them to avoid being around the ridiculous adults.
However, one cannot fault the performance skills and production values, all of which are top-notch. Director Andrew Panton has created a great production that is well-staged and bursting with energy. It’s just a shame that this is more of an abridged version than the full shebang, because this production team are certainly up for it and would probably be better served than they are here.
Parking Shmarking (***) starts with an impassioned monologue about the difference between a person and a human being. The same can also be said when it comes to performances: a play has an identity as a script and as a production. Many times, one outshines the other, with the weaker holding the stronger back. This is certainly true with this production.
As a play, Parking Shmarking is lacking. There are many great ideas, interesting facts, clever song lyrics and funny video clips, but the end result is a script that feels pedestrian, desperate even.
However, the play’s star (and, it must be said, writer), Gemskii, is an absolutely brilliant performer. She is a radiant burst of energy and has a wonderful presence. She acts, sings, lectures and dances with equal passion, and she is a joy to watch from beginning to end.
The bitter irony is that, once the play ended, she immediately engaged in a conversation with the audience that was much more interesting and informative than the performance she’d just concluded. She is a fountain of information on how the law is stretched and interpreted into absurdity, and her findings are both humorous and frightening.
The programme notes state that the play is a work in progress and that she has a lot more material. She’s the right performer and has the right idea; she just needs help structuring her words and actions into a much better script. I sincerely hope she does this, because she really is on to something that could be special here. Her production may not be that great, but Gemskii herself is, and she is certainly worth having a conversation with.
The title to How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse: Reloaded (****) really says it all. The audience are given a seminar, taught by four eccentrics, that tells its audience…well, how to survive a zombie apocalypse. Facts are given, demonstrations are made and tests are thrown at the audience to see if they would be equipped enough to survive (odds are, the answer is no).
There is no story or quest. We just see an hour-long presentation chaired by Dr Dale, his simpleton nephew, a scientist and a survival expert. Together, they answer questions and engage with the audience. And that’s it.
And that’s enough. It really made me, and the audience, laugh hard. It is a loving tribute to a genre of film that has spawned a subculture and treats it with equal respect and ridicule. The play itself isn’t perfect. A lot of the gags are on the obvious side and most sections run a bit longer than they should. It would also be easy to sit with one’s arms crossed and find fault with the whole thing.
But Zombie has such a good heart and so much passion for its subject material that it is almost as infectious as the zombie outbreak it is warning against. It is also very funny and energetic. All four cast members are sharp-witted and play their oddball characters to near perfection, and as a film geek I lapped up every second.
That’s it for tonight. Tomorrow is a bit of a mad rush between the Assembly Hall, George Street and the Pleasance Courtyard.
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