Michael Cox reviews Amusements, This Audio Tour Belongs to Lionel Ritchie and Dracula while making observations on the star-rating system.
If there has been one continuous debate at this year's festival, it has not been on the merits of any one production but of the use of star-ratings in reviews. Many have come to the opinion that star-ratings are worthless, even counterproductive, and diminish the value of true criticism. I know that many, in and out of the arts, hold this to be true. And yet a simple walk through any Fringe venue will display an assault of stars. These stars have all but replaced the words or thoughts of many writers and critics, with only a few choice words or phrases used to underscore the production's rating.
I myself find that my words, even highly praiseworthy and enthusiastic statements, are all but absent, but my 4 and 5 stars seem to have peppered some of the adverts and posters found throughout Edinburgh these last few weeks. I'll confess that I not only find this frustrating but, in a way, rather insulting to all of the productions I've seen.
I feel this way because some of the most interesting productions I have gladly and enthusiastically recommended have been 3-star shows. Sure, they may not have been perfect; in fact many have had some glaring weaknesses that resulted in a lower star-rating. But some have taken brave, noteworthy chances that deserve to be seen and, more importantly, have aspects that are 4, even 5-star, calibre.
Take, for example, Amusements. A mixture of theatre and performance art, it is a piece that is in some ways critic-proof because it is an individual journey. Saying how or why would diminish the mystery, but I can say that each audience member wears headphones and watches a young woman, who may or may not be speaking and who may or may not be playing a character.
Using a soundscape of words and music, the whole piece is a feat of technical wizardry that will affect each listener differently. I myself thought it mostly worked, though I found the visual components less interesting than the audio, and as a whole it feels a little underdeveloped and doesn't quite reach all the notes it tries to hit.
Still, I appreciate what company Sleepwalk Collective are attempting to do and am glad I took the journey, flawed though it is.
Speaking of journeys, This Audio Tour Belongs to Lionel Ritchie is a rather fun tour that takes place around some of the Fringe’s hotspots. Barry Ferns serves as a guide, giving facts about the festival and eliciting testimonies from other comedians about past experiences.
It's all a lot of fun and has a good spirit throughout. None of the stories or insights are overly informative or memorable, but it's all well done. The directions are not always clear, so those without a great working knowledge of the Royal Mile might have some difficulty, and as there are moments you are supposed to pause in order to get into place, the 45-minute running time is actually a little short, though I myself ran into a few people I knew and had to keep stopping the recording, resulting in a personal journey time of over 90 minutes.
But no matter. Lionel Ritchie is still a tour that is entertaining enough to take, particularly if you are a Fringe novice. It could also become a bit of a Fringe staple, with perhaps new stories and paths to enjoy every year. It would be good to see this grow and have more of its potential fulfilled.
With all of the big-names that make it up to Edinburgh every August, it's easy to forget that one of the joys of the Fringe comes in experiencing new talent. Think Outside the Box Theatre is a company mostly made up of recent college graduates, and the company had a pretty solid inaugural production at last year's festival. This year, they took the rather daring decision of staging a nearly two-and-a-half-hour production in a venue a bit off the beaten track.
Nevertheless, Dracula is rather admirable. Director Christopher Rybak has certainly not done things by half. The production is set inside an asylum, and to enter one must wear protective clothing, cleanse themselves and touch a crucifix, all before being tied to a seat (for your protection from the inmates, you see) and watching the famed story unfold all around you. Rybak and his company have bent over backwards to unsettle audiences and immerse them into an eerie atmosphere, and they certainly succeed in spades.
There are a few hiccups. The production’s ambitions are a bit overcomplicated at times with some needless or over-the-top effects that don’t pay off, and the adaptation by Steven Dietz is a fairly weak one, which doesn’t make telling Bram Stoker’s tale any easier. Some of the performances are also a bit shallow, though this tends to be truer for performances within scenes rather than in general. Some roles also come out more polished and memorable than others, which leads to an unbalanced production.
Still, I have to commend the entire company for making such a determined crack at it. Most productions, particularly ones by new companies, play it safe and conservative. So it’s refreshing to see something on a grand scale daring itself to fail. Perhaps that is the production’s greatest triumph: it not only doesn’t fail but actually manages to work more than it doesn’t, sometimes to an almost remarkable level.
If I had to give a star ranking to these three shows, I would give each a 3-star rating, and yet I feel that this mark cheapens them by not telling the full story. All three attempt to do things differently, and they each get far more right than not and have much more ambition than most productions I've encountered this month. Are they perfect? Not even close. Are they worth your time? Absolutely!
Amusements is at Summerhall. Check website for dates and times. This Audio Tour Belongs to Lionel Ritchie is downloadable from iTunes. Dracula’s run has finished.
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