GORGEOUS AVATAR. To 10 June.

Edinburgh/Tour

GORGEOUS AVATAR
by Jules Horne

Traverse Theatre (Traverse 1) To 20 May then tour to 10 June 2006
Runs 2hr 15min One interval

TICKETS: 0131 228 1404 (Traverse)
Review: Timothy Ramsden 13 May

Traverse Highland fling Borders on a keen new drama.
Clearly the Traverse believes a title like Gorgeous Avatar will have audiences flocking into village halls and arts centres round the Scottish Borders and Highlands & Islands. Perhaps it will. Certainly the company’s being true to its mission in taking a brand new play, Jules Horne’s first full-length theatre script, to the Borders where the playwright’s based, and to the north where, of course, she’s not.

Though it’s no longer safe to say “of course”. People now can be, or feel themselves, in two places at once, courtesy of the internet. Amy lives in a remote Scottish cottage while writing-up the glories of Paris in generalised promotionalese for a French company, though she can’t bring herself to talk to them on the ’phone when they chase up their late copy. Yet she can also be with her internet-acquired American friend, and he in her head in several possible shapes.

So, one can be anywhere and nowhere simultaneously. They’ve got married too, to the chagrin of incoming English Dan, who tries to be two people in one place. There’s his problematic self and the would-be helpful, fond neighbour he presents himself as being. Virtual reality gives imagination a new balance in human experience.

Meanwhile elderly neighbour Rose nurses a grievance with her late mother. In rural retreats (harsh environments out-of-season), despite online connections, loneliness and fear still prowl the human mind. And Amy’s Imagination creates several false avatars of her virtual husband, played out in various Hollywood styles, before imaginings give way to plain actuality.

There’s a wealth of material here. With some fine moments, as when reality taking over from virtuality as Rafi and Amy come close through sitting side-by-side tapping imaginary emails to each other.

But Horne bungs in too much. The action is weighed down and characters constricted by authorial sophistication. Philip Howard’s production has four fine performances but the unnatural digital imagings within the set are fussily distracting. They have a thematic link but their lurid visual style distracts, and detracts from the play’s heart. More matter with less art would have helped this play a lot.

Amy: Pauline Knowles
Dan: Patrick Hoffman
Rose: Una McLean
Rafi: John Kazek

Director: Philip Howard
Designer: Mark Leese
Lighting: Kai Fischer
Composer: Jon Beales
Video artist: John Alder
Choreographer: Andrew Poulton
Voice/Dialect coach: Ros Steen
Assistant director: Suzanne Graham

2006-05-15 08:53:44