MY UNCLE ARLY. To 1 May.
Young People
MY UNCLE ARLY
by Shon Dale-Jones and David Farmer
Polka Theatre 24 April & 1 May 2004 2pm & 5pm also schools performances Tue-Fri
Runs 1hr 10min No interval
TICKETS: 020 8543 4888
www.polkatheatre.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 22 April
Fantastic in several senses, offering a fine time for 6+.There are two Eng. Lit. Lears King (tragic) and Edward (comic). This phantasmagoria's about the second, successfully translating the spirit of his world into visual and physical theatre. It starts with his kind-of-homecoming, but before details crop up, the company are into a knowingly ironic dream-sequence wave, after which it's eternal travel a life of trains and ships, arrivals and departures, up to a final.disappearance behind the stage curtain.
Curtains constitute a significant part of the set, swaying in sections, opening to reveal characters, part-closing to identify some new compartment or checking point. Through the constant movement are entwined references to Lear's verse and characters, sometimes developed, often little more than brief-heard names and flecks of action. Are those gloves Jumblies? That net's certainly an old man's beard.
Although they are far from the worst, the limericks of Lear are thus cursed: they all go on fine, until the last line, which ends just the same as the first. An actor's head stuck through the curtain, with a massive net expanding below helps overcome the inevitable let down of a Lear-limerick's fifth line. A man rescued from drowning, with bandaged feet and a name something like Pobble, becomes a Lear character. For the imagination is travelling its own parallel, independent journey
Key to much humour is the cussedness of things and foreigners. Bureaucrats who insist on queuing when there's no-one else around, northern Italians who warn seriously of the dangers of their country's South. And Hoipolloi Theatre's speciality (they co-produce with East Anglia's Tiebreak Theatre), physicality, expertly creates fast-moving, inventive sequences: how many people can one suitcase trip up on a crowded platform; how long can the natural movement of people in a rail compartment prevent you finding a seat? Enough, and long enough, for comedy.
Extremely funny as it often is, My Uncle Arly has shades of the chaos of the imagination and the sadness that can lie behind comic invention. Upfront, though, all's superb fun often thanks to Adam Cork's rhythms and melodic hooks, creating for example a grand-opera entry to Italy. On the road since 2002, this show has travelled well.
Cast:
Ben Frimston, Stefanie Muller, Jill Norman, Andrew Pembrooke, Trond-Erik Vassdal
Director: Shon Dale-Jones
Designer: Stefanie Muller
Lighting: Peter Harrison
Sound/Composer: Adam Cork
2004-04-23 09:40:29