Live Performance Review: Les Troyens: Performed by Mariinsky Opera (Edinburgh International Festival (E.I.F.) 2014), Friday 29.08.2014 17:00, The Festival Theatre, Edinburgh

Opera, as with Theatre, is a medium I feel I am just beginning to try to find my way within. This production was sung in French with English Supertitles, though it still had a very Russian feel to it. This, to me, is a long opera, which was put on in three sections and once you remove the breaks was a bit over four hours. 

I was most taken by the first section, where the staging appeared most grand and impressive. After the first section the staging became, on the whole, a lot more simplistic. Overall it feels difficult to pick fault as the singing and musicianship, to my ears, sounded fine. 

Sadly there was an element that niggled throughout most of the second and third sections. The production made very good use of screens, projections and mirrors to create the appearance of a greater and more malleable space. Though due to how the mirrors were angled, from where I was sat, you could continually see cast and stage hands doing prep in the wings. This struck as a careless oversight. I am sure there would have been enough space for these people to have stood back a bit further and therefore not have been as distracting as they were. 

The production, as a whole, did feel a bit of a trial and a bit turgid as it went on. I did have a sense of waning towards the end. I am aware that I did greatly enjoy Dido and Aeneas last year, though did not enjoy Bluebeard's Castle. I don't feel I greatly enjoyed this, though it was undoubtedly better than Bluebeard. I am undecided as to whether opera as a medium is really something I am curious enough about to continue exploring. 

Rating: 08/10.         

Live Performance Review: Ubu and the Truth Commission produced by Handspring Theatre Company (Edinburgh International Festival (E.I.F.) 2014), Thursday 28.08.2014 20:00 Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh

This is a revival of an older piece by Handspring, to commemorate 20 years of democracy in South Africa. Handspring Theatre Company are the ones who went on to make Warhorse. The details recounted in the play are based on archives of testimonies given in the hearings of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. 

The play follows a mixed race couple in South Africa in the lead up to and during the goings-on of the Commission. The white male of the couple has clearly kept a lot of his activities from his partner and he appears concerned at what may come out. The play follows him as details he tried to hide come out and he begins to unravel.   

This, at last, is a multi-media production that gets the balance of the differing elements correct. The production uses documentary footage and photographs grounding the play in the harsh reality of the apartheid era in South Africa. This is well balanced with simple though effective animation, which assists to convey the reality of this brutal period without overly traumatising the audience. There is also beautiful puppetry. The puppets which represent humans giving their testimonies are so captivating they further encourage the viewer to give concentrated attention to what is being conveyed.The play manages to have elements of humour without being insensitive, and I found the whole thing to be transfixing. 

In terms of 'theatre productions', I would still tend to think of myself as dipping my toes. Theatre is a medium that I feel I am still finding my way with and am not yet entirely comfortable. I strongly suspect that this is at least in part due to my strong love of film, where anything can be shown and does not need to be gestured towards. Having digressed for a moment, I wish to conclude by saying I feel this is a very well considered and balanced piece, and is the finest theatre production I have yet seen. 

Rating: 10/10.   

Live Performance Review: Patria: Performed by Paco Pena Flamenco Company (Edinburgh International Festival (E.I.F.) 2014), Wednesday 27.08.2014 20:00 The Edinburgh Playhouse, Edinburgh (WORLD PREMIERE)

In terms of the music, singing and dancing, this was a mesmerising performance. As with the Kronos Quartet performance of Beyond Zero 1914 - 1918 earlier in the festival, I was not sold on the modified multimedia visual accompanyment and found this to be a distraction. I felt there was no question as to the performance being strong enough without these sorts of added media elements and therefore felt this to not be necessary. Despite this element, the performance was still absolutely first rate, another belter. 

Rating: 10/10.   

Film Review: Miss Violence (18) (Greece 2013) (Director: Alexandros Avranas) (Greek with English Subtitles), The Cameo Cinema Screen Two, Edinburgh, Tuesday 26.08.2014 18:00

The film begins with a girl throwing herself to her death on her eleventh birthday, and from this starting-point the film slowly reveals a history and pattern of child sexual-abuse that has probably existed within the family for generations.

Elements of the abuse are hinted at in questions, that are then left to linger. At other times the abuse is confirmed by visual evidence. On the whole the presenting of elements of the abuse is handled subtly and without a hint of gratuitousness. There is only one scene which lingers on the abuse. It strangely feels appropriate for this to have been done once in the film, as to not have lingered at all would have caused for the severity of the behaviour to have not been properly acknowledged.

The film has seeped into its fabric, detailing of how social groupings such as families, become complicit enablers to abuse by taking the path of least resistance. That is until cracks start to show to the community and/or one or more parties has had enough. The film also details the element of abuse networks and their coded-ways, as well as the calm, yet strained, social veneer used ingratiate in social interactions with locals.

The film is superbly acted, appropriately it is in no way beautiful; there is a stark quality to the social tableau. There is a hyper-real sense to all that occurs. I have seen films before regarding this area of subject matter, though this does feel to be one of the more harrowing and I would certainly have no wish to see this ever again. I would not wish to recommend this to others, as know some would find it to be very difficult, though at the same time, as a film I have nothing to say by way of detracting.

Rating: 08/10.     

Live Performance Review: Sweet Mambo: Performed by Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch (Edinburgh International Festival (E.I.F.) 2014), Sunday 24.08.2014 20:00 The Edinburgh Playhouse, Edinburgh

This was a hypnotic dreamlike queasy performance. There was a nightmarish oppressive quality to sections, at other times there was a cheeky-teasing playfulness that was very appealing. At times it felt mildly erotic. The fluidity with which the dancers moved from one element to another contributed considerably to the hypnotic quality. There was only one occasion where the fluidity was broken due to an abrupt change of musical styles, though otherwise the musical accompanyment was integral to the unrelenting nature of the work. 

The stage was sparse, yet the staging at times was quite dramatic due to clever use of curtains and lighting. There was fantastic use of wind machines directed towards the curtains to create fantastic billowing shapes which the dancers had to be able to work around. There was a section where an attractive female dancer was moving in a constrained fashion within an undulating curtain and due to clever use of lighting, the dancer was teasingly visible within varying degrees of shadow. 

There was only one aspect of the performance that did not sit immediately comfortably and this was the fact that several of the dancers were also speaking as they went about their movements. Some were repeating set phrases, which was easier, as this appeared at least in part to be for the rhythm of the words as they flowed. Some were expressing deliberately comedic utterances, which was also fine. Some were appearing to be doing almost mini-monologing, without purpose of humour or rhythm. This was the element I found to not sit easily, though also across the whole performance, it is a minor quibble. 

It was considerably refreshing to attend a dance performance which had such a great focus upon humour. This performance was engrossing, when it came to being aware that it was the end of the performance, there was a sense of the performance having flown by. Pina Bausch died several years ago, and there are questions as to whether this dance company can continue going. It would be a shame if they are not able to continue and the world of dance would loose this unique lighthearted approach and be poorer for it. 

Rating: 10/10.               

Film Review: God Help The Girl (15) (U.K. 2014) (Director: Stuart Murdoch), Filmhouse, Screen Two, Edinburgh, Saturday 23.08.2014, 20:40

I firstly was not drawn to this film and was in ways put off  by the fact that it is directed by the chief member of the twee indie Scottish group Belle & Sebastian. I then noticed that two of the lead characters are played by Hannah Murray and Emily Browning and due to this had far greater intrigue. After having got my ticket, I also found out that Josie Long has a cameo playing the coach of a local football team, brucie-bonus.

This Glasgow set, geek-indie musical is a surprising, inventive, surreal, touching, genuinely funny, beautiful, melancholic and joyous treat. I did initially think some of the script to be overly simplistic, though then I realised that this helped it to work as an urban fairytale. The three leads, Emily, Hannah & Olly Alexander all have a suitably gentle and dreamy quality, which fits perfectly with the film's tableau of a not-quite-real modern day Weegieland. The film is utterly charming and an absolute gem.

Rating: 10/10.    

   

Film Review: Wakolda (12A) (Argentina/Spain/Norway/France 2013) (Director: Lucia Puenzo) (Spanish, German & Hebrew with English Subtitles), Filmhouse, Screen Three, Edinburgh, Friday 22.08.2014, 20:45

This film is set in Patagonia in 1960 and it's advertising informs it is 'inspired by true events'.The story concerns the arrival in the area of a mysterious German speaking doctor and how he gains the trust of a pregnant mother and daughter of stunted growth within a local family. The film some way in, subtly makes it clear that it is presenting a version of what may have occurred in regard one Doctor Mengele, made infamous by the Nazi regime of Hitler's Germany.     

I was very impressed by this film. I felt it was finely acted by all involved. It is well written and edited. The film does not feel overly long or short, and is a nice length at just over 90 minutes. The story has subtleties as to how it is told visually, some of which I had not picked up upon straight away, it is only while cogitating upon afterwards that these nuances became clear. The cinematography & shot selection are quite striking and beautiful. The ending does not provide any neat resolution, an element I usually like. 

The film also deals with, in a very restrained way, as to how Nazism continued to have globally very far reaching affect upon peoples lives some considerable years after the end of the second world war. The film shows how such a person can insidiously gain peoples favour and trust by presenting a facade based on half/concealed truth, trying to present to the community as a kindly doctor. The film manages that rare thing for a piece revolving around the actions of the Nazis, in that it does not feel exploitative in anyway. 

I did for a short time within the film question whether a 12A certificate is appropriate. Though I quickly realised that the films true horrors are to some degree reliant upon the viewer having some knowledge as to what the Nazis had done. I suspect that someone coming to this without such knowledge would still find the film engrossing, though not as grave. 

The film also presents a very intriguing question. The mother of the family has a complicated birth to twins and calls on the doctor's ability to assist the newborn-children. Her husband is expressing to her his concerns as to who he suspects the doctor to be and her response, due to the assistance the doctor is giving, is to say that she does not care. This poses the idea that can someone have past crimes forgiven if they are being helpful in the present. Subsequently this question is cancelled out, as it becomes clear that the true nature of his 'assistance' has not been made clear to the mother. Though this itself reminds of a further point, what someone accepts is based on their perception, not on actual truth. 

As is clear, I feel there is a lot to recommend this film and I would recommend to anyone who does not require saccharine when watching a film. It has been several months since I have come across a top-notch new film, another reason why this was a welcome trip to the talkies. 

Rating: 10/10.