Balbir Singh 'Decreasing Infinity' review Jo Thorne Rural Arts ON Tour

Decreasing Infinity- A duet for two male dancers

This piece explored the musical relationship between draws on the relationship between classical Indian Dance and Contemporary Dance.

The piece is accompanied by a tabla player and a beat boxer.

The duet was interesting to watch, I loved the intricacy of the movement and the moments where the dancers were perfectly in unison.  A beautiful section of the piece involved one dancer performing a head stand, while the other dancer mirrored his leg movements with his arms.

Visually a stunning piece to watch overall, however the transitions between sections were not as fluid as they could have been.

This piece would be suitable for Rural Touring if a dance floor was toured, there was little floor work so this would make the work suitable for Rural Touring.

The companies other touring work ‘Play of Percentages’ features 6 female dancers and lots of floor work so may not be suitable for small venues. 

Falling Man review by Small Petit Klein Dance, Jo Thorne ON Tour Rural Arts

18/08/11

SmallPetitKlein in ‘Falling Man’ at Dance Base

I have seen SPK’s work before and ‘Falling Man’ a solo for dancer Tom Pritchard was exceptional.

A beautiful solo depicting a falling man who had been photographed jumping from the World Trade Centre on September 11th. 

The piece was beautifully choreographed and debated the public’s reactions to the approximate 200 people who jumped from the towers and the controversy that surrounded it. Did they ‘fall’ or were they ‘jumping’?

Tom’s solo was engaging and sensitively performed. The manipulation of the spine throughout gave a real sense of flight and falling.

The lighting throughout the piece was also very effective as well as the use of spoken text from the dancer.

A highly moving piece of dance that would be worth programming.

I spoke to the director Thomas Small who informed me the piece could be adapted for Rural Touring and the company would be happy to tour on the Rural Touring Circuit.

Frisky and Mannish review by Jo Thorne Rural Arts ON Tour

17/08

Frisky and Mannish

Pop Centre Plus at the Udderbelly with a large excitable audience!

Easily the best thing I saw at the Fringe and so much fun.

The performance engaged the audience from the moment Frisky and Mannish entered the auditorium.  

The evening involved training the audience to become a pop star.

There were 5 pop tests to distinguish which category you as an audience member should be in.

For example the first category was for ‘Razorlights’, and to qualify as a Razorlight you needed to have good hair! Frisky asked the audience to put your hand on the head of the person nearest you with the best hair. If you had no hands on your head you had to then sit down, if you had one hand on your head you also sat down but if you had more than two hands on your head then you became an official Razorlight.

Other tests included dancing, if you could dance but not sing then you were a Britney! If you had no talent at all then you were a Justin Beaber.

I was a Beaber!

For the rest of the show Frisky and Mannish performed pop songs in comedy ways but with huge amounts of talent! There was a great take on Madonna through her years with the emphasis being on training us as the audience to be ‘versatile’ throughout our pop careers! Other take offs included Girls Aloud, Take That and Adele.

To finish the evening a pop group was created from the audience, Frisky and Mannish created a band with one audience member from each category. 5 men were picked from the audience in the ranging categories to make up ‘Wet Life’ our new pop group (The name was chosen from an audience member who had been writing down ideas throughout the performance). ‘Wet Life’ were fantastic and were instructed to look ‘emotional’ through Take That’s ‘Never Forget Where You’ve Come From’ as well as touch each other inappropriately. We absolutely loved the evening and would recommend the show to everyone. I’m not sure if they would be up for rural touring but if they would we should grab them with both hands. Unfortunately they had to run off for an interview with Radio 1 afterwards so I couldn’t catch them.  Fantastic stuff, I left the auditorium on a high!

Shirley and Shirley- review by Jo Thorne, Rural Arts ON Tour Manager

ON Tour Rural Arts reviews of Edinburgh Fringe 17-19^th August 2011

What an amazing opportunity to be given the chance to attend the Edinburgh Fringe as a Rural Touring Scheme.  We managed to stay with some lovely friends in Edinburgh so could use our subsidy to good use, on shows!! I tried to see a real mix of work and also saw shows that were not designed with Rural Touring in mind but that could be easily be adapted.

The standard overall was of a very high quality, the only disappointment being the BBC 3 Comedy ‘Best of the Fringe’ on the 19^th August.  I have reviewed a mix of the shows below and my promoter will do the same.

17/08/11

Shirley and Shirley

A comedy duo in New College Assembly Hall

A tiny venue with a total of about 25 people in the audience. The atmosphere felt intense but friendly and the audience were comfortable and at ease with each other.

The opening sequence involved Shirley getting an audience member to fill in for the other Shirley as she was ‘late’ for the evening’s performance. This was an entertaining opening as the audience member was dragged out from her seat, taught a dance, had a go at some press ups and then performed it with Shirley for the introduction to the show. This broke any ice there was to break and left the whole audience smiling.

The show involved a series of sketches ranging from 2 minutes- 5 minutes long including: Britains got Talent, A Canadian psychologist, An incestuous brother and sister, a night out drinking sequence with ‘posh’ ladies, Mr Kipling and a take on time.

The Canadian psychologist sketch was particularly funny and used interaction with the audience to sell the psychologist’s ‘skills’. Audience members provided anecdotes for Shirley to improvise around.

Certain sketches were funnier than others inevitably, but overall the standard of the comedy was high. 

The show would be suitable for Rural Touring as there was no large set and the props were very effective and would be easy to transport.  I laughed almost throughout and would recommend the show for Rural Touring. The two female artists had an abundance of energy throughout and deserve great success.  

Greyscale - Tonight Sandy Grierson will Lecture, Dance and Box. Assembly, George Square 22/8/11

Reading the copy for this one-man show, I had no idea what to expect and I’m none the wiser having seen it.  Through a rapid series of slides, Grierson starts out telling the rather fantastic story of his great grandfather Arthur Cravan – who appears in a myriad of identities, timelines,  jobs and countries – its  fairly baffling, intense but intriguing stuff. Grierson’s performance was commanding,  physical and full-on with  lots of sweat and attitude, but from the moment he stripped down to his pants, clambered over the seats and appeared at the rear of the auditorium looking like Christ on the cross, I was lost. The show’s references, concepts and mind stuff left me feeling like he was on a journey and I wasn’t along for the ride. Did the show change track or fall off the rails? - or was I just too thick to stay with it?  the audience certainly seemed to enjoy it.  Running time 1hr

Teasel Theatre - Grisly Tales from Tumblewater. Pleasance Courtyard 23/8/11

Grisly Tales is based on Bruno Vincent’s novel of the same title and is directed by Caroline Horton who performed ‘You’re Not Like the Other Girls Chrissy’ which toured to rural villages in the north earlier this year.

This is a good storytelling piece. In a nutshell, the story is about Orphan, Daniel Dory who sets out to rainy and strangely sinister Tumblewater in search of his long lost sister. We follow his adventures as he comes up against Tumblewater’s evil landowner and a witch.

If you’re performing a one-man show, you’ve got to be good and actor Edward Jaspers is. On stage with just a step ladder, a bag and top hat, he convincingly inhabits all the strange characters of Tumblewater and gives a very physical performance – complete with flying sweat. (more a feature of the attic venue than the show itself)

Although this is a dark tale, its not gruesome or grisly though I did wince at the bit about the fate of a baby who was mistaken for a loaf of bread. The show features some quirky songs sung live to the accompaniment of mandolin and the shows humour, its audience interactions and Edward’s likeability stop it feeling too dark.

With little to focus on other than the story itself, younger audience members may struggle a bit but I saw this show with a mixed audience that included many teenagers and they were all gripped from start to finish. I could definitely see this show working in village venues though running time only 1hour.

Idle Motion - The Vanishing Horizon. Zoo 23/8/11

A really great show. Strangely it was listed in the dance section of the fringe brochure. Its devised/ physical/visual theatre – but it aint dance.  

The Vanishing Horizon is about ‘female aviators and the spirit they embody’. Its also about one woman’s (Anna) personal journey as she flies to Africa to collect the ashes of her grandmother who took flight herself years ago and exited the lives of Anna and her mother.  The two story strands interlink to give a strong narrative, but it’s the sheer inventiveness of staging that makes this such a good show .

On a cluttered stage the 6 young performers packed in so much action it could’ve felt messy but the staging was so swift and seamless it worked. The set was strewn with some 30+ suitcases (the stars of the show) and what they didn’t do with a suitcase probably couldn’t be done - Bathroom cabinets, telephone booths, runways, mini bars, plane wings. So many clever touches. Such inventive use of props and objects.

This show was impressive, exciting and inventive. It had sub thems of hopes and ambitions and contained history, human interest and lots of paper planes. The audience loved it and so did I. I'd love to see this piece tour to Northumberland villages but suspect this award-winning company are much in demand. Show duration 55 mins