Summerhall Round-Up

By The Recs RDC - Randall David Cook 3 months ago

Peregrinus ★★★★★ | Aether ★★★★ | Skye: A Thriller ★★★ | Paldem ★★

The much-beloved Paines Plough play tent might be missing this year from Summerhall’s boozy, boisterous courtyard because of the venue’s financial skirmishes last year, but all was eventually resolved and Summerhall continues to host some of the most off-beat and progressive theatre offerings to be found in Edinburgh. The shows don’t always work — no venue can make that claim — but when they do, they often up being the works and performers that remain in the memory long after all the festival posters have come down. Phil Grainger crooning the heartbreaking last song of the dying Minotaur in Half Man/Half Bull still continues to haunt a year later, and one of this year’s standouts likely to be remembered this time next year is the wondrous Ruxy Cantir who’s making a smashing Summerhall début as a potato cabaret singer — among many other vegetables — in the surreal, witty Pickled Republic. And as for that space where the Paines Plough tent used to be, one of the highlights of this year’s festival used that very space to perform their piece. And anyone could see it for free.

Image by Bartek Cieniawa

Peregrinus refers to itself as a traveling theatre show, and we should all be thankful that the Poland-based Teatr Kto made a stop in the Summerhall courtyard to perform it. Wearing wildly oversized head masks and grey business suits, the company depicts a day in the life of a modern everyman, which in this case requires everyone to surrender their individuality to keep the larger machine running smoothly. Demanding supervisors, cruel bosses, crowded elevators, office romances, endless keyboard clanging: all depicted wordlessly and sublimely. Inspired by the poems of T.S. Eliot, director and writer Jerry Zoń and choreographer Erik Makohon have created an unforgettable outdoor spectacle that is not only very funny but also thought-provoking, asking the audience to contemplate how and if they can retain their identities despite great pressure not to.

Image by Theatre Goose

Aether presents its own form of spectacle, as it well should considering it is tackling nothing less than “the greatest unsolved mystery of the universe.” The four young women of TheatreGoose theatre company explore physics, magic and the great unknown: “For physicists, beauty is something we haven’t seen before.” The same can be said for theatre this striking and new, because though this show sounds like it could be an intellectual slog, it’s anything but with its lively music, strong performances and fun choreography. This fast-paced exploration of various historically undervalued women of science crosses centuries and continents in 60 short minutes, resulting in a work that feels like a kick-ass club remix of Tom Stoppard and Caryl Churchill.

Image by Felicity McCabe

Skye: A Thriller is a fine, well-acted family drama by Ellie Keel about a woman named Annie (an excellent Dawn Steele) who is revisiting her memories of the summer of 1995 when she and her siblings saw their supposedly dead father while vacationing on the Isle of Skye. “I’m doing this to correct the wrong impression” says Annie as she recounts the haunting chain of events that led to this particular vacation being one she can’t forget. Driving around the island is a phantom car with no driver, though Annie insists that “Ghosts aren’t real. Ghosts are what you believe.” Unfortunately Skye: A Thriller struggles with the expectations its title creates. It’s not a thriller, and the resulting letdown the audience feels by show’s end is palpable.

Paldem is a new play by David Jonsson, the terrific actor who as the android Andy was the breakout star of last summer’s Alien: Romulus and deservedly won the BAFTA Rising Star award this past February. Alas, just as the larval facehuggers in the Alien films need a certain amount of time in a host before they can properly burst from chests and make their impact on the world, Paldem needs more development. A tale of two college friends who accidentally tape themselves having sex before deciding to monetise their sexy mistake, Paldem rushes in questions of sexual racial dynamics in its final moments that it hasn’t set up properly, all while raising a host of questions that it has set up but doesn’t have time to answer, including the long-term career ramifications for these two young professionals who suddenly become public sex workers, as well as the possible interpersonal challenges that might pop up with family, friends and potential long-term relationships. Right now Paldem is a cake with all the right ingredients; it just needs more time to bake.

The tent may be missing, but Summerhall’s courtyard is full of surprises.

Peregrinus ★★★★★

Aether ★★★★

Skye: A Thriller ★★★

Paldem ★★

 

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The Recs RDC - Randall David Cook
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