LOLA: A Flamenco Love Story, EICC, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

A Spanish widow leaves Franco's Spain for London, seeking a job which will allow her to send money back to her poor parents and children.  She gets a job as a cleaner, is miserable, desperate, and then finds love.  That's about it for a plot, simply conveyed with screen subtitles over the Spanish narration.

But this isn't really about the story, less so than an opera might be.  This is the vehicle for dance and music, prinairly flamenco style, but with modern touches.  The dancing is impressive, especially the male lead.  The music is good, and the use of flute for solos was a nice touch.  The singing is traditional flamenco style, well done, but an acquired taste.

It did get repetitive at times, and I'm not sure diehard flamenco fans would be impressed by the 'flamenco lite' approach.  But overall it was entertaining enough to avoid boredom, and had several highlights in the dance..

Spirit of the Favela, Spiegeltent, Gyle Centre, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

 A different location, way out at the Gyle, a different Spiegeltent (plain outside, fancy inside, with a central stage), and a different show for us, outsiode our usual comfort zone.  I am not, historically, a fan of cabaret, but this one sounded intriguing.

And I came out very happy that I took the risk.  It was certainly different, but it was great fun.  Music, dance, some spectaciular acrobatics, a thread of a story about the poor of the favelas stadning up to the rich property developers.  Colour, spectacle, audience interaction, and some breathtaking stunts (the woman spinning from the ceiling by her hair was a highlight).  Very enjoyable.

Afterlife, Traverse

Intriguing take on the ‘afterlife’ concept.  Everyone who dies has six days in a facility where they get to choose what happens to them next.  Guides help them figure out what was the memory they want to live in for the remainder of infinity.  But that’s hard to figure out, and sometimes there are rebels against the system.

Lively, well choreographed, often with many on stage performing multiple actions and dialogues.  Engaging.  Simplistic, but not too much so for a 75 minutes performance.  The leads were generally competent, with a stand out performance by Amelie Berry as the Guide supervisor, who also acts as a narrator.  Her off-the-ball acting was excellent.

There’s not much of a point being made, except that we need to keep our good memories alive. And that it can be difficult to recall what really were the best moment sin a life.

There was an unusual gimmick of giving all audience members a ticket with a number on.  When numbers were called and individuals emerged from the audience, it made audience think they might be.  They weren’t, but I found this distracting from the play itself - I started to think about which memory I would wnat to live over and over!

Interesting.

Counterpunch, Traverse

In a struggling boxing gym, Gav is trying to figure out how he can handle the situation.  He’s lost his most recent fight, just when he needed the money to stay ahead of the mounting debt.  The future looks bleak, but he does have offers.  From a local gangster.  So his choices are not so clear cut.

Everyone in Counterpunch has problems.  Financial, family, relationship, criminal.  The script feels a bit bleak at times.  But also thin, padded out with elaborately choreographed sequences of training and fighting.  They are impressive at times, and the fitness levels of the cast are impressive, but they do go on and on a bit.

However this is Youth Theatre, so some failings are excusable.  As with the script, the acting is variable.  There are some good performances, some not so good, but a lack of voice projection is a common failing throughout, making it hard to follow the plot at times.  

That said, the future of Scottish drama looks promising, and projects like this can only improve standards.  Worth seeing for the raw talent on offer.

The Black Blues Brothers, Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

 Always read the small print?

In many years of booking tranches of Fringe shows it's long been my policy to mix it up. A few that offer familiar territory, reliable performers I know we'll enjoy, and a more random selection of the unfamiliar. Usually, with the latter, I'll do a bit of basic research, checking it doesn't bring us into areas we know, from experience, just aren't our thing. Like anything that says 'Magic' or 'Illusion' - terms to be avoided.

But then sometimes I break my own rules. The Black Blues Brothers sounded like it would be interesting, perhaps inspired by a Blues Brothers type show we went to a few years back (https://golive15.blogspot.com/2017/08/blues-brothers-live-c-venues-edinburgh.html), which was excellent. So I didn't do my background checks. Until the day itself, and then found myself faced with some of those trigger words that say 'Stay Away' - Acrobats, Circus. Oh dear...

But along I went anyway, to see what I would make of it all. And it was as bad, although at least no worse, than I was expecting. Any links to the real Blues Brothers were tenuous at best - some outfits, some music. But it might have been more realistic to name it The Black Full Monty - but without the storyline, or acting, or laughs, or raison d'etre...

The show opens with the five performers appearing, one by one, in costumes suggesting some kind of upper crust US bar, with a bit of mime to try and suggest that something is going on. But the furniture soon moves out the way, they are now all in a semblance of the classic Blues Brothers look, and they begin the first routine. It's already become clear why it's best if the 'acting' is kept to a minimum, because above all these are serious athletes. The acrobatics and choreography are impressive, with tumbling and leaps and catching and human pyramid style interactions. In between each set of leaping and tossing there's a small scenario going on, but it's mostly there to help them get their breath back, ready for the next exertion.

As I already said, their physicality and levels of rehearsal and trust are impressive. But this leads to a one-trick pony. Although they did bring some audience members up, and allowed them some limited participation, that couldn't hide the fact that what happens on stage is essentially repetitive - how could it be otherwise? Initially impressive yes, but swiftly tedious. There's also the weird practice of turning up the house lights on the audience after every routine, as if so needy that they had to see the levels of approval they were being given.

I don't often find myself checking my watch during Fringe shows, but the four times I did is an indication of how slowly time passed here. They received a standing ovation at the end so clearly there is an audience out there that laps this kind of fare up. But it ain't me babe!

The Black Blues Brothers is on at 15.05 in the Assembly Rooms until the 27th.

World Trade Fair Day Celebration, Usher Hall

 A bit of an odd event, that was frequently interesting, often entertaining, but never quite gelled.

It opened with a school pipe band marching on, followed by the evening's host, Gail Porter (no, I had to look up who she was too...). Some information about Fair Trade, a bit of an attempt at warming up the audience (not entirely successfully), and a couple of videos on a big screen over the stage, explaining something about the Fair Trade organisation and what they do.

Eventually we got to one of the two main music acts for the night, with, weirdly, the better musicians on first. Which maybe gave the biggest clue to the nature of the event. Shooglenifty were excellent, the 7 piece outfit delivering a rowdy and danceable set with sound musical ideas and lots of life about them.

The interval had more of Ms Porter, more worthy video material, and a youth drum band plus a youthful dance troupe. And then came the main act, The Red Hot Chilli Pipers.

I've seen the Pipers a couple of times before, but in a very different environment, where their fun act seemed more appropriate. But somehow it just didn't seem to work in a grand venue like the Usher. Competent musicians, albeit far from the best pipers (ironically), a deficit perhaps highlight by having seen and heard the wonderful Ross Ainslie a few nights before in the Traverse next door. More show than go, they are entertainers more than serious musicians. We left before the end...

India Flamenco - A Gypsy Tale, Alba Flamenca, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

I am always aware that the reviews I write are painfully amateurish, but I give each one my best shot, and they're really just for my enjoyment.  However sometimes I know when I'm way out of my depth, and trying to write about dance is one of those times...

The show opens to an empty stage and a lengthy piece from an unseen (and pre-recorded) narrator telling us of the origin story of the Romani people in northern India, and the start of their migration westwards.  Cue an Indian dancer, Indian music, and a series of dances.  I'm guessing her moves took the story forward, but I'm not clued up enough to be able to figure out how.  She certainly had a very expressive face, and excellent timing.

the narration moves the story on to the Middle East, which saw a belly dancer take over on stage, and eventually to Spain, the cue for a Flamenco dancer, with two accompanying musicians.  The finale featured all five in an ensemble piece, and brought the legend to a close.

The flamenco guitarist was impressive, the singer intriguing, the dancers seemed technically proficient and worked well together.  But most sections felt overlong (I wasn't the only audience member confused as to whether a dance had ended or not) and the 'story' felt forced and long winded.  I looked at my watch more times than I'd have liked to!

If you love watching dancers doing their thing you might love this.  But for the rest of us it's best avoided.