Review by Michelle Fisher
One of the great things about fringe festivals is that, by being open access festivals, all artists have a platform to share their work and as such, we, as audiences, are exposed to exciting new stories and voices. C Arts has taken that even further by creating a global fringe of digital content to ensure that these works can travel further than one artist could otherwise go.
It’s a great concept and an exciting new addition to the arts world for audiences who can now interact with works well outside of their physical proximity.
But fringe being fringe, the world is also a mixed bag, and you don’t always know what you’re going to get - some hits, and some misses.
For me, Amazing Adventures of Her Majesty- Jubilee!, missed the mark. Carole Shaw has written and stars in this satirical piece on the life of Queen Elizabeth II in which she regals us with stories ( her version of them ) and songs in an hour-long performance . Given it was filmed before her death it may have just hit a soft spot being watched in the aftermath but there was little that I can say I truly liked in this piece.
On a positive note, Carole truly commits to playing her character in the comical version she has envisaged, and you can see that she is a confident performer who enjoys being in front of an audience. She dresses on stage in her tiara and scarf and has her stuffed corgis surrounding her together with a bunch of English memorabilia and her photo of her beloved Phillip sitting in a frame by her side.
Her stories and songs range from bemoaning the fact that in a short 70 years her body has declined rapidly, and she now wears kickers that Phillip calls passion killers to her exploits on a motor bike and her socialistic tendencies. She has a few good one liners – particularly one about a musical that people may not know is about her titled “ Corgi and Bess “.
She has an accompanist on stage but many ( too many ) of the songs are acapella and would probably have benefitted with more musical accompaniment and I think overall the performance of an hour was too long.
Maybe an edit of the show pulling out the funnier one liners and shortening some of the songs would make this a more interesting watch for the audience.
As a digital viewing the actual filming of the performance is solid although it does appear that the camera was on a tripod and never moved so the stage and Carole and the slides behind her are only seen from the one angle.
All of this said and done, whilst this production was not my favourite, the idea of digital fringes is something I am excited to see develop further and look forward to supporting more - after all, I just got to wake up and engage with a new piece of theatre by an internationally located independent artist before I even left bed!
I look forward to seeing what else is out there
Image Screenshot of the Performance
Σχόλια