Edinburgh Fringe 2010
Low Down
Performed by a cast of budding young actresses this play is both creative and sensitive. Complete with chorus singers and puppets, this play spans a multitude of genre’s and is genuinely enjoyable to watch.
Review
The story begins at the fall of troy. The city has been sacked of it’s great heroes – Paris, Hector and Priam included – with only the women left within it’s destroyed walls. With a life of slavery ahead of them the piece follows these women, particularly Hecuba, Andromache, Cassandra and Helen and the fates that they are set.
The direction is very strong, moving seamlessly from intense monologues to physical depiction. It is both creative and inventive: a lovely moment, for example, is right at the beginning when the cast make paper boats, only to be crushed by the hands of Poseidon. These moments should have been pushed further, to make it a truly innovative piece.
The most impressive element of this play, however, are the very young and talented cast and ensemble. Euripides’ work is complex and intense, yet it never feels forced by these actresses. In particular, the actresses who play Cassandra and Andromache are incredibly strong and well surpass others of much greater age. They have really grasped the challenge of the script and risen to it: it’s quite astounding.
The way to improve this show would be to push it’s visual and physical nature further. Taking a classic piece and adapting is commonplace in the fringe, and this company has done well to do something different with it, but it just needs a little more of a push. It would have been nice to see more done with lighting and the vocals in collaboration with the dance and movement then it would have been exceptional.