Edinburgh Fringe 2012
Low Down
Susan White is an average human being in every way , except that she feels her self best friends with her screen heroine from Coronation Street ,Deidre Barlow – who doesn’t know her from Adam.
Review
A portrait of Fan excess: even sickness. Susan White is discovered in her less than inspiring environment fantasising her close connection with the glamorous life. She’s a Corrie Fanatic and the object of her attentions is none other than Deidre Barlow. The boundaries between the character and the person of Miss Barlow can become blurred, and this is seriously the case with our sad heroine, Susan White, whose life revolves round her illusionary soul-mate. Susan’s fixation on Barlow is sick and sad, and her attentions would be better focussed exclusively on
This is a one woman show and as no cast sheets were available I cannot credit the actress for her tour de force in an admirably clear portrait which was frighteningly believable. A tad pushed I felt , but none the less listenable to.
Space, or more precisely the awareness of it, in the theatrical sense, is essential – even in a deliberately crowded or claustrophobic reality; and in this production the feeling of not enough room for the actress made me aware of the limitations of Susan’s environment in the wrong way: I felt she might collide with props at any moment, rather than the more metaphysical feeling that her style to which she aspired to was cramped.
The set gave a sense of the shabbiness and untidiness of Susan’s existence however, the introduction of prison-type grey stone bricks on the back perimeter of the set (when Susan’s excessive and angry love lands her ‘inside’) seemed incongruous, though the intention was clear. I very much liked the black tea cosy to mark
A valid and all too real pen portrait of the sick and dangerous lengths to which Fan-love can go. The production standards left something to be desired, but the Fringe is about aiming high, and accepting the limitations.
