Game?

Source: The List (Issue 584)
Date: 23 August 2007
Written by: Greer Ogston

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Break the rules

If you’ve ever been to a dinner party and wanted to scream in frustration then this creative company, Tangled Feet, have the play for you. What begins as a get together to welcome the neighbours soon morphs into a sharp, surreal insight into the hypocrisy and mediocrity of middle class suburbia. The neighbours, Franky (Sara Templeman) and James (Leon Smith), arrive unable to keep their hands off each other and are greeted by the seemingly perfect couple, Tony (Mario Christofides) and Connie (Alyson Cale). But no one and nothing is pristeen at this gathering.

The rules of the dinner party are exploded as Connie’s schedule falls by the wayside. The men compete for dominance and the women compete in barbed compliments as the evening descends into mayhem, breaking all ties with naturalism. This leads to frenzied dances with chairs, men wrestling with ties around their heads, some painful marshmallow abuse and a slightly disturbing innuendo-laden sequence to the strains of Guns’N’Roses’ ‘Paradise City’. Life is a game after all, and generally we play by the rules whether consciously or subconsciously.

This play explores the delicious deviousness of breaking the rules in both life and theatre. In the end Connie literally has to bind Tony back into subservience with copious amounts of sellotape. Nathan Curry’s production is a refreshing and dynamic piece of comedy, physical theatre and performance fused together in an absorbing mêlée of slight madness. If you’re bored with mediocrity either in life or on the Fringe this is definitely a blast of fresh air. (Greer Ogston)

Gilded Balloon Teviot, 668 1633, until 26 Aug, 4pm, £9–£10 (£7–£9).

More: Alyson Cale, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Game?, Leon Smith, Mario Christofides, Nathan Curry, Sara Templeman, Tangled Feet, Fringe (Edinburgh Festivals), Reviews (Theatre)

Last updated: 25 Jul 2008 17:14 BST