Festival Fringe Reviews
- Variety
"The Music Hall is a natural, unselfconscious world that does not see the need for any pretence - here are the cross talk men, trick cyclists, jugglers, tumblers and comic singers, the men and women who had nothing but themselves, a song and a backcloth." This is the setting for Douglas Maxwell's entertaining, touching and poetic new play. It's 1929 at the King's, a small town Variety theatre somewhere in the west of Scotland. The company is preparing for that night's show, unaware that their beloved theatre and everything it stands for, is dying around them. It's the era of invention and the Talkies are coming. Is this the death knell for Variety theatre?
Variety entertainment is just that - a diverse eclectic mix of song and dance, dramatic sketches, magic and a great deal of laughter. The opening scene is quite simply magical. The Safety Curtain is down and Harvey the theatre technician stands staring all around him, his mind full of memories and ghosts from past shows. "If you're very quiet, you can hear it" he whispers "it's the laughter trapped between the walls."
As the curtain rises, as if stepping into Alice's Wonderland we are drawn into the surreal backstage world of comics, singers and magicians, the vast empty stage stretching back to the bare brick walls, with nothing but old scenery, wardrobes and colourful backcloths. We meet Betty, a former high kicker and now an accordionist and stooge to her husband Jack, "Keep yer eyes on the Baw" Salt, the couthy lead comic. The speciality act is Dr. Walford Chipo, a spoof on the real Variety star Dr. Walford Bodie, the Electric Wizard. Connor McNair adds romantic sentiment with a few "Heather and Lassie" songs while watching from the wings is the manager, Edward Todd, nostalgically dreams of the good old days.
A stranger appears, Charlie a bumbling, stumbling Irishman who claims to be a talent scout for American movies. But just like the performers, who is he really, behind his theatrical mask. ?
Ben Harrison directs the Grid Iron Company with a compassionate understanding of the energy, toughness, humour and imagination of true Variety theatre, "the sheer camaraderie of the theatre".
Through music, sound effects, film clips and short lyrical scenes ingeniously using the whole auditorium, each performer tells their story of ambition, love, lies and loss. Betty drowns her sadness in Scotch, Jack never forgets his failure to star at the Empire and Edward questions how a theatre full of souls can just die.
Variety is not just about the theatre. The illusive make-believe world of the stage acts as a metaphor for change and the realisation that nothing can ever be certain or permanent in our private lives.
While the first act is perfectly crafted emotionally and dramatically, the second act would benefit from tightening and editing of extraneous narrative to simplify a rather unbalanced and overloaded storyline.
Douglas Maxwell, whose previous play for Grid Iron, Decky Does a Bronco was a smash hit on the Fringe 2000, has captured the rawness and quick wit of Variety theatre quite brilliantly.
As part of a neat ensemble, David Ireland as Charlie is a clever characterisation, while Anne Marie Timoney as Betty and Jimmy Harrison as Harvey perform with bittersweet poignancy.
The real star of this remarkable and intelligent play is the King's Theatre itself. Looking up at the glittering statues and chandeliers, I did hear laughter softly echoing from the Gods.
"Variety" is part of the main Edinburgh International Festival and is being performed by the Grid Iron Theatre Company at the King's Theatre until 17th August.
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