Festival Fringe Reviews
- The Love That Dared Not Speak its Name
- Rating ****
Two Premiere Works - Possession and Ballet Rimbaud
Unfortunately the tempestuous relationship between Rimbaud and Verlaine is not so well defined. Adam Gullidge and Steven Windsor are young accomplished dancers who partner well in some vivacious duets - to rock music by The Doors - but they do not have mature emotional skills. Looking serious staring out to the audience is not acting. A host of unidentified characters playing friends, wife and mothers simply creates a confusing, unfocussed narrative.
The 15-minute interval is tiresome - Fringe-goers get restless. On a high note the choreography throughout by Sheila Styles is inventive and energetic, graceful and balletic. Ballet Rimbaud has great potential with stronger direction, while Possession is a winner and should be picked up by a major dance company.
When and Where
Vivien Devlin, August 2004
Return to Index of 2004 Fringe Reviews.
Where else would you like to go in Scotland?
Balletmania presents two premiere works, Possession and Ballet Rimbaud, each inspired by the literary Parisian life and gay love affairs of American writer Gertrude Stein and French poet Arthur Rimbaud. The opening scene of Possession introduces Alice B Toklas, Justine Berri, who describes how she and Stein fell in love at first sight - she is her girlfriend, lover, wife and husband. In a brilliant 'coup de theatre' Stein is played by a man, Ian Mackenzie Stewart, tall and thin with cropped grey hair. The couple dance and glide exquisitely against the Shostakovich Jazz Suite which captures the carefree decadent spirit of 1920s Paris where Picasso and Hemingway are friends. Gentle, intimate and beautifully dramatised through dance, this twenty minute ballet is a delightful portrait.
C Venue.(Venue No 34), Adam House, Chambers Street. Runs to 30 August at 3.55pm
