Jukebox Theatre – the audience pays their money, chooses their show and takes their chances, whilst four young and capable actors guide them through a selection of American short plays. An interesting concept for sure, but with hit and miss results. Three shorts from this evening’s menu of ten are chosen and presented with enthusiasm, on an almost bare stage, interspersed with amiable chat that immediately puts the audience at ease.
Wake’ tells the story of an encounter in a funeral parlour between a grieving widow and the morticians’ daughter, bringing light-hearted escapism to the fore, away from its mournful background. This is followed by ‘Electric Roses’ a tale of the break-up of a dysfunctional relationship in Middle America, set against the backdrop of their drive-through wedding weekend in Vegas. The narrator sits in the middle of the stage, distant from the events that elsewhere revolve around him, and we begin to see the genuine and confident talent that the cast have. In fact, you can at times easily forget that the shorts are but minutes long.
Despite ‘Electric Roses’ being extremely well performed, my favourite of tonight’s shorts is “Ferris Wheel”, a story featuring two of the company playing strangers who trade off each others reactions in a high stress situation, and find love stuck high above a fairground.
It’s great stuff at the time, but the innovative nature of the show is what ultimately works against it. The shorts are simply too short, and rather than seeing the company create three or four different genres on stage, I’d prefer to see one which holds all their obvious acting talents to the one spotlight. As stated, the cast are a professional group, who hopefully have a long Fringe future ahead of them, but that future may be better suited to displaying their skills in a performance that allows them to develop their characters further.
3/5
Simon Ferguson
