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THE SHOW FOR YOUNG MEN

★★★★★

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

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THE SHOW FOR YOUNG MEN at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe

★★★★★

“an innocent, wondrous delight”

The Show for Young Men will not change the world. It doesn’t have an obvious “point”, or “message”, or even structure. But none of that matters. Because in its simplicity and tenderness, it touched my soul more than any other piece I’ve seen at Fringe.

The plot and setting are a singular, sustaining note. A construction worker is toyed by and toys with a young boy who has stumbled upon his site. That’s it. For the whole hour. The set (Rachel O’Neil) itself is simple: three carbon tubes of various lengths (all conspicuously small-child-sized in width), a few moving boards and a retractable ladder. With this starting tool box, the choreographers (lead artist Eoin McKenzie with choreographic support from Aya Kobayashi) concoct a whole world’s worth of playthings. Like a creative child not gifted store-bought toys, they turn their mundane objects into rockets and tanks and slides and every material facet of adventure. A personal high light of this ingenuity comes just after the halfway point. The construction worker, struck into a depression by his conflicted resistance to vulnerability and intimacy, has his pain illuminated by a small light shown through the circular boundary of the industrial tube. He is sung a song by his young counterpart, who it transpires, once the construction worker leaves, is directly in the line of the light. As such, he shines.

Indeed, this shining is accentuated by the wonderful talent and chemistry of the two performers. Robbie Synge plays the construction worker, and brings an evident vulnerability of masculinity desperately scratching to drag down a fundamentally playful, compassionate, wonderful heart. This vulnerability overtakes him sometimes, and the rift between the two this causes is damaging and profound, but it makes the resolution and rekindling all the more wonderful; a rekindling which is already highly rewarding due to the innocent joy that’s sparked between the two. Much of this joy is attributable to Alfie, more or less playing himself, the adorably cheeky but impressively organized 10 year old who sends Robbie into (somewhat voluntary) loops. Their chases around ladders and swings around (and into) industrial tubing bring out the inner child not just in Robbie but in all of us. In an age of cynicism, the overwhelming innocence and friendliness of their interactions are irresistible.

However, it’s after the resolution where the play really enters visionary territory, delving into more exploratory and stylistic sequences which highlight the wonder of shared struggle and the absurdity of bottling it up under the auspice of being ‘a man’. A joy shared is a joy doubled and sorrow shared is a sorrow halved: an idiom this play embodies to its every detail. Indeed, the aforementioned scene where Alfie sings “Half the world away”, a song written by an ex-construction worker as it happens, is massively powerful; an affectionate, calming melancholy that feels like a warm patch of sun striking one’s skin. Indeed, the technical aspects of the play are superb throughout. The lighting (Katharine Williams) is simple and largely diegetic, save for the occasional blackout, but the urban-auburn spotlights that visually reflect that sense of melancholic sunset, and the party lighting which accentuates the high-energy moments of the play, are perfectly executed. The sound design (Greg Sinclair) is perhaps even more creative and effective; a football podcast featuring Lineker, Shearer and Wright sets a day-to-day scene wonderfully, and its shift to pop songs and dance anthems at the bequest of Alfie is hilarious and joyful in equal measure.

The Show for Young Men is an innocent, wondrous delight. It shoves toxic masculinity’s face in the dirt without ever having to explicitly acknowledge it, by playfully illustrating the possibility for healthy, vulnerable, loyal relationships between any kind of man.


THE SHOW FOR YOUNG MEN at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe – Assembly @ Dance Base

Reviewed on 23rd August 2024

by Horatio Holloway

Photography by Andrew Perry

 

 


THE SHOW FOR YOUNG MEN

THE SHOW FOR YOUNG MEN

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GRUPO CORPO

★★★★★

Edinburgh International Festival

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GRUPO CORPO at the Edinburgh International Festival

★★★★★

“you will leave taking the beauty, the energy and the joy that is part of everything that this extraordinary company does”

Grupo Corpo is a Brazilian dance company that draws on both classical ballet and contemporary dance rooted in African folk traditions. The company has been in operation for an impressive fifty years, and during that time have produced ground breaking work that transcends the times and the cultures it springs from. The current show, now at the Edinburgh Playhouse, and part of the Edinburgh International Festival, is absolutely unmissable. The company of twenty two dancers, dancing to music by Gilberto Gil and Metá Metá, with choreography by Rodrigo Paderneiras, transports us into a world that is warm and inclusive.

The first half of Grupo Corpo’s programme is Gil Refazendo, a dance reinterpretation of Gilberto Gil’s music. It’s a tribute to the life and work of artist and former politician Gil whose music has been influenced by not only Brazilian popular music and samba, but rock, jazz and reggae. Grupo Corpo take this rich combination of influences and turn it into a forty minute piece than begins with a lone figure on stage, in a flowing white shirt, echoing the smooth rhythms of the music. A backdrop on stage provides various projections. The most distinctive being a sunflower that gradually opens and then pulls back to reveal a huge field of these exuberant blooms. As the dance progresses, more and more dancers enter on stage, sometimes alone, or in pairs, or in groups—the moves are like jazz. They begin simply enough but gain in complexity and dissonance as each dancer performs what looks like an improvisation. But as the moves continue, the dissonance resolves into a shared choreography, each dancer distinct but part of the group. The dancers use their bodies to glide and jerk, roll and step. It’s enormously energetic, and mesmerizing. Time seems dreamlike as dancers move on and off the performance space, until all are finally present, filling the stage, and bringing Gil Refazendo to a satisfying close.

The second piece, Gira, (the Portuguese word for spin) is an aptly named tribute to all forms of dance that involves spinning. With music by Metá Metá, a Brazilian jazz band who combine as many diverse musical traditions as Gilberto Gil, all the dancers, regardless of gender, are dressed alike in white skirts that are especially well made for spinning. (Costume designs by Freusa Zechmeister).Girá is just as energetic and athletic a piece as the first half of Grupo Corpo’s show. And although the taller, stronger dancers do lift their partners from time to time, there is no other dance move that is not performed by all genders. Grupo Corpo may take some of its moves from classical ballet, but everyone participates regardless. Gira is energetic, joyful, moving both with the music, and to unseen rhythms of its own. Once again, the piece gathers in energy and momentum throughout the forty minutes of performance. This time there is no backdrop but simply a performance space that is edged on three sides in black, apart from a line of lights, above the dancers’ heads. When their particular set is complete, the dancers retire to the edges, sit down and literally merge into the dark. It’s a clever piece of set design by Paulo Pederneiras that allows the dancers to catch a momentary rest. When they return to the dance, the energy and momentum gather again for a breathtaking finale.

Grupo Corpo will hold your attention without difficulty for the whole show. You will wish it could never end. But when it does, you will leave taking the beauty, the energy and the joy that is part of everything that this extraordinary company does. See this show while you can.

 


GRUPO CORPO at the Edinburgh International Festival – Edinburgh Playhouse

Reviewed on 5th August 2024

by Dominica Plummer

Photography by Andrew Perry

 

 


GRUPO CORPO

GRUPO CORPO

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