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IN THE LADY GARDEN

★★★★

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

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IN THE LADY GARDEN at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe

★★★★

“a charming and very funny play”

Things have never been the same for Alice since that time when she was a kid when she took all her clothes off and ran naked into the living room. She couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about. Her brother was naked all the time and it didn’t seem to bother anyone, but something about her doing it was different. It’s ever since then that she’s wondered: would things be different if she were born a boy? She’s now 69 years’ old and she’s here to tell us her story. Oh, and she’s somehow found herself locked up in a jail cell (the reason for which will become clear as the story goes on!). Through an hour of storytelling, we find out all about her life; from being expelled from convent school to the struggles of her family life and relationships.

This is a charming and very funny play, and an Edinburgh Fringe debut from The Lady Gardeners, a company of three women all over the age of 60. Julia Faulkner is fantastic as Alice, energetically moving around the stage in her grey tracksuit and slippers as she morphs seamlessly into the different characters in Alice’s life. She does an incredible job at getting all of the audience around the thrust stage really involved in the story, in a staging which has been skilfully directed by Deborah Edgington.

As well as having lots of brilliant one-liners and a really touching, human story about growing old and reflecting on the past, Babs Horton’s play is also filled with beautiful poetry and imagery, which delightfully paints Alice’s world for the audience and makes it an utter joy to listen to. There are also plenty of hilarious moments; a scene featuring a trip to Ann Summers as Alice shops for a vibrator provides some particularly laugh-out-loud moments, and Alice’s exploration of the world of social media becomes a real eye-opener for her. Horton’s script also cleverly weaves exposition into the text; a funny moment sharply turning dark as we’re told of the loss of a child, for instance, is really delicately handled, and provides lots of layers to Alice’s life which allow us to become really invested in her as a character.

All of this is underscored with music that sets the scene and atmosphere, and there’s a lovely costume change towards the end as Alice finds her sense of freedom with an escape to Sicily. A little more could be done with the play’s pacing, particularly the first half, and some of the jokes could land a little neater, but luckily Faulkner’s charm and rapport with the audience keeps us engaged throughout. A brilliant debut show and a great way to spend the afternoon in Edinburgh


IN THE LADY GARDEN at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe – Pleasance Courtyard

Reviewed on 8th August 2024

by Joseph Dunitz

 

 


IN THE LADY GARDEN

IN THE LADY GARDEN

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INSTRUCTIONS

★★★

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

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INSTRUCTIONS at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe

★★★

instructions

“The play is an interesting experiment, but as a dramatic piece, full of plot holes”

Nathan Ellis’ experimental drama is a tantalizing piece. The situation is this: every day a different actor is invited to the space where Instructions will take place. The actor knows nothing about the play they are about to perform, there has not been any rehearsal. They have been told that nothing bad will happen by the director, whom they meet fifteen minutes before they are due to go on stage. An irresistible set up, for the actor and the audience, right?

Entering the Old Lab space at Summerhall, all one sees on stage is a screen at the back of the performance space, a camera, a monitor, and a rotation disk. So far, so good. Then Josie, the actor tapped for today’s performance, enters. Words appear on the screen behind them, introducing them. They speak, reading the words from the monitor, and perform the instructions it gives. A story is introduced about an actor who has been invited to audition for a film called Love In Paris. We watch Josie audition. They get the part! We watch them perform the emotions of realizing that this is a turning point in their acting career.

I won’t give away anything else about the plot, although admittedly, it is a sketched in plot at best. Moment to moment, it gives our actor an opportunity to show their acting chops. The camera does most of the work, giving us close ups of Josie’s expressions, and later, moments of connection directly with the audience. Josie’s charm, and willingness to immerse completely in the experience that playwright Ellis and Subject Object have given them, is what keeps Instructions afloat. The play is an interesting experiment, but as a dramatic piece, full of plot holes. It drops references to things like artificial intelligence, for example, that don’t really go anywhere. There is no real conclusion to Instructions, other than the assurance that the play will be performed again, the following day, with a new performer named Nikhil in Josie’s place. The audience is left having to do much of the work of making sense of this piece.

As a piece of hyper-realism—namely sharing in the experience of the actor from moment to moment as they construct a character from the instructions given on a monitor—this piece has some interest. But it’s only a starting point for an exploration of themes fleetingly suggested in the actor’s story. I’d like to see Instructions 2.0, but I strongly suspect that would be a film about the making of the film Love in Paris, using A.I. I’d definitely be up for that.


INSTRUCTIONS at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe – Summerhall – Old Lab

Reviewed on 8th August 2024

by Dominica Plummer

Photography by Alex Brenner

 

 


INSTRUCTIONS

INSTRUCTIONS

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