Al Carretta, Author at North West End UK

Wet Dreams with Jesus – theSpaceUK @ Surgeons Hall

26Aug

By Al CarrettaNo Comments

Scotland

Wet Dreams with Jesus – theSpaceUK @ Surgeons Hall

Barefoot in black combats and a pink top, Alice excitedly enters the stage with infectious energy and begins an impromptu audience interaction to launch her story. She’s a waitress, originally from Louisiana, but has now found herself in England. The rapid-fire tour of her young life so far then ensues. Her descriptions allude to a youth spent in a geographically idyllic place. The hum of Cicadas, the presence of fireflies and the all-consuming areas of swampland paint an involved and interesting picture of a home where something is evidently wrong. The facade exists to be dismantled and over the next fifty minutes confident direction from Amber Buttery punctuates the framework of Alice’s story. The mise en scene is simple; key props litter the edges of the small stage, an involved lightin...

Flat 4 – The Outhouse Bar, Broughton Street Lane

25Aug

By Al CarrettaNo Comments

Scotland

Flat 4 – The Outhouse Bar, Broughton Street Lane

The loft space in the Outhouse Bar is a true Fringe venue space. Like Isabel Songer herself, it comes as is. There is no major lighting rig installed and there is no particular definition of the acting space. This is a welcome change to the black box pop-up theatre that defines most show experiences. Chairs encircle the acting area, and the audience gather as if the show were some kind of group therapy session in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. Taking the stage in blue silk pyjamas, these ingredients set the stage for Songer to present her unpretentious monologue of university life with passion and gusto. The action is set in a two-bedroom flat. Alex and her best friend Bex are together for the long haul. If that means binge watching television for days and eating greasy take...

Fragments of Fatigue – theSpaceUK on the Mile

23Aug

By Al CarrettaNo Comments

Scotland

Fragments of Fatigue – theSpaceUK on the Mile

A shy girl in pink checked pyjamas and ankle socks clutches a model pink brain and talks to the queuing audience about how she is training to be a neurosurgeon. Leading us into the venue space a makeshift bed lies unmade center stage. From here Riley begins her first calm and unpretentious monologue. She’s studying for her dream career as a neurosurgeon and she lectures with casual confidence on how exactly the brain functions. She’s years away from completion but the cracks of her education are beginning to show. The workload is intense and she’s falling asleep in class. Adulting at 20 is hard work for Riley. She’s alone and struggling but her reasons are different. Phone calls with her friends just don’t cut it but she needs to face a reality; something is physically wrong with her and s...

22Aug

By Al CarrettaNo Comments

Scotland

Frat – theSpaceUK @ Surgeon’s Hall

A pledge is ushered into the initiation process of a college fraternity. ‘Scrotal Recall’ is labelled and subjected to intense humiliation and objectification. The process is repeated and its ceremony furthered at various points throughout the production. As dark vignettes these are noisy, brutal and unnerving moments but they serve the system. There is authority, there is violence and there is threat. There is also the necessity for absolute submission. Without completing the tasks presented to them, the pledge has no chance of becoming a ‘brother’ - a fully fledged member of the fraternity. Frat’s dissection of American college life is informed. National Lampoon gave us Animal House decades ago, but this examined college life in the 1960s. In 2000, The Skulls exaggerated the...

22Aug

By Al CarrettaNo Comments

Scotland

Lost Paws – theSpaceUK @ Surgeon’s Hall

Arlan taunts his cat Jefferbelle with a cucumber and a cellphone. Jeffers is quite the star on Tik-Tok and just one more video of his cuteness will satisfy Arlan’s lust for social media likes. He pets him, tickles him and generally adores him; he is after all his best friend. The scene switches. Shira plays the accordion and reads to her feline friend, Iris but ‘Rissy’ is a different beast; she’s a house cat. Iris is an athletic female. She cartwheels, leaps and bounces through the stage proving herself to be adept at all things physical. Jeffers is a little less robust but infinitely more streetwise. Except, Arlan doesn’t understand the poor creature is lactose intolerant. He can happily lap up milk to amuse his owner, but he can’t control the effects. It should now be obvious that...

Royal Pigeon Mail – theSpaceUK @ Surgeon’s Hall

22Aug

By Al CarrettaNo Comments

Scotland

Royal Pigeon Mail – theSpaceUK @ Surgeon’s Hall

Soon to be 22-year-old Kit is a clerk in a post office. She might be busy with administrative tasks and phone calls, but this is no ordinary office. This is the hub of the pigeon postal service at Dovecoat Parva. There’s a reminder board telling her to ‘Keep Coo…’ - the village debate on the future of the service is 10 days away and from here the avian jokes pile up thick and fast. Royal Pigeon Mail is student theatre in its purest form. It’s naive, wholly accessible and has a beautifully playful tone. Likeable characters and witty use of puns make it a universal and easily relatable watch with the added bonus; it’s really funny and doesn’t try hard to be so. Kit is the impartial referee in the office. Timid and softly spoken, she is a perfect foil to her colleagues and does her ...

22Aug

By Al CarrettaNo Comments

Scotland

Yellow – theSpaceUK @ Surgeon’s Hall

Some shows are born great, some shows achieve greatness, and some shows have greatness thrust upon them. Ponder the classic quote then ask yourself if you’re a fan of Coldplay? Do you know their classic song, Yellow? Not to say it’s overused but if not, you’re going to know it by the end of this show. There’s a yellow tie, a yellow clipboard, some yellow tracksuit trousers and potentially more other yellow objects that I missed buried away in the corner of the theatre and practically watching this show from the wings. Yellow is a snapshot of office life in ‘Hathaways’ law firm. Various characters populate the environment. We’re lectured on moralistic principles and told tales of the fraudsters they defend. All of the performers work competently and efficiently with each other. The e...

20Aug

By Al CarrettaNo Comments

Scotland

Unravel – theSpaceUK @ Surgeons’ Hall

All Arya wants to do is eat her chips. Dressed in dungarees, her hair is messily piled on top of her head. A single chair and a table are present on the stage. The lighting is basic and neutral. A baby cries and so begins an involved character study of postpartum depression and paranoia. The representation of the child is a small bundle of wool and cloth. The bundle isn’t particularly well cared for. This action, deliberate or not, offers a useful metaphor for the piece. Arya reads The Eddas to her baby in the belief that intellectual nurture will give him the life she never had. The early beats of the monologue run through a traditional pattern. Exhaustion is ever present and Solene Capaldi’s performance as the mother begins to intrigue and come alive. And then the disembodied voic...

The King of Hollywood – theSpaceUK @ Surgeon’s Hall

20Aug

By Al CarrettaNo Comments

Scotland

The King of Hollywood – theSpaceUK @ Surgeon’s Hall

Two heroes; long forgotten but pillars of an epoch. On a simply set stage, Hollywood silent movie star Douglas Fairbanks waits for his friend Charlie Chaplin in a heavenly restaurant. He’s been waiting for over 37 years; Fairbanks passed in 1939 and Chaplin in 1977. At some point around 1900, Charlie Chaplin trod the boards of the Gaiety Theatre in Leith with the clog dancing troupe ‘The Eight Lancashire Lads’. Chaplin enters and alludes to this connection as Fairbanks takes us on a potted history of his life in the movies. From the first moment this is highly engaging theatre. Lit with two large defined circles of light, two chairs and a table of expected restaurant props, Gerardo Cabal leans back confidently and brings a suave charm and subtle nuance to his version of Fairbanks. W...

The Last Keepers – theSpaceUK @ Symposium Hall (Annexe Theatre)

19Aug

By Al CarrettaNo Comments

Scotland

The Last Keepers – theSpaceUK @ Symposium Hall (Annexe Theatre)

A stranger washes up on Uig on the Isle of Skye. It’s purportedly 1970 and the lighthouse is closing down. The tight knit community is fragile. Everything is falling apart. The audience enters to the cast symbolically waving torches wrapped in blue plastic carrier bigs. This simple introduction sets a tone. Actors bustle in shock, the discovery of the stranger ensues, and the audience is engaged through a frantic commotion. The plot is relatively simple, or not when you begin its deconstruction. Donald, our mysterious man from the sea excites the village. He serves as the catalyst who creates ripples of animosity with every other person he crosses paths with. Like so many other EdFringe productions, this show has no printed programme or online production information. Pedantic, maybe...