The Review Show at the Edinburgh Festival - Part 3 The Review Show


The Review Show at the Edinburgh Festival - Part 3

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Welcome to the climax of festival time in the city. Tonight we

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present dark stories, bright lights, Murakami on stage, new comedy, and

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live performance. Coming up on tonight's review, we

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see three of the best-selling shows of a record-breaking Fringe

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Festival. I meet the saw authorise, Sapphire, whose follow up to

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Precious The Kid was launched this weekent.

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Scenes, screens and silhouettes, a theatrical adaptation of Murakami's

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novel. Three hot tips for The 31st Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Award.

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All that and live music from The Magnets, and more besides.

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Joining me, sadly, for the last time this year, in this lovely

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studio to discuss all of that, is panel that is still motoring after

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marathon around the shows. The writer and broadcaster, Paul Morley,

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the novelist, Denise Miner, and Marcel Theroux. First up this week,

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as the fringe reach as finale, we have selected three top shows.

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With more than 2,500 shows on the fringe, how do you decide what is

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good. This week we have gone by the box-office, which goes by word of

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mouth and the critic, we selected some of the big hitters. The

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Sputnik, has within one of the top - the Alvin Sputnik has been a top

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seller. The tale of a deep sea adventurer

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sailing around the world, has used imagery and puppetry, has been

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wowing Edinburgh audiences. An Instinct For Kindness is a

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poignant tale of loss, told from the point of view of actor, Chris

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Larner, who accompanied his wife to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland,

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where she ended her own life, after suffering from chronic and

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debilitating multiple sclerosis. This moving show deals with the

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myriad legislative and personal issues surrounding assisted suicide.

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Are you there Allyson. My foot is trapped. I'm going to fall, you're

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right Allyson, you're there. Good evening, welcome to the Tate,

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an evening of epic pupry, onen to of a table.

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The Table is a puppet show from Blind Summit Theatre. It was

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inspired by the writing of Samuel Beckett, Eve Klein, a show of three

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parts, from a grumbling puppet called Moses, and disembodied head,

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and the story of a fugutive told on payss of A4 paper. With a load of

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inspiring talent to choose from, and unadult traited rubbish to

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choose from, the fringe programme is daunting, made more confusing by

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the star ratings, these are a handful of the most talked about

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shows from the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe festival.

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Let's begin with Alvin Sputnik, in the small auditorium, there were

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children that were absolutely awe struck, were you? I found it really

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touching, I wanted to be cynical, but overall I thought it was a

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beautiful production. Part of the really naive illustrations he was

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doing on the laptop. And the puppetry as well. I'm not a big fan,

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but I thought it really worked. I would love to take children to see

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this. What about the story of a widowed man who goes off as a deep

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sea explorer, did it tug at your heartstrings? I didn't want to be

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cynical, but I ended up being cynical. That was annoying. It was

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reviewing it like a piece of food, it was too sweet. I was interested

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it became such a best Searle. It reminded me of the things back in

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the day of the 1960s or 1970s before the news, like Hector's

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House, or Captain Pug Wash, it was like a palate cleanser before the

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news. But for grown-ups I was confused. It was a cross

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generational thing, I wanted to take my kids to it. It was utterly

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charming. The whole auditorium was behind him. When I came out I sided

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with Paul, I thought maybe I prefer my puppetry with harder edge.

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of the great things I thought was he managed the puppetry, unlike

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other production, in an understated way. It was a very crafted show.

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Technically he was amazingly slick. He's so talented and the whole

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production was very smooth. Montreal Comedy Festival, you would

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have hard nosed comedy from America and the British comedy a way, and

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the popping of balloons would come from France and Spain, I'm worried

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it will move that way, which is interesting social logically, we

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are looking for the escapist humour, gentle. I'm looking for...It

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the whole message about the world warming up. Because he's flying

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around the world doing a show about global warming, that fled the cynic

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to me, he's flying from New York to Auckland to do the show about

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global warming. Other things started to happen which we see

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again and again, a few times this week we have seen a puppet do the

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moon walk. So you start seeing similar sorts of trop developing.

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That develops straight into the next one. There was moon walking on

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The Table. This was Blind Summit, about the whole mean ofing of

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existence. I thought it was a- the whole meaning of existence. I

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thought it was amazing The Table. When you see the guys with the

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cardboard head, you realise that make-believe, there is something

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very magical and child like about that. Also it carries a lot of

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insight about the body. A lot of it comes from how the body work, and

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revelations you wouldn't have had until you see a cardboard puppet

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moon walking. It was operated by three people, there was three guys

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making it work, I couldn't really get over that? I felt hollow at the

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end of it. It is a show of three parts. That part with the cardboard

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guy on the table is quite moving and quite insightful, at the end of

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it you just think you are very good at that. I found myself watching

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the faces of puppet tear, trying to look for some - puppeteers, trying

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to look for a connection. The first few minutes it is suspended into

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existence, it is like you imagine that is how we are trapped. Very

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quickly they themselves run out of material as comedians. The second

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part they lost all the credit, it goes Blue Man, and the clowning

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again. It is entertaining but it does remind me of the Spanish

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contribution to the Montreal comedy festival, it is popping a balloon

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and looking surprised. The third part blew you will the credits the

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first part developed. I was entertained by it. I like the way,

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it is an obscure art form, most of us know it from Punch and Judy, or

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childhood things. But they were talking about the Bunraku puppet,

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the show also becomes a lecture about the nature of that, how they

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are working it. It does call on you to suspend your disbelief. Yeah,

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especially since the guy is standing loud and talking away.

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calls on you to co-operate with the illusion. You might not be in the

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mood for co-operation. There was no illusion in the last one, An

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Instinct For Kindness, about Chris Larner's own experience of taking

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his ex-wife to Switzerland. This was nothing more than a chair. This

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was a straight, hard, difficult story for the audience. Did he pull

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it off? I thought it was brilliant. I kept wanting to be cynical, I

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kept feeling myself emotionally engaged, and then it would cut. The

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direction in this absolutely makes the show. Just as it is about to

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become saccarine, he goes into a different character. His

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performance was great, the writing was beautiful, really pragmatic.

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seemed to me he you can seeded in bringing Allyson back to - he

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succeeded in bringing Allyson back to life. Did you think her

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character was well drawn? It is essentially a mantleing a really

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tragic story. By the very nature - a man telling a really tragic story.

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By the nature of it, you come out thinking someone has told you a

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story, but you have lived it. It is a northern story, there is a lot of

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that going on, Manchester, York shirk you get a sense of that place,

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you get a sense of somebody being paralysed in life, and then making

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that enormous decision. I did think he did it wonderfully well. It is a

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tough one, it is a tough one, not least because clearly at the point

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where all the decisions were being made, and they are in Switzerland,

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and his son in his 20s, and he called and told her not to do it,

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and she didn't take the next call. He doesn't shrink from that. There

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is the impact of the son that doesn't want his mum to die. He

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managed to, even in that moment he manages to put humour in, he

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manages this clearly not much comedy in the tragedy. She decides

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not to floss her teeth. There is so many interesting observations,

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about someone's last night. doesn't need her dental hygiene

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today. Even as a member of the audience you are hoping she will

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some how not go. It is very true the idea when somebody commits

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suicide, I have personal experience of it, so it was moving for me, it

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is the last thing, the last meal, the last joke, the last book, it is

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beautifully told. You have all the legal stuff, and then they are on

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holiday, and they go out. enjoys herself. After being shut

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down in the house in York shirk she experiences Switzerland. It is

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interesting, it is funny. A lot of the other so-called comedians are

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not funny. They have ability, and talent, and they can move well and

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do this, that and the other, they lack this ability to tell a really

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great story. He has a great story. It is an amazing story. You want to

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know every detail. If you want to catch that the details are on the

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website. Precious, the film of the novel, Push by-election the

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renowned US author, Sapphire, was one of the shost shocking and

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talked about movies at the moment. A no holds barred of the abuse

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delivered on a young African girl in New York, the saga has continued

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and it is no less harrowing. It is 15 years since we were introduced

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to the character, Precious, who transgressed her upbringing to be

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something she never had, a loving mother. The story was turned into

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an Oscar-winning film, and now the author, Sapphire, continues the

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novel, with the new novel The Kid. It starts with the funeral of

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Precious, we know her son's life will never be the same. Snatched

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from his mother by the AIDS she contracted through her own father.

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She's passed through the foster home system, into the care of his

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great-grand mother as a teenager. Hate is my friend, hate killed God,

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hate killed revenge. My body was grown, swollen, I'm a whale with a

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rash, a rash that begins behind my knees, creeps up my thighs and into

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the creass where my arm breaks at the elbow and breaks into hives and

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boils and puss that smells like a dead rat trapped in a wall, and it

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feels like ants stinging when I sweat. What you create is a most

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hugely likeable child. He's full of love and wonder. And then you

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create this world for him where he's just completely at the mercy

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of others? I wanted to show the strength of a single mother, what

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she's able to create for him. That by the age of nine years old this

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kid has an almost magical existence, far different from what Precious

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had. She's broken the cycle of abuse. She's literally provided him

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with a family, that is her, and without her he is cast at the mercy

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of the state. But he falls into the hands of paedophile Catholic priest,

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in the most horrific way? As is happening as we speak. He begins to

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imitate the behaviour of his abusers who have power. We

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literally hear one of the Catholic brothers come to him and say show

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me some love, and begin to abuse him. A couple of pages later Abdul

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is creeping down the hall to a little child saying the same thing.

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Show me some love, I'm your father. He thinks that old slavery days his

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old grandmother is a piece of dirt. He's totally appalled by her, also

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by the past. But she is the first person to reach him, to

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breakthrough the layers and layers of denial and anger and hatred. And

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that is kind of the beginning of his regaining his humanity. Do you

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think young African-American men are completely disadvantaged?

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the people pan handling are African-American or Hispanic men,

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most of the homeless shelters are filled with this population. We can

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come back to a little bit of what is in The Kid, a disproportionate

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amount of children who end up homeless or in prison come out of

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foster care. Sapphire is such an amazing success with Push, then

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years later it was made into the film, Precious, do you think that

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success and because it was such an extraordinary film, has been a help

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or a hindrance moving on to the story of her son. I thought the

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success of the first book weighed on her and the film. Her writer's

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natural desire to write a called big book. There is the pressure of

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being a spokesperson, perceived as a spokesperson for an African-

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American community. In the end I wasn't sure what this book added to

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what I had read in Push. Push was a welterweight of a book, that was

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none the less, it was very moving, and it had sentimental moments too,

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this was dark and kind of relentless, and I'm not sure in the

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end what additional things it added. She opened it up with an

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extraordinary moment when you have this nine-year-old, fairly innocent,

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by the time he's 13, he's being corrupted and he corrupts others,

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and you still like him? You still like him, it is interesting. What

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she's trying to do is take fractured narratives of people,

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which haven't been heard. If you are taking a predatory paedophile

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that is being abused, and abusing, is a voice we haven't heard. In the

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book she's trying to show the redemption through dance t doesn't

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come through the proz. The book Coming Through Slaughter, does that

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with jazz, the prose demonstrates the form. That just felt like

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everybody was raping everybody all the way through. About two third of

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the way through I thought this is numbing, you just get to the point

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you are numb and you don't care.'S A smart child, there is dance, and

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his life is dreadful and he hears the beat and finds his way into the

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dance studios, there is dance teacher in the studio that takes

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him home and abuses him? flickering story of the redemption

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through art is there all the time, dark and drenched in abuse, there

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is always this flickering idea that he will recover himself through

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dance. Wherever he goes it is just as bad. I kind of thought it was

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interesting that she had to follow up what is a popular success, and

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she's deeply uncompromising, and it is like that in the book. It comes

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alive, she really means it. It is like this incredible story of a big

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black guy filtered through Dostoevsky, Dickens and Jena, in

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those moments it comes alive. The point is it is not necessarily

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about redemption. If there was a redemption and she took it further

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forward that wouldn't be true to the black story, the truth is it

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goes spinning backwards. She said this isn't just a story, a simple

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story, this is the story of many. We have had the paedophile priests,

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the point is by the time he was 14, six feet tall, people didn't think

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he was young, he got completely lost in the system? It is hard to

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feel any sympathy with it. The thing about his mum, Precious,

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she's vulnerable, she expressed some vulnerability through the

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course of it, she cares for him. He's predatory, as Denise said.

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He's so vulnerable. I think he is. The point is, this is what he has

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been taught, this is how he survives, it is his language.

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Sheehy Kuwaits being black with sexuality, that is an outsider's

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point of view, he doesn't seem to have any interactions that aren't

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sexual. There are barely any interactions in the book that

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aren't sexual, they are to the point of absurdity. Next time

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someone sodomised, you think is anyone else going to do something

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different in the book. The idea of what she's doing, as well, as you

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say, fractured narratives, but also the pat wa, the different stories,

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is there too much going on in the book, in the way she's navigating

:18:52.:19:00.

his story? I think so. I think that she is, she uses monolougue a lot.

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There is dreams and nightmares? Then there is another Monday logue,

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then slavery days. She tells an amazing story, the old grandmother

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of coming to New York and ending up working in a brothel. It feels like

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a short story that is found its way into this novel and we have lost

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the central narrative. In the end the ability to get inside this

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character, the ability to express the speed of thought is in the end

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quite transcendant, that might be the message itself. If you can face

:19:29.:19:34.

the trauma for yourself, I think it is well worth it, The Kid was

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released across the UK this week. You can see the full interview with

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Sapphire on the website. One of the cultural dividends of devolution

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was National Theatre, first came the National Theatre of Scotland,

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then the National Theatre of Wales was formed. Both companies are

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performing at the Edinburgh Festival this year. So far we have

:19:56.:20:00.

had theatre from Australia, China and Korea, now closer to home. The

:20:00.:20:03.

National Theatre of Scotland and Wales, both have several

:20:03.:20:07.

productions here. We are raising the curtain on two of them. The

:20:07.:20:16.

National Theatre of Scotland, the Prudencia, it is a folk balance

:20:16.:20:24.

land, academic, who despairs at her colleague's postmodern approach to

:20:24.:20:33.

folklore. Working-class folklore is X Factor, it is being on YouTube,

:20:33.:20:43.
:20:43.:20:44.

it is less Tamsin and more SuBo. was Greig's passion, he felt almost

:20:44.:20:50.

overlooked as a pocket of Scottish literature a slightly unfashionable

:20:50.:20:56.

man. Sometimes seen as twee, we thought they weren't that at all,

:20:56.:21:00.

they are incredibly gutsy, and they have fantastic stories of death and

:21:00.:21:04.

love, with this wonderful supernatural element shot through

:21:04.:21:10.

lots of them. You can't just throw ideas together through intellectual

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fruit salads, I'm real, you're real and we're in hell Prudencia, not in

:21:16.:21:20.

a border ballad. I think the National Theatre is responsible

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about asking what stories we have in our DNA, how do we find way for

:21:25.:21:30.

those stories to carry forward into the future in way that is relevant,

:21:30.:21:35.

and not nostalgic, but can teach us about something in the future.

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National Theatre in Wales is only going a year-and-a-half, and it is

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the first visit to time in Edinburgh.

:21:47.:21:51.

Gwyn Thomas is an extraordinary Welsh writer who very few people

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know about these days. He writes these really messy anarchic stories

:21:58.:22:01.

about the South Wales valleys with every cliche you would expect, but

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done in a completely outrageous way. They are cruel, these people who

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stand above us and kick our sorry lives into any shape that pleases.

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They beat me, they sucked me dry, so there will be no grand revenge

:22:21.:22:29.

on my behalf. Although I will do one thing. So small it is pathetic

:22:29.:22:38.

really, but...Say I'm not going to pay for any more coke. For us we

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wanted to, by instinct, make a piece that was a very universal

:22:41.:22:44.

piece, that was steeped in Wales, but actually an international piece

:22:44.:22:48.

of theatre, so the issues that Thomas is talking about are

:22:48.:22:52.

relevant, all over the world, not just to Wales, he's telling us,

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things are about humanity, particularly humanity in desperate

:22:56.:23:01.

moments and in desperate situations. With humour as well. Always with

:23:01.:23:11.
:23:11.:23:13.

humour. Through humour. The Dark Philosophers, first of all,

:23:13.:23:17.

complex stage, Lodz of wardrobe, the Welsh valleys and the terraces,

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a huge amount of energy and a lot going on. Was it too many things

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happening at the same time? I think the staging in this is fabulous.

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The wardrobes represent the terraced houses, for me, I felt

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that the stories focused on the wrong parts of his writing. I don't

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know his writing, but the stories felt old and familiar, and there is

:23:37.:23:42.

abuse there, and people dying of poverty. It felt tired, and then

:23:42.:23:51.

there is a Parkinson's sequence. Michael Parkinson. Yes a bit where

:23:51.:23:54.

he comes on as Michael Parkinson, it was dated and made it feel not

:23:54.:23:58.

relevant to me. I didn't feel it worked that well. It was

:23:58.:24:02.

beautifully staged, with a lot of energy. I think it suffered from

:24:02.:24:07.

the fact that Gwyn Thomas is not, I'm not sure if I should feel bad

:24:07.:24:12.

for not having read his work. Welsh authors with a surname of Thomas,

:24:12.:24:21.

he's down the line a bit. It did suffer from what denies said. It is

:24:21.:24:25.

novellas, it is hard to find a centre. They tried to make him the

:24:25.:24:29.

centre and make it a play about his imagination and how he's endo

:24:29.:24:39.
:24:39.:24:41.

youing these characters with life, they could have pushed it further.

:24:41.:24:44.

It is a shame, the next one, Prudencia, it would have been nice

:24:44.:24:50.

to see Thomas being treated like that. The Michael Parkinson scenes

:24:50.:24:55.

hint at how nice it would be to make him alive. The point was to

:24:55.:25:02.

make him one of the great Thomass, like Dylant pushed him out by being

:25:02.:25:05.

so grotesque, because at the heart of it there was something

:25:05.:25:09.

tremendous going on. It was hard to fathom, because it was so full of

:25:09.:25:19.
:25:19.:25:19.

beserkness. Let's talk about Prudencia Hart we

:25:19.:25:23.

are sitting Round Tables with whiskey, sitting like you would on

:25:23.:25:28.

a Saturday night, it was a magical lock-in, were you transported?

:25:28.:25:31.

thought it was fabulous. When the Scottish National Theatre get it

:25:31.:25:35.

right they get it so right. They wrong footed the audience by not

:25:35.:25:39.

putting the lights down. It is people telling you a store, it is

:25:39.:25:46.

all in mime. That made - a story, it is all in mime. That made it

:25:46.:25:52.

amazing you conson trait. The action scenes are great. Did you

:25:52.:25:58.

like Prudencia, she was very earnest. She's the academic. Some

:25:58.:26:04.

extraordinary thing. The fact it is set in a post, post-structuralist

:26:04.:26:09.

seminar is a great thing. I thought I was hallucinating, The Idea of

:26:09.:26:12.

Perfection you have a piece about almost the source of popular music

:26:12.:26:16.

n way, going back to the 13th century and the Scottish ballads

:26:16.:26:21.

which you can take through to where it eventually ends up, Kylie

:26:21.:26:27.

Minogue Cannot Get You Out Of My Head, I have written a book about

:26:27.:26:32.

that, and I could write another book. It is extraordinary with the

:26:32.:26:36.

borders to taking music so seriously and people who take it as

:26:36.:26:39.

simply fun, and managing to tell that story really well in the

:26:39.:26:45.

middle of a seminar. You are in Kelso, and the devil is out in the

:26:45.:26:51.

night. The idea of heaven and hell, you think that Prudencia ends up in

:26:51.:26:54.

a library, you would imagine it is her heaven but it turns out hell?

:26:54.:27:00.

She ends up in a ballad. A lot of it is rhymed. She ends up

:27:00.:27:06.

cataloguing the devil's collection of ballads, which, it's funny, it

:27:06.:27:10.

is transporting and there is a great, it is a great twist that

:27:10.:27:15.

suddenly time passed so quickly, she finds herself...It Is very

:27:15.:27:18.

relaxed, extraordinary, the five characters just seem they are part

:27:18.:27:23.

of us, the way they mingle amongst us, sit back amongst us. You do get

:27:23.:27:26.

a sense particularly in the Highlands, that you would be in a

:27:26.:27:30.

lock-in, that would be crazy, and people quite drunk. Because it is

:27:30.:27:34.

about borders it about things in the imagination as well. It is not

:27:34.:27:39.

just geographical borders, it is borders about something and nothing.

:27:39.:27:43.

There was an uncompromising amount of joke about post structural. A

:27:43.:27:49.

14-year-old boy across from me with his head on the table, every time

:27:49.:27:53.

they made that joke he was down. He probably had too much whiskey.

:27:54.:27:59.

are really good books, the things about the borders of the

:27:59.:28:03.

imagination. It was in the Scottish accent. Did anyone find the romance

:28:03.:28:07.

between Prudencia and the devil moving. I thought it was serving,

:28:07.:28:12.

what you have is the trapped soul, he was the trapped person, he was

:28:12.:28:17.

trying to trap everybody else with him. There is something in the book,

:28:17.:28:22.

in the end she sings Kylie and back out in the pub, it is as if time

:28:22.:28:26.

hasn't move. In the end, in this great book, you have, she is the

:28:26.:28:31.

one with the smoke coming out her eyes, and the red eyes, actually

:28:31.:28:36.

she's death isn't it. That didn't come out really particularly in it.

:28:36.:28:43.

Did you read it? I didn't get that. Now it's a downbeat ending.

:28:43.:28:49.

have to go see it. She's not maybe death, she has smoke coming out of

:28:49.:28:55.

her eyes. Both those plays are part of the National Theatre of Wales

:28:55.:29:01.

and Scotland's repetoir. Now before Murakami, we have the first musical

:29:01.:29:11.
:29:11.:29:13.

break. The singers who sound, like # Well woman and children

:29:13.:29:16.

# There's not man in the life I know

:29:17.:29:20.

# I've been called the minstrel # Take back what you said

:29:20.:29:23.

# Little girl # While you're at it

:29:23.:29:27.

# Take your sound back too # I'm tired of sitting around

:29:27.:29:37.
:29:37.:29:49.

# I'm thinking about the door bell # When you gonna ring it

:29:49.:29:53.

# I'm thinking about the door bell # When you gonna ring it

:29:53.:29:58.

# I'm thinking about the door bell # When you gonna ring it

:29:58.:30:03.

# I'm thinking about the door bell # Oh well

:30:03.:30:12.

# Oh # You don't seem to come around

:30:12.:30:22.
:30:22.:30:30.

# You don't make a sound # Oh

:30:30.:30:40.
:30:40.:30:55.

# Make a sound and make you feel # Nobody caught me waiting

:30:55.:31:01.

# I'm coming to to you # You strike me to try to be kind

:31:01.:31:05.

# But you are so true # Then again I know you feel good

:31:05.:31:09.

# You tell me you want me again # I don't need any of your pity

:31:09.:31:15.

# I can depend on my own friend # I'm thinking about my door bell

:31:15.:31:19.

# When they gonna ring it # I'm thinking about my door bell

:31:19.:31:24.

# When they gonna ring it # I'm thinking about my door bell

:31:24.:31:29.

# When they go gonna ring it # When they gonna ring it

:31:29.:31:39.
:31:39.:31:47.

# I'm thinking about my door bell If you find yourself attracted to

:31:47.:31:50.

The Magnets, they will be performing at the Assembly George

:31:50.:31:53.

Square until Monday. Haruki Murakami is a cult writer, who also

:31:53.:32:01.

manages to be a best seller, it is not too grand wois statement to say

:32:01.:32:04.

he revolutionised Japanese literature.

:32:04.:32:09.

He set about transforming his book to the theatre. We went to see the

:32:09.:32:17.

results of eight long years of work on the drama. This week Edinburgh

:32:17.:32:25.

hosts the debut of the adaptation of the novel by Hurst hur. It is a

:32:25.:32:33.

spectacle that tries to get to the heart Haruki Murakami, it tries to

:32:33.:32:37.

get to the heart of the human kin decision. It is the story of a man

:32:37.:32:42.

who falls into a state of confusion following the disappearance of his

:32:42.:32:47.

wife and cat. As he struggles with loss and loneliness, he is

:32:47.:32:52.

contacted by a string of callers, including caller who knows intimate

:32:52.:33:00.

details of his wife. His wife's brother a sadistic politician, and

:33:00.:33:04.

May a schoolgirl who confronts him with his inadequacies. I'm the only

:33:04.:33:07.

one in in the world who knows you are down there. You have no boss,

:33:07.:33:11.

no wife, all you have is me. All I have to do is walk away and you

:33:11.:33:15.

will die. You want to kill me. want you to suffer, in a cold dark

:33:15.:33:20.

place, completely alone, where no- one cares whether or not you are

:33:20.:33:26.

alive. The quest to reconnect with his wife and tept her home from her

:33:26.:33:30.

mysterious exile, is an examination of how much any of us knows about

:33:31.:33:34.

those closest to us, and the loneliness of a contemporary city.

:33:34.:33:40.

As well as being a portrait of a marriage in crisis, and part

:33:40.:33:44.

Chandleresque detective story, the play explores wider issues,

:33:44.:33:47.

reflecting Japan's war time horrors, and questions its place in the

:33:47.:33:51.

world today. This notion that the Japanese should apologise for

:33:51.:33:58.

simply being human has led to what I call the emmass laigs of a nation.

:33:58.:34:08.
:34:08.:34:10.

- Emmass cull laigs of a nation. - the story is told through film,

:34:10.:34:14.

dance and puppetry and live action. His style is all about the layers

:34:14.:34:19.

of reality and the way the genes are infused with the reality. I

:34:19.:34:22.

wanted to use the different elements to support that idea,

:34:22.:34:32.
:34:32.:34:33.

whether film or puppetry. That was our big story with the piece is how

:34:33.:34:38.

to break down the layers and represent them with theatrical

:34:38.:34:43.

elements. Seven years in the making, it is distilled into two hours of

:34:43.:34:48.

action. Did the theatrical treatment of the search for the

:34:48.:34:52.

wife and the struggle within self strike a chord with at least our

:34:52.:34:56.

audience. Paul, did you feel you were taken into Okada's world? That

:34:56.:35:02.

he was trapped in his world? It is interesting, the book is so

:35:02.:35:05.

complicated, it is very interesting that manage to reduce it, it is

:35:05.:35:10.

like all the vegtables and reducing it to the stock cube, and thrown it

:35:10.:35:14.

in water and some how the flavour came across. It is impressive, I

:35:14.:35:17.

didn't think they could do it. All the things that are logical and

:35:17.:35:21.

strange about the book, that could fall apart on stage, don't fall

:35:21.:35:28.

apart. You are as engrossed with the performance as with the book. I

:35:28.:35:33.

loved that, as much as there is the middle distance the Chandleresque

:35:33.:35:37.

element, what came across more is this is exactly the way I would

:35:38.:35:46.

like to see a film version of Kafka and Philip Dick. We were talking

:35:46.:35:51.

about too many layers and too much stuff, in a way, did you not think

:35:51.:35:54.

this was incredibly elegant the way so many different things, the fish,

:35:54.:35:59.

maybe not the puppets, the screens? Even the puppets worked, I think. I

:35:59.:36:03.

haven't read the book, but I love Japanese horror movies, I thought

:36:03.:36:08.

it was very much like a Japanese horror movie, like The Ring, or

:36:08.:36:12.

Dark Waters, there is the recurring theme of water and the well,

:36:12.:36:16.

stagnation. Even the colour schemes are very like Japanese horror

:36:16.:36:19.

movies. I found it absolutely mesmerising, and all the different

:36:19.:36:23.

elements that could be too much are handled so lightly. There is dance,

:36:23.:36:27.

stuff you didn't see in the clips there. Extraordinary music there.

:36:27.:36:31.

When you call come into the theatre she's playing away elegantly and

:36:31.:36:36.

quietly, then she underpins the whole performance? I thought she

:36:36.:36:43.

was doing washing up, but she was refilling the Tibetan music bowl!

:36:43.:36:48.

The whole production is amazing, I have lost my cred dingss because I

:36:48.:36:52.

haven't read the book - credentials because I haven't read the book

:36:52.:36:56.

either, it was like a Roald Linaker thing, it is clearly an ambitious

:36:56.:37:01.

novel, it shows you can take an ambitious novel and stage it and

:37:01.:37:07.

have an experience clos to cinema with the visceral - close to cinema

:37:07.:37:12.

with a visceral interaction. etheral dress of his wife, which

:37:12.:37:18.

becomes her skin? It is such a creepy play. You are awestruck by

:37:18.:37:22.

how beautiful it is, but also slightly creeped out. I think it is

:37:23.:37:25.

the soundscape. At times it does seem like you are going to see a

:37:25.:37:31.

piece of music. And how I always hoped music would be in the 21st

:37:31.:37:34.

century, it would be illustrated so beautifully, and a performance

:37:34.:37:37.

being something else. It is a musical composition with

:37:38.:37:40.

extraordinary other stuff going on. One of the things I couldn't

:37:40.:37:45.

believe they were going to do, but they do, maybe by suggestions,

:37:45.:37:51.

elegantly, distilling, being down in the well. There are parts of the

:37:51.:37:56.

book sitting down at the well, I felt like that a few times in the

:37:56.:37:59.

festival. But it is done so elegantly on stage. You get the

:37:59.:38:02.

feeling that there is a point to why he's at the bottom of the well

:38:02.:38:08.

and how he's working himself out. It never fully adds up. There are

:38:08.:38:17.

teasing hints of different types, film noir. They should stick that

:38:17.:38:23.

puppetry on a poster. Maybe they will man puppetry. I love the

:38:23.:38:28.

puppetry. This is a lot of it. that whole thing about this staged

:38:28.:38:32.

popularly about all the things people project, yet at the heart of

:38:32.:38:37.

it is utter loneliness, that is a soundscape as well? Absolutely.

:38:37.:38:40.

That is the thing that everybody might not exist, obviously in the

:38:40.:38:45.

book and in this, the further it goes on, the further you don't know

:38:45.:38:50.

what reality is. I hesitate to use this vocabulary, people think it

:38:50.:38:53.

sounds awful, it is very provocative and evocative, it is

:38:53.:38:59.

very rich with meaning. Even though, to an extent, it is you could say

:38:59.:39:04.

the same about Prudencia, the shadlyland between reality and non-

:39:04.:39:11.

reality. It is - shadowland between reality and non-reality. It is done

:39:11.:39:14.

so well. You are puzzling it together, it is the detective work.

:39:14.:39:18.

It is also the audiences' mind, that makes it so compelling. You

:39:18.:39:22.

are not told. The audience was mesmerised when I was there. At the

:39:22.:39:28.

end it is almost like they have pieced it together, like a

:39:28.:39:32.

wonderful three dimensional jigsaw puzzle. It is the whole theme of

:39:32.:39:36.

the festival, looking east. Did you think it was like something you had

:39:36.:39:40.

ever seen before? It was, unlike anything I had seen in a theatre.

:39:40.:39:45.

The music gave it an integrity, and allowed it to explore, putting in

:39:45.:39:49.

things that seemed like it should have no place. The long monolougue

:39:49.:39:53.

about heing in the desert, and the tort - being in the desert and the

:39:53.:39:57.

torture, you are gripped, I don't know what it has to do with it.

:39:57.:40:03.

Theme mattically there is some link. - Thee mattically. There is some

:40:03.:40:08.

link. When people talk about the book, they use names, then at the

:40:08.:40:11.

end they think hang on, maybe it is original. You can describe what it

:40:11.:40:17.

does, how it does it, multimedia, screens, puppet, in the end it is

:40:17.:40:25.

original, it is an original piece of work. We are always in search of

:40:25.:40:29.

laughs, thousands of visitors cram into the venues.

:40:29.:40:34.

Up and down stairs that spring up all over the city. This week we

:40:35.:40:39.

went in search of the top performers, some use very strong

:40:39.:40:49.

language. It's not easy to stand on the

:40:49.:40:57.

stages of Edinburgh's famous comedy venues and make the audience laugh,

:40:57.:41:01.

but these fledgling comedy folk have been drawing more viewers than

:41:01.:41:08.

celebrity Big Brother. Dim knock Watson has been going it

:41:08.:41:14.

alone based on a daring raid by his grandfather in the Second World War.

:41:14.:41:18.

A day may come, if you are very lucky, when you have to kill a

:41:18.:41:24.

German, or an Italian, or like a Japanese or whatever. Right up

:41:24.:41:29.

close, but don't worry, it's locking mint.

:41:29.:41:34.

I have done five years as part of a three-man sketch show up here at

:41:34.:41:37.

the festival. And going from being responsible for about 20-minutes

:41:37.:41:42.

worth of talking in an hour, to an hour's worth of talking, has been

:41:42.:41:49.

pretty punishing. # Who that's staring through your

:41:49.:41:52.

window # Who's knocking on your door

:41:52.:41:54.

# That's me # That's Sam

:41:54.:41:59.

# I have been round here ten times before. Cariad Lloyd is becoming a

:41:59.:42:03.

free fringe hit, with her cast of quirky characters. I'm here as part

:42:03.:42:06.

of a Government scheme to help all of those people raised under

:42:06.:42:10.

Thatcher's national curriculum, just us. All the things you might

:42:10.:42:14.

have missed out on, liked aing up, and milk.

:42:14.:42:20.

Does anyone else watch Loose Women and think maybe we didn't deserve a

:42:20.:42:25.

vote. The second Penny Dreadful to be nominated is Mr Justice Tuckey,

:42:25.:42:34.

who has watched Disney's straight to DVD back catalogue so we don't

:42:34.:42:43.

have to. Cinderella 2: A Dream Comes True, is anybody else naive

:42:43.:42:45.

enough not to know that the dream came through in the locking first

:42:46.:42:55.
:42:56.:42:58.

one. It is my first show, it is nice to have a nod. Loin King II,

:42:58.:43:08.
:43:08.:43:11.

Lion King 1.5. If Lion King is Hamlet, it definitely is, Lion King

:43:11.:43:16.

3 is highbrow shit. If Edinburgh is the proving ground for new comedian,

:43:16.:43:23.

will this year's awards be the launch for Humphrey Cariad and Thom.

:43:23.:43:30.

Did you think Mr Justice Tuckey got a freedom from being away from -

:43:30.:43:37.

Thom Tuck Goes Straight To DVD get freedom from being away from the

:43:37.:43:42.

other two? You are intrigued by the back story of the guy, presented on

:43:42.:43:52.
:43:52.:43:53.

stage. Watching 54 Disney straight to DVD films. There is funny things

:43:53.:44:03.
:44:03.:44:04.

about someone pursuing a obsession. I couldn't remember or know any of

:44:04.:44:08.

the films. There is something specific about one of them, people

:44:08.:44:14.

were singing the songs about it? People singing songs from the

:44:14.:44:18.

Little Mermaid was disturbing. lot of guys. I felt slightly ever

:44:19.:44:24.

so much he wanted to find a subject and he found it. He was never going

:44:24.:44:28.

to get a girlfriend either? It is something he found, and it was a

:44:28.:44:34.

good idea, a good risk. He with all this clowning and miming, and

:44:35.:44:38.

finding the inner idiot, I have been hoping that people might be

:44:38.:44:41.

looking to find the inner genius w some of this stuff, at least there

:44:41.:44:48.

was some thinking. There was some wore play. Some sharp writing. That

:44:48.:44:51.

was encouraging. But on the other hand, I felt that what he should be

:44:51.:44:57.

is part of a comedy troupe, I think he would be really good with that

:44:57.:45:07.
:45:07.:45:07.

guy Milos Karadaglic. I think they should - Car aid, I think they

:45:07.:45:13.

should get together. I think Humphrey has come off better than

:45:13.:45:17.

Thom Tuck. His grandfather's story, told in a different way, with all

:45:17.:45:22.

the characters, was very inventive? We mustn't make friends complete,

:45:22.:45:29.

there will be a big fight. With Thom Tuck I felt he should have

:45:29.:45:34.

been 15 years older, I didn't know any of the films. With Humphrey Ker

:45:34.:45:39.

I thought it was great. A lot of very funny stories and one-liners

:45:40.:45:43.

as well. The writing was amazing for that show, he sustained it for

:45:43.:45:47.

a whole hour, it never dropped in intensity. There were a number of

:45:47.:45:51.

just great things, that took you completely by surprise. The plot is

:45:51.:45:58.

too insane to even go into. Basically it is 1943, supposedly

:45:58.:46:02.

about his grandfather. Going to Romania. And along the way he meets

:46:02.:46:06.

the characters and turns himself into all the character, were you

:46:06.:46:12.

impressed? I felt the writing, again, I'm being nit-picky here, I

:46:12.:46:19.

will be, there is 21,300,000 performers here. He's very official

:46:19.:46:26.

and very good, he's Humphrey. I got the feeling that you could see him

:46:26.:46:30.

and Thomworked together, they have stylistic tricks there. In the end

:46:30.:46:34.

I felt that is a good piece of writing and you are reading it

:46:34.:46:37.

quite well. In the end I thought that is not good enough. I thought

:46:37.:46:42.

it was very filmic, and I thought it would be radio. Maybe you're

:46:43.:46:46.

write it was about the writing. There was a touch of Blackadder.

:46:46.:46:53.

There was a lot of Rik Mayal. was Armstrong and Miller pilot

:46:53.:46:59.

there is. It is good if you know the history of comedy. As the next

:46:59.:47:03.

person does. Let's go there with Cariad Lloyd. These guys have been

:47:04.:47:08.

around the block for ten years, she's here, Cariad Lloyd, at the

:47:08.:47:13.

free fringe, was it refreshing to see someone like her? One minute

:47:14.:47:18.

she's wrangling the queue getting them into the seats, and the next

:47:18.:47:22.

minute she's changing costume and performing, amazing. The characters

:47:22.:47:27.

are uneven. She says that herself? She do yes. But she has a great

:47:27.:47:31.

rapport and the Cockney character, they are very funny. She's really

:47:31.:47:35.

talented. She says some bits will be funnier than other, other

:47:35.:47:37.

characters will be better, undercutting you all the way.

:47:37.:47:43.

of the things about it, it is so ramshackle at the free festival,

:47:43.:47:46.

that is what is lovely, you feel like you're at the festival, it is

:47:46.:47:52.

ramshackle and posters on the wall. Some of it is really funny, really

:47:53.:47:56.

good characterers, the Parker rapper was fantastic. She does a

:47:56.:48:00.

wee boy Andrew, saw in the clip, which was really tender and gives

:48:00.:48:03.

you a history of the Russian revolution. But I could feel half

:48:03.:48:07.

the audience were really with her, and some of them were slipping away.

:48:07.:48:13.

Maybe not so enthusiastic, and hiding at the back a wee bit.

:48:14.:48:17.

she refreshingly ramshackle for you? I didn't think it was

:48:17.:48:20.

ramshackle, I thought here is someone who is a student of comedy.

:48:20.:48:25.

Because I was looking for someone to pull the inner genius out of

:48:25.:48:30.

themselves, instead of the inner idiot, I thought we have Tina Fey

:48:30.:48:34.

and Stanley Baxter, the flavour of the comment lost something

:48:34.:48:38.

overnight. When I woke up I thought maybe not that good. I thought she

:48:38.:48:41.

would be really good, and we will be paying an awful lot of money to

:48:41.:48:48.

pay for her. Is she Katherine Tate? She's better, a million miles

:48:48.:48:53.

better, not any cruelty, there is a generosity and love about her.

:48:53.:49:03.

do you think will win? I thought Humphrey. I thought that. If Cariad

:49:03.:49:08.

doesn't win I may weep! You may weep. Before we go the BBC arts

:49:08.:49:14.

editor, Will Gompertz, has been star gazing.

:49:15.:49:19.

It has been a hell of a festival. There has been more shows than ever.

:49:19.:49:22.

It certainly feels there has been more punters than ever. There has

:49:22.:49:27.

been quite a lot of rain. And there has been more stars than ever. I

:49:27.:49:31.

don't mean celebrity, I mean stars, like this. They are more common

:49:31.:49:38.

than a happy teenager with a fistful of A-grade GCSE, I have

:49:38.:49:45.

star blindness, with all the celestial overtrading. The currency

:49:45.:49:51.

has been downgraded in the hyperventilation of the review

:49:51.:49:55.

business. One to three stars is void, three stars is probably a bad

:49:55.:50:00.

show but the reviewer knows the performer, four stars worth a look,

:50:00.:50:05.

five stars is the reviewer had great time, you won't because it is

:50:06.:50:09.

soldout. We are left with a quagmire of four stars, how to make

:50:09.:50:15.

sense of it all. We will the Telegraph, Times and Guardian, all

:50:15.:50:21.

the brands and writers giving us star reviews, why do we need

:50:21.:50:26.

Broadway Baby, and hundreds of other on-line sites doing the same

:50:26.:50:31.

job, confusing the issue. Everyone seems to agree with each other, and

:50:31.:50:35.

there is no different relation. Because the papers can't get round

:50:35.:50:42.

all the shows, there is so many. Their stated goal is to get to as

:50:42.:50:46.

many shows as possible. In theory, all the programme. That is just one

:50:46.:50:50.

opinion. I think he should be able to read a range of opinions. Not

:50:50.:50:57.

just three weeks, but the Telegraph and Broadway Baby, and festival

:50:57.:51:01.

reviews, and make your own mind up. You could take the view that it

:51:01.:51:05.

goes back to the way Edinburgh use the to be, 20 years ago you very

:51:05.:51:10.

much - used to be, 20 years ago you very much had to plunge in. The

:51:10.:51:13.

wall-to-wall coverage of the websites didn't exist, there was

:51:13.:51:18.

the Scotsman and the national, it was easy to walk into a darkened

:51:18.:51:21.

venue and not know what to expect. That is the thrill. Given that

:51:21.:51:26.

everything is being levelled, it is a reintroduction of anarchy, you

:51:26.:51:31.

have to pay your money and take your choice. What I want is a

:51:31.:51:35.

critical standard. I accept, I'm sure that the websites are very

:51:35.:51:40.

good, it is brilliant they cover all the fringe, but it muddys the

:51:40.:51:47.

water. The problem is likely to get worse rather than better. What to

:51:47.:51:53.

do? There is always one five-star show, the Edinburgh military tatoo,

:51:53.:51:57.

and I understand there is a ticket left, for next year.

:51:57.:52:04.

You have been here two weeks, Paul, five stars, four stars, three stars,

:52:04.:52:09.

two stars, for the festival this year? I have spent my entire life

:52:09.:52:13.

ignoring stars, then the madness doesn't lie. The star system

:52:13.:52:18.

introduced any kind of reviewing, in 1993 by Q Magazine, that was the

:52:18.:52:21.

end of everything. It is not about that, it is about critical context

:52:21.:52:24.

and cultural context. It is not about fun or not fun, it is

:52:24.:52:29.

something more than that. Or else everything evens out. There is the

:52:29.:52:34.

joy of finding stuff for yourself? And having us tell you afterwards.

:52:34.:52:37.

A lot of performers are here, it is not really about the audience, it

:52:37.:52:41.

is about the other performance, it is a trade show. The five stars are

:52:41.:52:48.

significant, maybe they don't tell the audience. A system showing how

:52:48.:52:57.

many ukele s there are and puppets. There should be a separate festival

:52:57.:53:01.

for puppetry! That is just about it for another Edinburgh Festival.

:53:01.:53:05.

Thanks to my guests, Denise Mina, Paul Morley and Marcel Theroux. You

:53:05.:53:09.

can find out details about everything on tonight's show on the

:53:09.:53:14.

website. Send us your tweets, everyone is taken under careful

:53:14.:53:16.

consideration, almost everyone, well the odd one. We are taking a

:53:17.:53:21.

break for a few weeks to let our feet, heads and livers recover, I

:53:21.:53:26.

will be back on the 21st of September. In the meantime, for

:53:26.:53:29.

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