The Very Best of the Edinburgh Festivals 2024
Review: Assembly Hall
Review: Orchestra of Sound
Review: After the Silence
Published 22 Aug 2010
Cabaret Chekhov seems a somewhat naughty misnomer. Clearly chosen to pull in partying Edinburgh audiences at the unholy hour of 00:20, those expecting raucous entertainment in some kind of tabled venue are to be sadly disappointed; vodka-soaked Bob Fosse this is not.
This series of translations of Anton Chekhov’s early works by Rosamund Bartlett has the air of a graduation show. Performed by the students of Rose Bruford College under the direction of Michael Earley, this mix of scenes seems designed to give each actor the chance to showcase their stage prowess equally.
They are a charming bunch with an enjoyable skill at playing Chekhov’s Russian oddities as circus freaks. Set against the backdrop of two deeply impressive, and amusingly stoic, musicians, Mark Conway, Chris Cookson, Jill Cardo and Flora Nicholson are amusing to watch. They thump out the comedy that laces Chekhov’s work with a natural flare, highlighted by Earley’s entertaining direction.
However, for all their skill, the show begins to feel a little like a one trick pony. The overarching grotesque physical style (echoing such companies as Les Enfants Terrible) limits Chekhov’s early characters into two dimensional stereotypes.
Without any of Chekhov’s nuance for devastating human observation, his early works turn into bawdy comedies, frustratingly falling into two simple camps: faux melancholy or imitative farce. In the end a sketch about a woman reading her impossibly long first work to an increasingly exasperated author begins to ring too true.