Theatre at Buxton Fringe brings history to life

Published: 28 May 2016
Reporter: Steve Orme

Ready for drama: Buxton Festival Fringe Credit: Ian J Parkes

Theatre companies at the 2016 Buxton Festival Fringe will be recreating stories and characters of the past or choosing to address big questions about how we live our lives.

The 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death does not go unnoticed. Established Fringe favourites Butterfly return to Poole’s Cavern with Romeo and Juliet Underground. Drake's Drummers Theatre Company find that Shakespeare has been kidnapped by the Fairy King and his greatest heroes have to band together to rescue their creator in Shakespeare's Avengers Assembleth: Age of Oberon.

Two shows take the novels of Jane Austen as their inspiration. Three’s Company says, “it is a truth universally acknowledged that a Fringe worth its salt must be in want of an Austen-themed farce” and performs Nonsense and Sensibility in collaboration with Anonymous is a Woman. Nonesuch Theatre Company also provides an offbeat interpretation, Jane and Lizzy in which Austen meets Lizzy Bennet. It has been described as “Pride and Prejudice through the looking glass”.

Some of the biggest hits at recent Fringes have combined theatre with music. On the 450th anniversary of Carlo Gesualdo's birth, Finbar Lynch presents the final day of Gesualdo’s life in Breaking the Rules, with pieces from his Tenebrae Responsories and madrigals performed by the Marian Consort.

Raving Mask’s The Conductor, a play for two actors and a pianist, recounts the story of Shostakovich’s struggle with his 7th Symphony during the 1941 siege of Leningrad. Meanwhile, an audience favourite from 2015, Far West Theatre’s Jacques Brel: A Life a Thousand Times, returns “revamped and reworked” and takes a journey through Brel's life via his songs and thoughts.

After sell-out shows in 2015, Lucky Dog returns with Hats Off to Laurel and Hardy, featuring the duo’s life stories alongside their routines. Less frequently remembered, the feminist, writer and mother Constance Lloyd is usually referred to as Oscar Wilde’s wife. Wild Wolfe Productions looks at her story in Mrs Oscar Wilde.

Reflecting on World War I, Breathe Out Theatre’s War Stories features an Australian nurse and a Manchester soldier in hospital, each with a story to tell. In Lest We Forget from Edinburgh company Aulos Productions, a family struggles to reconcile memories of their son with the truth—does the mud of the Somme mask the man he really was?

Taking a more irreverent approach to World War II, Patricia Hartshorne gets In the Fuehrer’s Face, offering a mix of the comic and surreal, and shedding new light on the toothbrush moustache!

Moving into the 1950s, different perspectives are offered by NoLogoProductions in After We Danced which tells the story of a couple who never see each other again after a glorious summer together, and Rusted Dust whose thriller, The Communist Threat, involves two secret agents awaiting orders to execute a communist traitor.

A number of plays at Buxton Fringe will examine the psychology behind our actions. Ashrow Theatre looks at denial in Declining the Future. A new dark comedy drama, Absence of Separation from Theatre Ellipsis delves into the minds of two characters as they fight for their own beliefs and dissect their dreams. Off-Off-Off-Broadway introduces psychoanalysis to cabaret in Hidden Mother, a darkly comic piece about patients in a mental asylum.

In Rabbits and Ferrets, Beth Webb looks at big decisions social workers have to make. Heart of Oak’s Hitting the Wall recreates how in 2012 a middle-aged father attempted to swim the unconquered sea channel between the Mull of Kintyre and Ireland.

All Things Considered Theatre stages a “chilling exploration into the nature of control” in Waiting Room. Thomas waits for a train to arrive and a moment that will change his life forever as returns with a chilling exploration into the nature of control. Away from Buxton, Gekkota Arts lays out Top Table at Spring Bank Arts Centre, New Mills.

Alison Dunne’s Cloaks, presented by fishhouse theatre, focuses on Kath who is forced to reflect on her past in a theatre cloakroom where coats become characters. Nipple Tassles and Nursing Bras from Little Glimpses Theatre Company is a “funny, moving and empowering story about friendship, motherhood and burlesque”.

For those looking for laughs with their drama, Under Two Floorboards’ Is It Tabu? promises to be like “Waiting for Godot on speed” as an old actress from Hi-De-Hi and a young classical actor get together to stage their own play. A sense of the ridiculous is essential for Cul-de-sac’s Return to Eredurf up and down the stairs of Scrivener’s Bookshop.

Library Theatre Touring Company presents My Brilliant Divorce, packed with amusing anecdotes as Angela recounts her journey back to happiness after husband Max leaves her for a younger woman. Mixing storytelling and physical comedy, Running Dog Theatre’s Wanna Dance with Somebody! is “part physics lecture, part dance lesson, part school disco”.

The Fringe takes place from 6 until 24 July. The full programme is available at the Buxton Fringe web site.

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