razzle.txt

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http://www.nightnews.net/fringe2007.htm#raz
Title: Raz-Mataz - Razzle Dazzle
3 silver bats

09 08 07 - 11 minutes into the show and nothing much has happened 
and I mean no one on the set seems to have stirred. There is only a
smoke machine wafting smoke over the proceedings. We, the audience,
are in a space, standing, surrounding the set and the cast, drink in
hand. Some of us are by now bored and chatting, as the cast seem 
oblivious to us. 19 minutes into the show and some of the cast make
a costume change by a clothes rail! No one seems terribly impressed
with this, though I rather think that the cast have some friends in
who think its all frightfully clever! I am starting to wonder if its 
a trap! Lulled as we are into a sense of anti-climax but 27 minutes
into the show, pandemonium breaks out onstage and theatrical blood 
spurts in every direction! This provides a dramatic shift that
seems almost like a stroke of brilliance in comparison with what has
gone before! This immersive experience (well almost) is more art 
school than theatre and it develops, with drums, electric guitars, 
blood and costume changes, turning a drab start into quite a wild
ride. What happened over the smoking corpse of the panto horse quite
won me over in the end. With anarchy and insanity in equal amounts 
and the audience in the thick of it, the self indulgence of this 
production is breath taking; its probably the only show where you 
will see the cast check their mobiles onstage! Certainly strange art
but compelling once it gets into its stride, but don't clap at the
end as it will only encourage them!

by John Vassallo