tdcab.txt --- http://www.nightnews.net/fringe2007.htm#tdcab Title: The Devil. Chess A Burlesque 4 gold bats 25 08 07 - This was one of the most fun shows I attended at this years Fringe as it played with some notions of 'immersive theatre' where boundaries between audience, performers and action are broken and the audience is literally 'in' with the action. As the audience queued, chess set Knights in stylised equine headdresses, some black some white split the audience into opposing chess board armies and manhandled them into the auditorium. It could only get better and it did, as we were then arranged on the set, teased by seductive succubae in full burlesque outfits or challenged by the knights. Constant movement, narrative, proximity to compelling costumes and tease combined to make this a completely captivating experience for those that dared to enter. A treatise on how to play chess, through a cunning spectacle in which various themes and principles are explored as are the movements of particular pieces that are always in motion. Rules, boundaries, taboos of theatre, metaphysics and morality were all casually discarded and the audience by necessity (and captivity) are forced to succumb. Carnality and sensuousness included the pleasure of watching a bishop and a knight pretending to copulate avidly at the side of the stage! The stage and set bounded on four sides by the audience is partially split by screens. Short films are screened periodically better to underline the message and morals of each scene. The monologue, narrative and spectacle is always only a hairs breadth away from the audience. The sexy and hard bodied cast played out a choreographed battle between the forces of light and darkness, in which brute force, cruelty, scheming and deception were all legitimate means to win as much as to entertain us. By John Vassallo