EURYDICE

2/6/10, Young Vic

A disappointment after The Brothers Size though it was, we were told, by the same team. A US re-telling by Sarah Ruhl, directed by Bijan Sheibani, of the Eurydice story, set in the 1940s or 50s, which left one asking the question, Why bother?

Orpheus was a bit of a drip. The principal innovations were to have Eurydice's father sending her letters from the Underworld where he's the only inhabitant not to have lost all memory of his former life, and thus the only inhabitant with any self-awareness; and a chorus of "stones", who whisper and chant and try to persuade the underworld's residents to go with the flow: one was played by Becci Gemmell, who was so good in Fucked at Edinburgh.

Production details here:

http://www.youngvic.org/archive/eurydice

FUCKED

16/8/09, Assembly (Edinburgh Fringe)

1hr 10 mins. One-woman show by Becci Gemmell, written by Penelope Skinner. A woman's progress from 17-year old virgin to whore (well, lap-dancer) in half a dozen scenes, performed in reverse order (projections on the back wall filled you in between scenes). Witty, beautifully-observed, excellent performance. The men are always hopeless, our heroine's capacity for self-delusion seemingly infinite, whether she's a schoolgirl desperate to lose her virginity, a neurotic student hooked on tranquillisers who's taken a vow of eternal celibacy, or a secretary finding true love in a nightclub on holiday. Next to no props: a bed, some books, a shapeless fleece. Really they were lots of different women, and on reflection linking them by suggesting they were just different stages of the same woman's rake's progress didn't really work; but at the time we didn't mind. We left satisfied.

Yesterday's offerings were distinctly disappointing and by mid-afternoon (after Optimism) we were deeply pessimistic. But tonight things looked up no end. Glad we came.