Using the poems of the new poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, Linda Marlowe has created gallery of mythical women avengers telling their side of the story, and it’s a literally fabulous fringe lunchtime treat.
Marlowe gives the low down on Salome, waking up, as usual, with a head on the pillow beside her; on Eurydice as a vengeful Germaine Greer typing out the songs of a tiresome Orestes; and on Mrs Quasimodo attacking the bells, and the balls, of the monster of Notre Dame.
In the latter instance, she adopts the simian gait and oafish drawl of her husband, giving brilliant physical expression to Duffy’s point that every bad man has a good woman inside him screaming to get out.
Hilariously, Mrs Freud recites a rude litany of synonyms for the penis without the envy, and the Kray Sisters are re-launched as liberating suffragists in a tough man’s underworld, as well as his underpants.
In Di Sherlock’s witty, fleet-footed production, beautifully designed with minimalist projections and graphics, Marlowe lets rip with her trademark searing energy and grace. She’s presented several fine Edinburgh solo shows over the years; this one tops the lot.
Circe the sorceress turns men into swine at a finger-lickin’ hog roast, Queen Kong goes shopping and keeps the old boy in her fur for ten years, and even the devil’s wife turns out to be none other than a tragically viewed version of Myra Hindley. Not to be missed.
- Michael Coveney
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