Military Tattoo Review

Hannah Werner

 

We all have a sort of pride when it comes to our nation. Each country with its history, culture, and diversity, has citizens with their own sense of patriotism. Sometimes an overwhelming sense of pride can create barriers between other countries, specifically when it leads to nationalism where a country finds oneself more superior than another. However, other times we can learn from one another and appreciate the patriotism that a country can have. This informational and eye-opening side of national pride was obvious during the Military Tattoo performance in Edinburgh, Scotland. Strong organization was required for the Military Tattoo members around the world to perform their music and dance routines. All incredibly in sync with one another and perfectly on beat, I couldn’t even imagine the time and dedication that it would take to accomplish such a performance. With the cheering of the crowds containing people from around the world, it was an exciting and rare occurrence to see everyone come together to celebrate our backgrounds. With the inclusion of some history from the countries that performed their songs and dances, this put in perspective the amazing journey that each country has been through to get to the point they’re at now. We are all people battling different battles, yet all living life trying to find peace with ourselves and one another. This performance showed me that we are all one in the same, yet uniquely different in how we got here and the cultures and values that define us. Cultural performances like this one break those barriers that can sometimes be put up when we see our countries as completely different and unrelatable to one another. Framed by “cultural conventions” (Hamera and Madison), like clothing, demeanors, languages, etc; I could get a sense of the many differences our countries have, but at the same time I could see the excitement and eagerness that each nation had while performing. We were all here for the same purpose: to share and celebrate our diversity, not to fear or shame it.

This cultural performance was absolutely incredible and breath-taking. I’ve never seen something that has brought more people whom have entirely different backgrounds and culture come together. To say that it was a great performance doesn’t do it justice given the banding together and the colorful, unique performances. I was completely in awe the entire performance. My favorite part was the fireworks when all of the members from each group came together to dance with one another. We may not all have the same beliefs, values, or attitudes, but to harmonize with each other and coordinate such an incredible final song and dance shows that people want to take pride in one another. We want to love, we want to belong, and we want to matter. I LOVED THIS.

 

Reference:

 

“Performance Studies at the Intersections”. Madison, Soyini and Hamera, Judith.

We’re Already In

We’re Already In by Nick Poulos

The Desk as performed by the Reeta Honkakowski Company opens with the performers dressed in tan lab coats welcoming us into the theater. The performers begin pushing each other around, each one trying to look inside a single desk that is on stage. The instructor of this “classroom” enters the stage, dressed in a black military coat with war medals. She blows her whistle, and the students begin to seat themselves and read their books. Every page turn and head movement is completely methodical and done in sync. It is at about this time that I realize, this isn’t a traditional performance. This is a dance piece.

The plot of the show revolves around the instructor ordering her students to do their daily tasks like clockwork. Reading, writing, even moving becomes mechanical as the students all fall in with the cult over time. Starting out, the students all have their own personalities. One tries to be teacher’s pet, another is constantly bullied, one is the black sheep, and one watches the rest for any faults. By the end of the show, these personalities die, and only the collective unit remains.

What interests me most about The Desk are the connections that the show makes. One connection is made to Hitler and the idea of Sieg Heil, but another is made to the military, as the leader almost salutes at some points. The word cult, as defined by the Oxford dictionary, is a system of religious veneration and devotion directed towards a particular figure or object. This description almost fits the military to a tee. The leader, in this case the general, dictates what the followers, in this case the soldiers, do. They are trained to be mechanical, moving like clockwork. Wake up, run, eat, shower, train, eat, sleep, repeat. While the military may not exactly be a religious group, they certainly are directed by one person, Uncle Sam, to one thing, the U.S. flag.

The show also makes the connection that school could be considered to be a cult. The students are all taught in the same way to think the same things all while leading them towards becoming part of the group known as society. School can even be a religious organization sometimes, allowing mostly Catholic schools to exist. The Desk, through it’s brilliant use of movement to tell its story, shows us that we only think we’re different from cult members. In reality, we’re already in.

Decree Absolute Vodka Review

Written By: Maddie Christensen

The last day at the Fringe was a gloomy day. But what cheered it up though was the performance I was able to see called Decree Absolute Vodka by Sarah Iles. When we saw the name, we immediately thought it was a performance about vodka. But it took a surprising turn when we found out that it was about Sarah’s recent divorce. The way that this comedian performed was through her own deep personal story that brought a lot of chaos into her life.

She explained that she was in the 9th stage of divorce. The 9th stage being the last one. As she kept going, it started to make me think about the divorce I had to go through. I was just six when my parents had gotten a divorce. She was explaining all that she went through through each step and it kept making me think back to, “Oh! That kinda happened to me too! Just in a different way”.

As a comedian, you could tell that she was comfortable with what had happened since the divorce. She would say something like, “My husband was the only one I was ever with for 12 years so it made me want to explore. Even though my therapist voted against it”. She made her story out to be funny, serious, and dirty. She explained that she called this performance Decree Absolute Vodka because of the fact that she would drink bottles of Vodka at a time throughout the stages. She started to see a therapist who she was matched to and explained she needed help from not drinking in a social-able manner. But as of now, she has been able to accept that her story has not come to an end yet. Although she is happy with what she has right now, and according to her, “My married therapist of 28 years only kept me longer than necessary only because of my sex stories.”

I have never been to see a comedian before so this was a new experience for me. She was extremely witty and fun. The venue that we were at was pretty small and crammed but she made it out to be apart of her performance; taking advantage of the tiny space. She engaged the audience with Family Fortune game, (in America: Family Feud), and split us up in to two teams.

It was a very short performance but I was able to fully engage and enjoy myself throughout. There was never a moment where my attention was swayed to something else. This performance makes me want to go see more of the comedian performance styles in the future. If she ever has another show, I would definitely see it and recommend to others.

Military Tattoo Review

Written By: Maddie Christensen

Saturday night, I had the privilege to attend Scotland’s famous Military Tattoo performance. Marching bands from around the world would come to represent their country in front of thousands of people! I had a feeling that this is a performance that it was very respected to be here playing at the Edinburgh Castle.

There was an announcer yelling out to the crowds about what country they were from, engaging the audience right away. There were Germans, French, English, Scottish, people from Greece and Italy! There were people from Africa, South America, and of course, North America! We cheered as loud as we could when he announced us! After everyone was sitting in their assigned seats, the evening began! It was amazing to see all the reactions with our groups engagement and all the other people who screamed and cheered for their country. Its amazing to see the loyalty presented in just one stadium for the world. Honestly speaking, it almost made me cry at the end when everyone was singing along to the national anthem and joined hands. The fireworks just added to all the emotion that was built up by all the countries gathering for the finale.

It is very interesting to be able to watch each performance. Everyone had their own choreography for their marching band. Everything seemed perfect and in-sync. It seemed as if it came straight out of a movie. There was suspense, thrill, and moments where it got so intense! An example would be when the bag pipes came  out to play. There definitely was at least 150 men and women out in front of everyone. Their legs moved up at the same time and they moved between each other perfectly. If there was a flaw, I did not see or hear it! My question for this performance is how long do you think it took for them to practice something as amazing as this? Connecting it to my time in band when I was in high school, it took about a couple weeks for us just to learn one song that was maybe five minutes max. But they played for hours! It had to have taken a great amount of practicing and concentration.

I especially liked the solo performers throughout the performance. There was a performance who enacted the king of carnival, I believe. It put a spin on what I was expecting out of all the performances. I mostly just thought that it was just a bunch of marching bands that would play traditional songs from their country. But this particular performance enacted a little scene to keep the audience engaged even more. And that’s what came from a lot of the other countries performances.

This Military Tattoo performance was one of the most amazing and beautiful performances I have ever seen. I appreciate my professor for giving me this opportunity to see something as great as this. The little clarinet player I see in myself was in awe the entire time! If I am ever at the Fringe Festival again, this would be the first thing I would make sure to have tickets for.

2 Clowns 1 Cup- Ella Chapman

Whatever you do, do NOT push the button. Naturally, what do two curious clowns do? They push the button. Repeatedly. This button pushing was the start to what seemed like an absolutely ludicrous show that turned into the sex education class that everybody missed out on. 

As I was mentally preparing myself for a good laugh coming in, I forgot to prepare myself for the important lessons that I would potentially take away. Seeing a clown show just made me think that it was going to be goofy and humorous. Nevertheless, these girls set the scene for something sexy very quickly with the hip-hop music and dance moves. They tackled the most important sex education/sexual health topics that no one gave you in your health education class in school. All while dancing, grinding and using blow-up condoms. 

This show resonated with me because there was an actual storyline with it. The clowns were 13 years old just turning 14 and it was time for their first sex education lesson in school. Overhead, there was a voice playing that was meant to be a school teacher. In the audio, just about every word that had to deal with the male/female genitalia was bleeped out. I think the performance purposely meant to send this as a message or as a metaphor for what it is like being in school and having a teacher try to teach sex ed to you, even though they’re not really addressing the grit of the topic. Moreover, they used real stories from girls describing their first time having sex, embarrassing school stories, etc. In turn, the clowns would dance/perform the next topic that the girls touched on. 

What really surprised me was that they played on each of the puberty stages that a woman experiences and sexualized them. I’m talking physical uteruses, tampons, and silly string that quite frankly, wasn’t used like silly string. Humor set aside from this, the performers also touched on a major political topic: tampons being taxed. Some governments do not consider it a necessity (even though it falls under basic female hygiene needs) and therefore puts an added tax on it. I was not expecting to see a topic like that brought up in a clown comedy performance, but I am glad it was. 

The intent to involve the crowd occurs in this performance as well. Personally, shows that involve the crowd always keep me on my toes just a little bit more than the ones that do not. There was an entire impromptu scene involving one of the men from the crowd, who was actually acting as their mother trying to give them an idea of what sex is like. That alone should spark your interest! Quite brilliant, actually. 

“2 Clowns 1 Cup” left me in thought, a fit of giggles, and a smile on my face. The amount of creativity, cleverness, dirty humor and hilarious vulgarity in this performance is enough alone to make me want to come back and bring all my friends with me. And remember, whatever you do, always push the button. 

 

TRIPLE AAA BATTERIES

Nitasha Borchert

Triple AAA batteries is a performance I will never forget. It is funny, rich, and all around wonderful. If you are looking for a show that you can laugh your bum off with not only other adults but children of eight years and older this is the one for you. Of course, walking in the show, I was hoping I would laugh at least a little, but WOW is one way to put my reaction. This hour-long show went by extremely fast.

There were three performances that stole the audience’s attention. Starting with a male that had very funny jokes about racial profiling, certainly it was about his own body. He brought in some personal taste which made the bit hilarious. Another thing I really enjoyed was the audience involvement. He then introduced another male performer.

This guy seemed to have made most of his material up right then and there. I was stunned by the fact that there seemed to only be a few lines that he had seemed to be fully prepared for. Everyone including me got a kick out of him, he was a delight. He really seemed to be including the younger portion of the audience which I thought was a wonderful idea. Sometimes kids can laugh at a joke but not being as experienced in life events as an adult they may not make sense to them.

The third performance I was very blown away by. They were the “Hotflix” was what the group was called. They had four ladies up on stage all doing a variety of things. What really got me during this show was the fact that they had absolutely none of it prepared. They used the crowd to decide what sort of bit they wanted. Do you like comedy or sci-fi? How about Horror or action? With extended questions like those they began their improve musical.

With one lady playing the piano to give a beat the others freestyles. Our show was basically based on the movie The Shinning. You see I can tell you this without spoiling what you would hear because I believe no two shows they do are the same. How CRAZY is this. With the help of the crowd, on a whim created a whole new performance. Now ladies and gents this is something that takes nothing but talent. They sang, rapped, and within that told the story of The Shinning.

This performance showed me a whole new aspect of the art of performance. What these performers were able to do up on stage in front of hundreds of people left me at aw. There were no “movements” one could say this show did other than make a crowd laugh. Although, each performance was unique in its very own way. Each of the performers were doing more solo shows later in the day and this almost seemed like it was just a sneak peak of what they were truly capable of. I would recommend them to everyone I know, even kids.

My love Lies Frozen In The Ice (Revised)

Dillon Stein

The reason I ended up seeing this show is because of an interaction I had with the cast my first day at the Fringe. A couple cast members approached me whilst playing accordion and talking complete nonsense, the one with the accordion was talking about how he was on his way to the North Pole and everything was going as planned. They asked if I cloud grow a mustache and handed me a pamphlet advertising their show. They warned that they’d remember my face and expected to see me at the show then they wandered off. As they left, I knew I had to see this show. I thought to myself “Who was trying to go to the North Pole? Why the North Pole? Why was he playing accordion? Above all else, why the hell did I need to grow a mustache!? It was random and seemed like a lot of fun, so I decided to go. Well, I can tell you, I got all of my questions answered (except the bit about the mustache.)

Now on to the actual show. My Love Lies Frozen In The Ice told a story of love, loss, and hope. It was more of a drama than a comedy which took me by surprise. The play starts with our protagonist, Matilda, in a mental health institution, telling the story of an unheard expedition to the North Pole. How all of that started with love… which was birthed through a gravy bowl. Let me explain, Matilda, from the mental institute, fell in love with long time co-worker/ friend Nills when she asked him to pass the gravy bowl at dinner once. When Nills did just that, their two fingers touched. They fell for each other right there. The show did an excellent job of transitioning from the mental institution to what Matilda was describing. The mental institution background was taken away and replaced for a dinner scene. Nills entered the stage and the gravy bowl exchange was made. The two continue to bond over various things. Until Solomon shows up, Matilda’s older brother. His introduction involves him throwing a cat off a balcony to test his hot air balloon of course. Solomon’s successful cat-flight leaves Nills and Matilida equally thrilled and terrified. They decide they want to be the first people to the North Pole, Unfortunately, right before takeoff, Matilda is told she can’t join and that it wasn’t personal, but society wouldn’t allow it. Distraught, Matilda’s eyes widened, and she looked so helpless and I felt bad. In truth I felt immense guilt because the actress was looking me square in the eye and repeatedly whispered “why, why, why,” as she was perpetually staring into my soul. Yeah, really glad I sat in the front. Out of anger and frustration she eventually storms off and is replaced by the loveable, albeit incompetent, Frankel.

The cast did some clever things to illustrate the journey. They used a fake air balloon and gave the ropes to a few members in the audience. The audience would need to release for lift off. When Solomon gives the word to release, Frankel gets a bit confused and released the steering ropes, possibly dooming the expedition from the start. At a certain point the cast uses a little prop air balloon connected to a small plastic candle. From the back of the crowd the air balloon model was released and made its way through the audience. Meanwhile, the cast stood on stage and reacted to how the air balloon was handled by the audience as they sent it to the front. Effectively showing their POV. It made for quite a clever and funny interaction. I would recommend this show to anyone, it was rather serious at times, but had a healthy amount of underlining humor. It left me thinking about how it all wrapped for the next hour of my day.

The Death of Reality

The Death of Reality by Nick Poulos

Often times a performance will have one big message. Something for the entire audience to take away. When two people take away different things however, it creates a brilliant conversation. My Love Lies Frozen in the Ice by Dead Rabbits Theatre manages to do just that, create a performance that leaves the audience with different ideas of exactly what it all means.

The actors stand at the front of the stage with their instruments and begin welcoming the audience as they enter the theatre. Myself and my friends sat in the front row and got to interact with the actors for a bit, as they recognized us from when they plugged their show to us on the street. My Love follows the story of Matilda Andre, sister to Solomon Andre, the first person to attempt to fly to the north pole in a helium balloon. Matilda quickly falls in love with Solomon’s assistant Nills, and the two plan to wed. However, on the takeoff day Solomon informs Matilda that won’t be coming with them because it is too dangerous of an expedition. Matilda stays behind, heartbroken as she watches the balloon fly away. But while it disappears over the mountain for the rest of the audience, it never disappears for her.

Matilda falls into a hospital ward, being treated for insanity as she claims that she can still see Nills and Solomon. She tries to give them advice to stay alive and even dreams of rescuing them herself, until the doctors administer shock therapy on her. It is here that the two different paths diverge. I believe that the shock therapy takes away Matilda’s visions of her love, which ultimately kills her spirit, hope, and her. My friend Dillon who saw the show with me, believes that Matilda was in denial, and the shock therapy forced her to see the truth. This disagreement is not a bad thing in my opinion, in fact, it only makes the story richer. It leaves us continuing to talk about the performance after it has ended, going back and forth on drawing moments from the show to support our arguments.

My Love Lies Frozen in the Ice leaves me questioning the very ethics of reality itself. To me, Matilda created her own reality. One where she could save her brother and her fiancé from their almost guaranteed demise. That reality, even though it was a lie, is what kept her alive. The doctors perceived this reality as insanity because it clashed with their own reality, the reality that the explorers were deceased. They tried to destroy Matilda’s reality and bring her back to their own, but in the end, they only succeeded in destroying Matilda herself. So what is the right call here? Should we kill the only hope that people have in this world by trying to get them to be “normal”? I don’t know if there is universally correct decision, I think it’s up to you to see the performance and decide for yourself.

Donald Alexander- Ella Chapman

According to the basic laws of the Fringe: the later the performance is the more likely it is to be for more adult audiences. Now, if you are Donald Alexander, this means that you just wanted to be the headliner of the evening. Truly, I cannot find a fallacy in his logic. At 23:15 we were ushered into a dark, hot basement room packed with folding chairs. When a room is full of chairs for a performance, usually that means it is quite popular. A good sign for the girl who bought random tickets to a random show. 

To provide some background, I have never seen a stand-up show in person; which, in theory, makes my opinion a little more unbiased than the next person. Jeff Dunham, Gabriel Iglesias, Kevin Hart are some of the leading names in American stand-up comedy, which are pretty vulgar examples compared to what the rest of stand-up comedy has to offer. After seeing “Donald Alexander: The Great”, the biggest lesson to be taken away from the show is that there does not need to be excessive swearing to make something humorous in stand-up comedy. 

First and foremost, when Donald Alexander walked out and upon the stage, I truly did not think that he would be able to get on the stage without losing his head. This man could clear the ceiling if he was on his tiptoes. This detail is quite important because for the duration of the show he used the lankiness of his body to create humor. He did this by bending, squatting, going against the wall and stretching his legs, and swiveling around. His persona made him easily likable and amusing even without performing. 

Donald Alexander has this whimsical storytelling capability that some stand-up comedians lack. In solo comedians shows, oftentimes comedians walk through the show by telling joke after joke; sometimes losing the storyline that follows the humor. Throughout the entire show, he flowed effortlessly through each story, punchline, and quip. He remembered what he had said before so that he could use it later, and set us up for the joke so that we felt like it was our right to laugh too. What made him so likable is that he laughed along with the audience. If I were to make a guess, that is a tell-tale sign of a good comedian. His stories never became too disgusting or offensive. The purpose was not to offend the audience, but rather for us to see things from his perspective; which happens to be an absolutely hilarious one. His stories were easy to perform because he had lived through all of them. When stand-up comedians try to tell jokes that they have no personal relation to is when the show starts to lose its humor. For the audience, it is as if now we know somebody to whom this horrendous and hilarious story has happened and now we find it funny as well. I think that that’s part of the psychology of why stand-up comedy is so humorous to whoever listens. After doing some background research on him, typically Mr. Alexander does not perform the same show twice. He keeps refreshing and reviving. This was very easy to tell. He wasn’t too practiced by any means. 

Donald Alexander reminds me of that lanky, awkward younger brother that constantly wanted to be by his sister’s friends when she had sleepovers. Maybe this is what makes him so likable to the audience. I highly recommend this show to anyone looking for a good laugh and a few bittersweet moments.

 

Everything I See I Swallow

Written By: Cassie Cormican

 

Beauty does not look the same in every eye. Beauty is defined by each individual so intricately different, where a precise definition simply will never be put into words. In the performance Everything I see I Swallow, two female aerial artists create an intimate story about their mother daughter relationship, and their disagreement about how a true feminist should express herself.

In the opening act, the younger performer feels like she is out of her body with little control over it. She questions if the only thing that can make her beautiful is if other people think so based on her appearance. After having sex for the first time, the aerialist becomes even more conflicted. I could feel the rush of her emotions while she stressed about whether what she had just done was good or bad, right or wrong. Aerial performance requires the woman to have absolute control of their bodies, even though most times, woman feel as if they do not.

I was stunned, not only by their magnificent talent, but by the passion I saw lit in the performers eyes. As a metaphor for feeling tied up and not in control of oneself, the choice of using rope for their aerial skills was extremely clever. The two performers began to argue about how a real feministic woman should express herself, creating the strenuous relationship between past and current feminists.

At moments, I found myself lost in their dialogue. But nonetheless, the strength of the two woman performers prevails. Another metaphor that can also be acknowledged would be that empowerment can be the chain that binds us together. Although the beginning controversy between mother-daughter feminist puts their expressive artwork into question, the triumph of acceptance for the other become profound.

The message of being able to be proud and own one’s body, was absolutely phenomenal. Quotes from well-known female feminists appeared on the backdrop behind the woman, as they rehearsed their famous words. Pairing with (what looked to be both effortless yet exhausting) aerial artwork, I could truly feel those words come to life.

Just like beauty, feminism will never be clearly defined. It is an act that constantly undergoes generational changes. From a woman’s perspective, the mental battles which then are shown physically using the ropes, create a fabulous dynamic of constant combat and togetherness. Overall, the intergenerational feminist performers had me in awe.