Here's the lovely paradox: sometimes when the shows are wobbly, or all over the place, is when Arches Live!
plays to its strengths. Without this supportive public platform, how are emerging artists, or indeed established ones, ever going to test new material or their ability to put it across?
L'Eveil (HHH) found Mazz Marsden encased inside a fascinating sculptural costume designed by the director Mona Kastell. Think "gorgeous chrysalis" and you'll be in tune with the process that saw Marsden morph from bulbous wriggler to back-lit butterfly, albeit masked as if a hybrid insect-human. The costume is the drama here, and while it creates a narrative it also imposes repetitive limits on movement – Marsden triumphs, nonetheless.
There's a powerfully provocative show pupating inside Ian Nulty's solo performance Robinson Family Undercover (HH). He's taken up some clever cudgels against America's right-wing Christians and politicians, not least because of their aggressive hostility towards homosexuality. He's even created an online persona that masquerades as a rabid fellow traveller. Lots of dots – morsels of live performance, protracted online searches, even the voice of God – are scattered across the mix of highs and lows. Some re-structuring and pruning is needed to join them up. First-night nerves didn't help the slow-loading web surfing – a little cheating, like preparing filmed footage earlier, would keep the pace brisk.
The Miss Kitty Show (HH) acknowledges it's a work-in-progress, although Miss Kitty herself – created, devised and performer by Catriona Ruth Paterson – constantly reminds us that she is perfect, her life is perfect and we poor inadequates would do well to follow her example. Cue hard-sell of books, CDs etc. The concept, with Miss Kitty channelling the glamorous artifice of 50's femininity through the medium of a present-day TV talk show, gives Paterson lots of room to manoeuvre. She can do a cook-dem, give beauty advice, interact with audience members who have problems. The glitch is in the character she's developing: her Miss Kitty, despite the dolled-up look and period style, is oddly short of the necessary confident command. Fanny Craddock, for instance, would never have sighed so frequently – but then she didn't affect a breathy high voice, or slip into a negligee to dispense relationship advice. Wise woman, Fanny.
Runs ended.
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