Jake Mace
Check out our article exploring the ins and outs of Catania OFF Fringe Festival here.
Content Warning: Discussion of shows covering the theme of Eating Disorders.
REVIEW: The Sensemaker, Woman’s Move ★★★★★
Words by Jake Mace
Delightfully frustrating, The Sensemaker sees Elsa Couvreur’s character navigate the arbitrary bureaucracy of a robotic answering machine. All the while, Couvreur interrupts, disrupts and grooves as classic soundbites from films intersect with voice notes recorded in a dozen different languages. It’s a whirlwind concept – proving that if you grab an idea like this and let your imagination run away with it, you can find a potently effective blend of slapstick comedy and dystopian, Kafkaesque terror.
Couvreur mimes word-perfect to a cascading series of pop culture motifs played over the speakers, twisting around commands barked to her by an disembodied formal voice. The ambiguous tone of the setting leaves you wondering whether this is some terrifyingly contrived job interview, a stumbling set of bureaucratic hurdles for some simple administrative task, or something much darker. This thematic elusiveness leaves a startling taste in your mouth as the piece draws to a close, with a stark ending completely paralysing the audience.
Elsa’s movement, ranging from dance to clownery, is tight, controlled, and deftly used to create a fable that is half about bureaucracy and half about objectification. No moment is wasted, and the show revels in toying with its audience’s personal frustrations about being left on hold. This comes in perfect balance with fantastic physical comedy and callbacks that create a masterfully multi-layered piece.
Recommended Drink: Pair this with a Hard Seltzer – sharp, bubbly, but leaving you with a strikingly frustrating amount of clarity somehow all the while.
The Sensemaker and its production company Woman’s Move are duly announced as the recipients of the ‘Binge Fringe Best of Catania OFF Fringe 2024’ Award.
REVIEW: ED Recovery, Lia Locatelli ★★★☆☆
Words by Nicholas Abrams
Translated from the original Italian, ED Recovery featured verbatim extracts performed by writer/director/performer Lia Locatelli from interviews with young people suffering from eating disorders. There was much to admire about a show that brought such a challenging subject to the stage, and Lia provided an all-important voice to these young people.
This was, by no means, an easy production to watch – and ended with some astonishing figures on the numbers worldwide affected by eating disorders. Rough around the edges – particularly in stage and direction – ED Recovery delivered a powerful and moving message that worked well at a Fringe festival.
REVIEW: Alter_Azione, Collettivo Danzarte & Gaia Gemelli ★★★☆☆
Words by Jake Mace & Nicholas Abrams
A dance adaptation of the preface to Metamorphoses by 8 CE Latin Poet Ovid is the name of the game in Alter_Azione. Though the piece’s origins are not eminent in any immediate sense, Collettivo Danzarte create pertinent, resilient imagery surrounding humanity’s evolution through nature into modernity, and later analysing the objectification of, and constraints placed upon, women in the modern world.
The piece is elevated dramatically by the strong relationships between the dancers, who lean upon one another with levity and verve to create powerful vignettes and slick transitions in between them. Colourful, flashy costume meets vibrant production design. Complex, engrossing lighting highlights strong direction and choreography that makes excellent use of a large stage. Each dancer is given a solo moment, that intersplices the fluid ensemble movement sections, providing a sense of progression that sometimes lacks in this genre.
It’s a piece which struggles to scratch the surface of its rather epic source material, not helped by a verbose online description that doesn’t offer much context itself. You can’t help but feel that you’re walking away from a relatively superficial endeavour. Taken as a showcase piece – for the dancers, choreographer, and designers – it’s a strong and relatively refined dance theatre offering nonetheless.
Recommended Drink: Pair this with a glass of Prosecco – light, bubbly, and sensationally pleasing.
REVIEW: T.O.M (The Old Man), Il Teatro Viagginante & Edoardo Mirabella ★★★★☆
Words by Nicholas Abrams
T.O.M (The Old Man) was a clown show packed with mime, juggling and various other circus skills. Italy has a long history of closing from the 16th century Commedia dell’arte to the present day. Would we even have had Joker: Folie a Deux without the failed famed clown-based Italian opera Pagliacci?
Edoardo Mirabella starred as the eponymous Old Man in a show that divided opinion between those who loved the nuanced performance, and those who thought it dragged a little too long. Edoardo has created multiple shows with his company, Il Teatro Viagginante (The Travelling Theatre), and is a skilful and masterful performer.
Pair this with: A whisky sour – a timeless classic.
REVIEW: News, 044 Mime Company ★★★★☆
Words by Jake Mace
Narratives, information – and who gets to control them – are at the heart of this endlessly energetic and astutely metaphorical mime show. With Pierrot-esque whimsy in the first act, and sharply delivered pathos in the last, these three performers turn the newspaper inside out (literally and figuratively), tear it apart, and put it all back together again.
With devilishly clever subtlety, Ukrainian Netherlands-based mime performers Kata Spodoneiko, Pasha Vyshnevski and Olexander Symonenko ramp up the pace of their satirical efforts from classic slapstick clown-work into something more meaningful. How hard do we have to fight to have control of the narrative? Do we control the story or do news stories control us? All of this with a trademark levity that transcends language barriers and delivers solid chuckles and laughs throughout.
Some moments feel as though they’re filling gaps, and it isn’t precisely clear that we’re on a narrative track toward the punchy final moments until quite late on in the piece’s runtime. But these blemishes can be forgiven, because it is a solid effort to deliver a piece of satire without uttering a word. Playful use of the central Newspaper prop among some other surprises along the way offer up a spectacle that matches a well thought-out concept. Kudos to them for delivering an entertaining hour that manages to also leave you thinking.
Recommended Drink: Pair this with a Journalist cocktail – dry vermouth, sharp tangy orange, and a tangy bittersweet taste.
Keep up with future news about Catania OFF Fringe Festival on their website.
Phoebe Bakker
