EDINBURGH FESTIVAL 2009 - REVIEW: OPTIMISM, Royal Lyceum Theatre, August 17

Clare Maddox puts the bad times behind her at the Royal Lyceum Theatre

Malthouse Melbourne Theatre's Optimism is a glossy affair. Staging short scenes from Voltaire's Candide, it charts the servant's physical and philosophical journey into disillusionment with the beliefs of his mentor Dr Pangloss, set to a soundtrack of shiny pop.

It didn't begin as the best of all possible worlds for poor old Candide, who was interrupted by a lone heckler only minutes into the performance. But you don't mess with a comedian, and veteran Fringe performer and one-time Perrier Award winner Frank Woodley appeared unfazed by the irate commentary, delighting the audience with hastily-improvised responses ( "I don't want to be rude, but...you do.").

The candyfloss presentation sits a little uncomfortably alongside the suffering Candide endures and witnesses during his whistle-stop tour of the globe. Rape jokes and tales of people being "sodomised to death" are mixed with call-and-response yodelling and exuberant dance routines, and the affecting scene when Candide meets the slave in Surinam is backed by the musical delights of Altered Images' I Could Be Happy.

The production succeeds, however, in updating Voltaire's satire for the modern world by commenting on current-day calamities such as global warming. The dominance of air travel quite literally takes centre stage, with much of the action unfolding on a plane amid dancing stewardesses and gyrating apes: this is satire as a Vengaboys video. The colourful costumes and outrageous sense of fun recall the Scottish Ballet's Vivienne Westwood-meets-Andy Warhol production of Cinderella, but Optimism manages to send a deeper message that all the jollity, sherbet fizz and hi-jinks can't quite erase.

 

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