News on your favorite shows, specials & more!

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

By: Aug. 20, 2009
Get Access To Every Broadway Story

Unlock access to every one of the hundreds of articles published daily on BroadwayWorld by logging in with one click.




Existing user? Just click login.

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.

 



Comments

To post a comment, you must register and login.



Videos