Rex Futurus
EDINBURGH FRINGE FESTIVAL 2008 REVIEW
Rex Futurus
Emmett Brown Productions
Zoo Southside 117 Nicholson Street
August 3rd - 16th £7.00
This is a fine retelling of the myth of King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table. Sir Lancelot's adulterous relationship with Guinevere, the king's wife, breaks the Round Table and plunges England into civil war. Mordred, Arthur's treacherous secret son seizes the throne at the behest of his poisonous mother – the sorceress Morgan LaFaye. The fight scenes are exciting. Sit too close to the front row and you stand a good chance of catching the edge of a sword or a battleaxe in the confined space. I almost had a Knight of the Round Table land in my lap.
This narrative is intercut with flashbacks to Arthur's past as the despised younger son of Uther Pendragon, his apprenticeship to Merlin, and his first childhood meeting with Morgan. I found this confusing at first as the same young actor who plays the cowardly Mordred also plays Arthur in the flashback scenes. Maybe I'm a bit slow, so it took me a while to catch on the what was going on. Of course, Mordred was the result of Arthur's early liaison with Morgan so I suppose it stands to reason that he would look like the young Arthur.
The actress who plays Morgan LaFaye dominates this fine production. Props were minimal, so the audience had to rely on the strength of the script and its delivery. For the most part this was excellent. The only jarring note came in a bizarre Pythonesque interlude between two washerwomen; two male members of the cast screaming to one-another in high falsetto voices. This did nothing for me and seemed to be totally out of sync with the rest of the play. It has to go, in future productions as it marred an otherwise fine play.
Rex Futurus
Emmett Brown Productions
Zoo Southside 117 Nicholson Street
August 3rd - 16th £7.00
This is a fine retelling of the myth of King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table. Sir Lancelot's adulterous relationship with Guinevere, the king's wife, breaks the Round Table and plunges England into civil war. Mordred, Arthur's treacherous secret son seizes the throne at the behest of his poisonous mother – the sorceress Morgan LaFaye. The fight scenes are exciting. Sit too close to the front row and you stand a good chance of catching the edge of a sword or a battleaxe in the confined space. I almost had a Knight of the Round Table land in my lap.
This narrative is intercut with flashbacks to Arthur's past as the despised younger son of Uther Pendragon, his apprenticeship to Merlin, and his first childhood meeting with Morgan. I found this confusing at first as the same young actor who plays the cowardly Mordred also plays Arthur in the flashback scenes. Maybe I'm a bit slow, so it took me a while to catch on the what was going on. Of course, Mordred was the result of Arthur's early liaison with Morgan so I suppose it stands to reason that he would look like the young Arthur.
The actress who plays Morgan LaFaye dominates this fine production. Props were minimal, so the audience had to rely on the strength of the script and its delivery. For the most part this was excellent. The only jarring note came in a bizarre Pythonesque interlude between two washerwomen; two male members of the cast screaming to one-another in high falsetto voices. This did nothing for me and seemed to be totally out of sync with the rest of the play. It has to go, in future productions as it marred an otherwise fine play.
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