Temptation of a Monk, Great Hall

Shenanigan Brothers and Green Fools Co,  Friday, 11pm - Midnight.

_{Reviewed by John Reid.}

       This is a fairytale and everyone loves fairytales, even ugly stepsisters and frog princes.  The youngish half-house on the night clearly saw elements they could identify with in this dramatised and illustrated story of obsessive love, lust and loss.

The performance uses puppetry, masks, effective costumes, music and acting in a sequence of short scenes.  The pace of this claver conception tends to slow at times, especially during the simpler use of linking songs and narration which set a mood but do not carry the action forward.

Hampster,  a three-piece using sax, keyboards, guitar and bass, have composed and perform very effective instrumental music and atmospheric vocal support.

Their position is exposed and sometimes indiscreet movement becomes distracting.  However they have a direct view of the proceedings, ensuring close interplay of action and sound.

The performance is adapted from a 16th century Japanese tale and owes something to that countries dramatic conventions.  An onstage manager dressed in black helps the puppet sequence.  We see the action and results of this important technical device but can ignore it as a character because the stage manager is dressed in obscuring flat black.

Scattered through the story are glittering moments of theatre magic.  A wonderful and dangerous romantic dragon, a persona of the heroin, is one of the highlights of the evening.  Another of visual comedy, is the development of a penile erection in proportion to the mythic beast.

The approach to the plot is mixed, sometimes satirical and sometimes straight.  There is a certain amount of safety in this changing direction, although the satire tends to undercut the impact of a powerful performance.