DUBLIN FRINGE FESTIVAL

Please Please Me

International Bar

LATEST in a long line of conspiracy theories is Knife and Fork Production's Please Please Me. The way they tell it, Brian Epstein, manager of the Beatles, didn't in fact die in 1967 but lived on to tell his life story to a shoplifter trapped in the wardrobe of his Birkenhead furniture shop. An interesting premise and one that allows the versatile Doug Devaney (playing Epstein) to explore any number of personae.

The Remarkable Oscar

Alliance Francais

A BIOGRAPHY of Wilde with interpolated epigrams and quotations from his work makes up this one man show written by and starring Denis Rafter.

Too much emphasis - on Wilde as showman obscures his profundity, an aspect of his legacy lost in this otherwise worthwhile production. But the finale rendition of Reading Gaol highlights the incomparable humanity and artistry of a great human being and artist.

Farewell Ella

Bewleys Cafe Theatre

TAKE the best of Gershwin, add some Rogers and Hart and Cole Porter and you've got this slickly paced celebration of the life and music of the late Ella Fitzgerald, which demonstrates her emotional and musical range. Susannah de Wrixon's voice has a mellifluously wistful tone, while Camille O'Sullivan adds drama, but too much intensity. David Fancy is a blandly affable foil to the two women and by the end everyone was humming I Got Fascinating Rhythm with conviction.

The Lost Letters of a Victorian Lady

Bewley's Cafe Theatre

WHEN Bryan Dennehy and Mark O'Halloran, playing two half witted servants in a Victorian country house, break into a lugubrious bout of Morris dancing, there's a danger that they'll upstage even the archly comic Michelle Read.

It's easy to poke fun at the Victorians, of course, but Read, who has written this farce, has an ear for the absurd and grotesque. Although it's about 10 minutes too long and loses its snappy pace, these excellent, versatile performances should not be missed.

The Begrudgers

Bewleys Cafe Theatre

AN extended slagging match between Patrick Kavanagh (Brian Behan) and Brendan Behan (Tim Blisset) with Corinna, Costello as adjudicator, this warmly received show, written by Brian Behan, takes in the perennial themes of the Catholic church, republicanism, drinking and sex - not necessarily in that order - including an update on the Bishop Case /Annie Murphy affair. If this repetitive limited and crudely laboured use of double entrendres once passed as wit, we can only be grateful that the golden age of Dublin's "literary pubs" has become a memory.

Carroll's Dublin Fringe Comedy Festival

THERE was a small but highly enthusiastic audience at the Temple Bar Music Centre on Tuesday night for the late night comedy fringe show, and 50 the four performers were 75 per cent there already.

Joe Rooney (formerly of the Quacksquad duo) was an energetic MC, interspersing the banter with musical numbers including his longstanding Abrakebabra, and a very funny Riverdance parody.

Brendan Burke started with a rousing - and effective - visual take off of a barman and bouncer in a loud club and continued with a routine about drinking, stag and hen nights, and a Freddie Mercury impression.

Eddie Naessens (who is also festival director) had a painted cardboard guitar for his Oasis take offs. His laid back delivery included weather forecaster and movie impressions, and a good Dave Fanning.

Paul Zenon, an English "comic illusionist", was the headliner - except for him, the line up will change slightly throughout the run. A skilled magician who takes the mick out of it all slightly, he mixed iffy loaded style humour with some impressive tricks and a good feel for the audience.

Finnegans Make

The James Joyce Centre

ZENKASI fron Krakow achieves an astonishing command of atmospheric darkness in its rendering of Joyce at the North Great George's Street Centre. Language is just one of a series of sensual delights which are intimate and quintessentially theatrical.

The atmosphere at times is that of a Munch painting but that is to miss the unpredictable mix of shock and surprise, discomfort and disquiet, that pervades the performance. The audience is enveloped in a sense of death, mourning and mayhem as the company of seven moves to the natural rhythm of each moment it portrays. The silence at the end is awed applause is superfluous.