Fringe Theatre exists to provide artists with the space and time present provocative, obscure and edgy work. Often quirky and technically sparse it eschews mainstream theatrical conventions and embraces the experimental and challenging. It can be a bit of a hit and miss or as Dolly Parton would say “If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain”.
And Dollywould by Sh!t Theatre is a rainbow. Rebecca Biscuit and Louise Mothersole harness two iconic Dollys – Dolly Parton and Dolly the Cloned sheep – to explore the semiotics of uniqueness and copying; of branding and identity; of self-awareness and other-awareness. It is, at times a weird and shambolic ride but they mean it to be. And as you relax into their world you become aware of just how layered and thoughtful this performance is.
Multimedia presentations vie with voice overs and layered sound work to take us on a roller coaster worthy of Dollyworld itself. It isn’t always smooth but then again, the challenges of carving your own path in this life aren’t. When things go wrong, you impro onwards, acknowledging the problems and bringing your best to re-group and carry-on.
And in the end, what we have left is love and death. A little rhinestone of a show and one should “never leave a rhinestone unturned.”
What would Dolly do? As she herself has said – “you’ll never do a whole lot unless you’re brave enough to try”.
Kate Stratford – On The Town
