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Drink Deep the Mysterious Pleasures of Commedia Dell'Arte With the Cast of Histrionics at the Edinburgh Fringe

London, UK (PRWEB) July 20, 2008 -- New comedy Histrionics by first-time playwright James Butler will receive its world premiere at this year's Fringe. Nodding its head to Commedia dell'arte, this unique and irreverent story gives a brand new spin to a fine old tradition.

Running for the full four weeks of the Fringe Festival, the Histrionics cast invites you to the Whistling Whistle coffeehouse in 17th century Drury Lane for a FREE COFFEE at every performance to perhaps raise the spirit of Commedia dell'arte in the caves off Cowgate on Niddry St South. Tickets can be purchased at www.histrionicstheplay.co.uk.

James Butler, the author, comments: "This is the first play I've written and produced, and the amount of work required is surprisingly swollen and prodigious," but admits that, "the almost erotic thrill of hearing these characters given life, and an audience enjoying their company makes it worthwhile."

London-based director James Martin Charlton's previous work includes the sell-out hit Gob starring Jason Orange at London's King's Head Theatre. For Histrionics he proposes a dynamic, sometimes riotous yet emotionally true staging, with the Drury Lane 17th Century coffeehouse set concealing subtle visual effects, and the rich depths of this morality play-cum-comedy peeking through to haunt the comic buffoonery of the characters and the witty rococo surface of the dialogue.

The story follows a young man's struggle to stage his own play. Protagonist Wolfio Pigram is dogged by a host of unwilling actors and a beautiful yet deadly actress, whilst being constantly mollycoddled and interrupted by his dead mother's ghost. This is accompanied dutifully by a live lutist dishing out twists on 17th century folk songs.

The audience is taken on a journey into a seedy, twisting and intriguing world, where nothing is quite as it seems, melding with the crowd in this murky, down-at-heel coffeehouse and becoming at one with the locals. Herein they will meet a veritable God's plenty of lively and licentious characters, from henpecked apothecary Vole and lovable, war-damaged loon Crimbo to the loathsome and demonic Hanging Judge. Histrionics reveals a strangely familiar world of shallow materialism and celebrity dreams needing redemption by the spirit of love.

The talented young company of actors include Christopher Niederberger as Wolfio and Daniela Finley making her professional debut as Furtive Grange. International cabaret artiste Paul L Martin of Sideshow fame dons a frock once again to play Nimbus, the overbearing yet insightful ghost mother.

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Notes to Editors:

Listings info:

Baby Belly: Niddry St South: Venue 88

Dates and Times: 31 July to 24 August 2008 (previews 31 July & 1 Aug, no perf 11th)

11.40 ( 12.40)

Ticket: Previews £6.00, £8.50 (£7.50), £9.50 (£8.50) (Mon 4 August weekend rates)

www.histrionicstheplay.co.uk

Background to the play:

Nimbus, the unique and matriarchal figure, is a post-death character played by Paul L Martin and has a number of silly songs along the way, accompanied by live lute playing. She represents the lovers of Commedia Dell'Arte and is visible only to Wolfio (and Crimbo possibly) onstage - the audience, of course, can see her clearly. The lovers were always in a different world to the rest of the commedia characters and never reacted to what was going on around them, much like Nimbus - although, at the end, she manages to break this circle of ignorance (with great difficulty) and help out Wolfio (her son).

Wolfio, played by Chris Niederberger, is a fawning, likeable imbecile with his head in the clouds. His character is based on Arlecchino (Harlequin) who is a slightly ridiculous man mocked and tantalized by Columbina, the female character (Furtive, played by Daniela Finley). When Nimbus dies, he is left the Whistling Whistle coffeehouse to himself, and decides that now is the time to follow his dream of putting on a play. He chooses to set it in the Whistle, claiming for artistic reasons but in actuality because he has no hope of affording to show his play in a proper theatre.

Commedia dell'arte:

Many people who have never heard of the commedia dell'arte have enjoyed Le Mariage de Figaro or Don Giovanni, or have seen Watteau's and Lancret's pictures of Italian comedians -- Gilles and Pierrot -- or have smiled at a Christmas pantomime, gay with bespangled Columbines and Harlequins. Again they may possibly have laughed at a Punch and Judy show, or have watched some Mardi-Gras carnival in which black-masked and patchwork-costumed clowns tickle with wooden daggers a kilted soubrette or a long-robed, spectacled Pantaloon. Or if they are practical folk, unused to such holiday gaieties, they may still characterize an enemy as a "miserable zany" or a campaign speech as "a mere harlequinade." Such and even more diverse, are the traces left by "Italy's pride" on the surface of our modern life; when we dig deeper we find roots that spread far and are interlaced with many a foreign growth.

Author:

James Butler -graduated from Middlesex University in 2006 with a First Class degree in Creative Writing, also winning the Suzanna Gladwin award for his student work. He was a finalist in the BBC sitcom writing competition, Last Laugh, which was shown on BBC3 in April 2006

Director:

James Martin Charlton, (Director, Histrionics) is a writer and director based in London. His plays include Fat Souls, Coming Up (Warehouse Theatre Croydon), Groping in the Dark (Mermaid), ecstasy + GRACE (Finborough Theatre). His work as a director includes two plays by Chris Ward, Amphibious Babies and Plastic Zion (White Bear), Gob with Jason Orange from Take That, Bumps (King's Head Theatre), Saved by Sex (Gilded Balloon Edinburgh). His short film as writer/director, Apeth, was premiered at MIX Brazil in 2007.

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