Theatre review: The Bitter Belief of Cotrone The Magician

Published on Sunday 9 August 2009 19:39

*** SWEET IN THE FIRTH OF FORTH (VENUE 89)

AS THE boat docks at Inchcolm Island in the Firth of Forth, Edinburgh is little more than a shimmer on the horizon and the Fringe feels very far away indeed. Yet this idyllic setting, with its circling seabirds and ruined abbey, is the setting for what is surely one of the richest, strangest shows on the Fringe this year.

Edinburgh's Richard Demarco, who staged Macbeth on Inchcolm 20 years ago, is responsible for bringing Sicilian artist and director Andrea Cusumano to the island, with a spectacle that takes its inspiration from Pirandello's last, unfinished play, The Mountain Giants.

The abbey walls double as Cotrone the magician's isolated island home where, like Prospero, he claims he can conjure up his fantasies at will, and exercises control over a grotesque band of misfits.

A troupe of travelling players, lead by the striking Countess, disturbs the equilibrium by challenging his views on imagination and performance.

And that is about as much narrative as there is in Cusumano's bilingual (but often wordless) production, which is as much visual art as theatre. Elaborate costumes, puppets and mannequins (a Sicilian tradition) help to create strange, beautiful tableaux of deranged servants, damaged angels and puppets hung out to dry on a washing line.

For the audience, it is an immersive experience, seated on bales of straw listening to the cries of the seabirds and the show's haunting live score. When Cotrone claims to be able to conjure voices, and noises echo around us as if coming from the ground itself, it is truly a magical moment.

For those who prefer to pin down the meaning of a piece of work, Cotrone will be a frustrating show.

It asks that we accept it on its own terms, a strange, sumptuous spectacle, which sheds light on the power of stories, even as it does not seek to explain them.

• Until 16 August. Pick-up at Waverley Bridge for transport to Inchcolm Island, daily at 5:15pm (15 August matinee at 2:15pm). Return to central Edinburgh by 9:30pm (6:40pm).