EDINBURGH FESTIVAL FRINGE AUG-SEPT 2008

 

PRESS COMMENTS: A Cloud in Trousers



METRO * * * * (14th August 2008 )


It takes an actor of exceptional abilities to convey and make convincing such intense work as A Cloud in Trousers, an account of sexual obsession written by Georgian-born Bolshevik poet Vladimir Mayakovsky in 1915.

 

In this mesmerising show, Samantha Bloom delivers just such an impassioned performance. Dressed in a stylishly skew-whiff gentleman’s outfit, she brings to life every nuance in the richly textured poem, giving it her all.   Bloom is a theatrical, gestural actor, unafraid of becoming larger than life in the service of a poem about heightened experience. 

 

The sorrow of a doomed love affair, with its trajectory from grand passion to drowning sorrows in a lake of vodka, is given a tragic edge as Bloom vividly conveys the agony and ecstasy of love.  A red frock on a coat stand takes he places of the beloved.  As Bloom caresses it with increasing delirium, it stands in as the imaginary partner in a heated physical relationship. The sense of intimacy is extraordinary.    Directed by Alan Cox, Bloom is partnered on stage by cellist Alfia Nakipbekova, who adds to the fraught atmosphere of the piece not just with her beautifully fractured fragments of sound, but by appearing to be the recipient of Bloom’s confessions.   Tina Jackson

 

The Independent (22 August 2008)  “The gamin Bloom manages to convey this emotional journey, seen from a male perspective, with sensitivity, while touching on borders of mental and emotional extremity tempered with some dark humour…”  Lynne Walker

 

Edinburgh Festival Magazine: “Bloom bites into Mayakovsky’s writing with relish.  The Russian poet is good company too.  Few poems are more dramatic.”

             

Audience Comments:

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