I prefer my sins a bit deadlier and I think the audience agreed
A late night performance in the atmospheric Bosco Theatre, an old wooden circus tent with a suitably spooky feel, set the stage nicely. The young cast took on the classics ambitiously, some of them hit the spot, whereas some were unfortunate near misses. With a cast of 33, SofA Productions is one of the largest groups to perform in the Fringe, all of whom are students of the Kogan Academy of Dramatic Arts in North London.
The show opened with a raunchy Habanera from Carmen. With the entire cast on stage, it had its moments but it also suffered from the unavoidable comparison to an opera production, which wasn’t very complimentary. Besides the obvious fact that the cast are not opera singers, the whole act was a bit all over the place and lacked the well-rehearsed routine that gives opera its full grandeur.
What the cast failed to deliver with Carmen, it made up for in an epic Cell Block Tango from Chicago, by far the best piece of the night. For this number, the set, actors, music and lights came together in a hugely entertaining way. Another highlight was Chekhov’s short comedy about a candlestick that seemed to have a mind of its own; an example of storytelling and physical theatre woven together cleverly.
The grand finale was a classic scene from Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, where the embodied seven deadly sins present themselves to Lucifer. I was really looking forward to seeing the old chap. But this was like Internet dating; when you finally meet the guy, he looks nothing like his profile pictures. Lucifer was a pale comparison to his promo material, which was a bit of a letdown.
With Tales of Sin, you’ll get to experience sinister deeds, sensual seductions and ruthless betrayals but somehow they all seemed pretty lame to me. I prefer my sins a bit deadlier and I think the audience agreed.
