Edinburgh 2017

Fringe Review: After 4 – Over the Moon

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by Philip Gowman on 1 September, 2017

in Dance | Edinburgh Festival & Fringe | Event reports and reviews | Fusion music

Sometimes, no matter how much I might be bowled over by a performance, I cannot put into words what I found so stunning about it. So it is with Yoo Sun-hoo’s work After 4: Over the Moon. Part of the magic of the piece is the peaceful, poignant music that provides the accompaniment, performed live […]

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Fringe review: Monkey Dance

by Philip Gowman 31 August 2017
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This is a fun musical in which eight incredibly energetic and athletic performers leap around on stage to the musical accompaniment of a quintet of vocalists, beat-boxer and bass. There’s a loose story-line (not that it matters too much as the emphasis is on the music and action) in which an explorer comes to the […]

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Brief Fringe review: Behind the Mirror

by Philip Gowman 31 August 2017
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The Fringe version of Behind the Mirror, at 1 hour, is half an hour shorter than the full version that has successfully been performed in Korea for many years. In the version presented at the Fringe, the tale of Princess Pyonggang and General Ondal is told very briefly before a parallel story is told in […]

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Brief Fringe review: Mind Goblin

by Philip Gowman 31 August 2017
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Mind Goblin is a mysterious half-hour solo accompanied by a quiet, watery soundtrack. Sometimes serene, sometimes descending into madness, the solitary dancer / choreographer Lee Kyung-eun manages to retain our attention throughout the piece despite the lack of obvious rhythm to the music. The most striking moment comes when the soloist coughs up black liquid […]

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Fringe review: Ensemble SU — The Party

by Philip Gowman 31 August 2017
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Ensemble SU is a five-piece fusion group formed in 2010 and led by Jihye “JJ” Hur on 25-string gayageum with Yein Kim on haegeum, Myunghyun Park on cello, Sangjung Lee on keyboard and Deokhwan Kim playing Korean and western percussion (and not to be confused with a similarly named jazz / gugak fusion trio based […]

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Fringe review: Kokdu – The Soul Mate

by Philip Gowman 30 August 2017
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Intended to be a simple morality tale about respect for the dead and dying, as well as an exposition of Korean folk and shamanistic beliefs about burial customs and the afterlife, this ambitious production combines strong visuals and colourful costumes with storytelling that is an uncomfortable mixture of seriousness and slapstick. Sometimes it’s good to […]

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Gossip and impressions from the Fringe

by Philip Gowman 28 August 2017
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Before I get down to the serious business of writing up a few reviews of the shows I got to see, here is a round-up of random thoughts and gossip The performers’ work is never done… It’s never really dawned on me before how hard the performance teams work when they are in Edinburgh. Their […]

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Fringe 2017: two early recommendations

by Philip Gowman 30 July 2017
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To help give a taste of the range of Korean talent at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, the KCC hosted a showcase of four of the acts, at the Lilian Baylis Studio. Of these, the stand-out performances were Behind the Mirror and Black and White Tea Room — Counsellor. LKL went along to the event hoping […]

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Korean performers at the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe

by Events Editor 16 June 2017
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A detailed mining of the Edinburgh Fringe website reveals twenty Korean performances plus one talk this year. Magic show Snap makes a return, along with the ever-popular drum show Tago, both part of a “Korean Season presented by AtoBiz Ltd” – who also bring new acts Kokdu and Ensemble Su. I must say I’m a […]

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