Dice Festival

Summerhall

Wow! What an evening! When it comes to the Fringe, I’m always up for something that’s truly eclectic and what can I say but the Dice Festival embraces this phenomena.

Here’s the scenario: six acts stand in the eves at the behest of the Dicemaster (This evening being La John Joesph) and with the roll of a dice this MC is able to control the fate of his or her performers! Each one is assigned a number between one to six. But due to the capricious nature of this cube of fortune, they could perform the same act once or twice, not at all or maybe even all six times!

There’s such a delicious and daring amount of possibilities to be had here. And the fact that the set-up is something akin to a game show but yet you get to experience something artistic is truly an inspired move. And the thing is the host and performers/contestants changes every night! So it’s even more eclectic. I’ll admit the evening was truly a mixed bag but the frenetic nature of the piece and the fact that performers and guests were so up for this experience truly saved even the dud moments.

We had a spoken word experience from Martina Dolcimascolo called “Conversations with Dogs on God” which although certainly quirky, there was no meat to it and alas may have went on a bit long.

We also had the dadaesque performance of “How Lovely is Love” from Lucia Pazzini who was accompanied by Collette Patterson. Pazzini’s performance involved her swanning about in a gold catsuit with some some strategic holes in it exposing some rather naughty places! And her mute sidekick Patterson was clad in a bikini with a makeshift phallus out of drink bottles and had her head covered in a pigeon mask! They were the only people who had to perform twice due to the nature of the dice.

We also had the prose spouting magician Tom Cassani with his show “I Promise You Tonight”. Although, some of his prose was not my thing I did like the way he involved historical tidbits here and there and his demeanour is rather lackadaisical which is intriguing. Especially when you find him walking across broken glass!

Bolly-Illusion in his piece ‘The Boy Worshipping Heels” was razzle dazzle and a very good dancer, as he pulled out all his Bollywood moves in reverence to a pair of high heels!

But the highlight for me was certainly Moa Johansson in her silent performance/endurance piece “Louder, She Said What”. Even when she was first introduced in the beginning she was silent as she tiptoed about as she had roses taped under the heels of her bare feet. She created a remarkable feat, where she rocked on her
tiptoes for ages all whilst suspending two glasses of water in her hands. It may not sound like much, but to be honest it was genuinely one of the most beautiful, strong but sensitive pieces I’ve ever seen. So much so, it actually moved me to tears – and I genuinely don’t know if a live performance has ever done that to me before in my life!

Markus Helbig