Emma's Nose review
Fri, 8 June 2001, 09:44 amtess1 post in thread
Emma's Nose review
Fri, 8 June 2001, 09:44 amHi there,
This is my first post- I went to see Emma's Nose on the weekend and thought I'd share my review with you all....
Tess
***************************
Emma's Nose
Company B, Belvoir Street Theatre
2 June 2001, 8 pm
A comedy about Sigmund Freud? Surely no one imagined it would come in this form, if at all. A rollicking ride of medical experimentation, audience belittlement and grotesquely graphic nasal operations, Emma's Nose is hilariously original.
Freud (Tyler Coppin) and his friend and colleague Wilheim Fliess (Jacek Koman) are the stars. "Siggy" and "Willy" race through somewhat dubious medical and psychoanalytical procedures involving a patient: Emma (Meaghan Davies). Fliess believes that all types of deviancy, including masturbation, hysteria and nicotine addiction, can be cured through an operation on the nose. Emma is the unfortunate first patient of Fliess' experimentation, and his negligence has disastrous effects.
This is one bizarre tale. Its strangeness is enhanced by the stunning visual design by Stephen Curtis- a set with a dramatic uphill slope and a backdrop of pink fractals causes my head to spin before the play even begins. A black chesterfield-esque chaise lounge takes centre stage, flanked by a stool, occupied for much of the performance by a bandaged Emma, and a wooden writing desk and chair. This desk stands on the slope, and is on such an angle that I am expecting the piles of documents on top of it to go sliding off at any moment. Everything, however, miraculously stays in place.
Two ageing violin players (Romano and Rudi Crivici) set up and begin to duel furiously, setting the scene for the chaotic extravagance to come. The violinists also strike up at crucial moments during the play, and often upstage the action with their amazing comic rapport.
Coppin is excellent as Freud, playing like a caricature the famous psychoanalyst, complete with ludicrous Austrian accent. Entering and exiting through unexplained smoking doors, and with a nasty nicotine habit, Freud is quick to jump to conclusions about the sexual connections between Emma's dreams and penises. He becomes defensive, however, when the subject of his own addiction is brought into question: "Sometimes, Doctor, a cigar is just a cigar."
Koman is also outstanding as Fliess, the nose and throat physician with "no time to waste on the sick." Fliess is convinced that males have a bodily governing cycle of twenty-three days, and females twenty-eight, and he goes through many random mathematical equations to arrive at these figures and therefore prove his theories. Koman's portrayal of Fliess' nervous tics is also hilarious- he expels a nervous cough or leg twitch whenever things get too much for him. He concurrently abuses and bonds with the audience, calling us "nasal deviants" and "motherfuckers" ("now there's a concept" remarks Freud), then involves us all in an impressive mathematical magic trick.
Paul J. Livingstone (aka Flacco) has created this amusing script, which exposes ridiculous one hundred-year-old curative procedures with tenacious wit, and equal sympathy. Through song-and-dance dream sequences and bloody operations, this production just keeps on climaxing. Boisterous characterisations and a punchy script ensure that this ninety minute romp shocks and impresses, but above all, entertains.
This is my first post- I went to see Emma's Nose on the weekend and thought I'd share my review with you all....
Tess
***************************
Emma's Nose
Company B, Belvoir Street Theatre
2 June 2001, 8 pm
A comedy about Sigmund Freud? Surely no one imagined it would come in this form, if at all. A rollicking ride of medical experimentation, audience belittlement and grotesquely graphic nasal operations, Emma's Nose is hilariously original.
Freud (Tyler Coppin) and his friend and colleague Wilheim Fliess (Jacek Koman) are the stars. "Siggy" and "Willy" race through somewhat dubious medical and psychoanalytical procedures involving a patient: Emma (Meaghan Davies). Fliess believes that all types of deviancy, including masturbation, hysteria and nicotine addiction, can be cured through an operation on the nose. Emma is the unfortunate first patient of Fliess' experimentation, and his negligence has disastrous effects.
This is one bizarre tale. Its strangeness is enhanced by the stunning visual design by Stephen Curtis- a set with a dramatic uphill slope and a backdrop of pink fractals causes my head to spin before the play even begins. A black chesterfield-esque chaise lounge takes centre stage, flanked by a stool, occupied for much of the performance by a bandaged Emma, and a wooden writing desk and chair. This desk stands on the slope, and is on such an angle that I am expecting the piles of documents on top of it to go sliding off at any moment. Everything, however, miraculously stays in place.
Two ageing violin players (Romano and Rudi Crivici) set up and begin to duel furiously, setting the scene for the chaotic extravagance to come. The violinists also strike up at crucial moments during the play, and often upstage the action with their amazing comic rapport.
Coppin is excellent as Freud, playing like a caricature the famous psychoanalyst, complete with ludicrous Austrian accent. Entering and exiting through unexplained smoking doors, and with a nasty nicotine habit, Freud is quick to jump to conclusions about the sexual connections between Emma's dreams and penises. He becomes defensive, however, when the subject of his own addiction is brought into question: "Sometimes, Doctor, a cigar is just a cigar."
Koman is also outstanding as Fliess, the nose and throat physician with "no time to waste on the sick." Fliess is convinced that males have a bodily governing cycle of twenty-three days, and females twenty-eight, and he goes through many random mathematical equations to arrive at these figures and therefore prove his theories. Koman's portrayal of Fliess' nervous tics is also hilarious- he expels a nervous cough or leg twitch whenever things get too much for him. He concurrently abuses and bonds with the audience, calling us "nasal deviants" and "motherfuckers" ("now there's a concept" remarks Freud), then involves us all in an impressive mathematical magic trick.
Paul J. Livingstone (aka Flacco) has created this amusing script, which exposes ridiculous one hundred-year-old curative procedures with tenacious wit, and equal sympathy. Through song-and-dance dream sequences and bloody operations, this production just keeps on climaxing. Boisterous characterisations and a punchy script ensure that this ninety minute romp shocks and impresses, but above all, entertains.
tessFri, 8 June 2001, 09:44 am
Hi there,
This is my first post- I went to see Emma's Nose on the weekend and thought I'd share my review with you all....
Tess
***************************
Emma's Nose
Company B, Belvoir Street Theatre
2 June 2001, 8 pm
A comedy about Sigmund Freud? Surely no one imagined it would come in this form, if at all. A rollicking ride of medical experimentation, audience belittlement and grotesquely graphic nasal operations, Emma's Nose is hilariously original.
Freud (Tyler Coppin) and his friend and colleague Wilheim Fliess (Jacek Koman) are the stars. "Siggy" and "Willy" race through somewhat dubious medical and psychoanalytical procedures involving a patient: Emma (Meaghan Davies). Fliess believes that all types of deviancy, including masturbation, hysteria and nicotine addiction, can be cured through an operation on the nose. Emma is the unfortunate first patient of Fliess' experimentation, and his negligence has disastrous effects.
This is one bizarre tale. Its strangeness is enhanced by the stunning visual design by Stephen Curtis- a set with a dramatic uphill slope and a backdrop of pink fractals causes my head to spin before the play even begins. A black chesterfield-esque chaise lounge takes centre stage, flanked by a stool, occupied for much of the performance by a bandaged Emma, and a wooden writing desk and chair. This desk stands on the slope, and is on such an angle that I am expecting the piles of documents on top of it to go sliding off at any moment. Everything, however, miraculously stays in place.
Two ageing violin players (Romano and Rudi Crivici) set up and begin to duel furiously, setting the scene for the chaotic extravagance to come. The violinists also strike up at crucial moments during the play, and often upstage the action with their amazing comic rapport.
Coppin is excellent as Freud, playing like a caricature the famous psychoanalyst, complete with ludicrous Austrian accent. Entering and exiting through unexplained smoking doors, and with a nasty nicotine habit, Freud is quick to jump to conclusions about the sexual connections between Emma's dreams and penises. He becomes defensive, however, when the subject of his own addiction is brought into question: "Sometimes, Doctor, a cigar is just a cigar."
Koman is also outstanding as Fliess, the nose and throat physician with "no time to waste on the sick." Fliess is convinced that males have a bodily governing cycle of twenty-three days, and females twenty-eight, and he goes through many random mathematical equations to arrive at these figures and therefore prove his theories. Koman's portrayal of Fliess' nervous tics is also hilarious- he expels a nervous cough or leg twitch whenever things get too much for him. He concurrently abuses and bonds with the audience, calling us "nasal deviants" and "motherfuckers" ("now there's a concept" remarks Freud), then involves us all in an impressive mathematical magic trick.
Paul J. Livingstone (aka Flacco) has created this amusing script, which exposes ridiculous one hundred-year-old curative procedures with tenacious wit, and equal sympathy. Through song-and-dance dream sequences and bloody operations, this production just keeps on climaxing. Boisterous characterisations and a punchy script ensure that this ninety minute romp shocks and impresses, but above all, entertains.
This is my first post- I went to see Emma's Nose on the weekend and thought I'd share my review with you all....
Tess
***************************
Emma's Nose
Company B, Belvoir Street Theatre
2 June 2001, 8 pm
A comedy about Sigmund Freud? Surely no one imagined it would come in this form, if at all. A rollicking ride of medical experimentation, audience belittlement and grotesquely graphic nasal operations, Emma's Nose is hilariously original.
Freud (Tyler Coppin) and his friend and colleague Wilheim Fliess (Jacek Koman) are the stars. "Siggy" and "Willy" race through somewhat dubious medical and psychoanalytical procedures involving a patient: Emma (Meaghan Davies). Fliess believes that all types of deviancy, including masturbation, hysteria and nicotine addiction, can be cured through an operation on the nose. Emma is the unfortunate first patient of Fliess' experimentation, and his negligence has disastrous effects.
This is one bizarre tale. Its strangeness is enhanced by the stunning visual design by Stephen Curtis- a set with a dramatic uphill slope and a backdrop of pink fractals causes my head to spin before the play even begins. A black chesterfield-esque chaise lounge takes centre stage, flanked by a stool, occupied for much of the performance by a bandaged Emma, and a wooden writing desk and chair. This desk stands on the slope, and is on such an angle that I am expecting the piles of documents on top of it to go sliding off at any moment. Everything, however, miraculously stays in place.
Two ageing violin players (Romano and Rudi Crivici) set up and begin to duel furiously, setting the scene for the chaotic extravagance to come. The violinists also strike up at crucial moments during the play, and often upstage the action with their amazing comic rapport.
Coppin is excellent as Freud, playing like a caricature the famous psychoanalyst, complete with ludicrous Austrian accent. Entering and exiting through unexplained smoking doors, and with a nasty nicotine habit, Freud is quick to jump to conclusions about the sexual connections between Emma's dreams and penises. He becomes defensive, however, when the subject of his own addiction is brought into question: "Sometimes, Doctor, a cigar is just a cigar."
Koman is also outstanding as Fliess, the nose and throat physician with "no time to waste on the sick." Fliess is convinced that males have a bodily governing cycle of twenty-three days, and females twenty-eight, and he goes through many random mathematical equations to arrive at these figures and therefore prove his theories. Koman's portrayal of Fliess' nervous tics is also hilarious- he expels a nervous cough or leg twitch whenever things get too much for him. He concurrently abuses and bonds with the audience, calling us "nasal deviants" and "motherfuckers" ("now there's a concept" remarks Freud), then involves us all in an impressive mathematical magic trick.
Paul J. Livingstone (aka Flacco) has created this amusing script, which exposes ridiculous one hundred-year-old curative procedures with tenacious wit, and equal sympathy. Through song-and-dance dream sequences and bloody operations, this production just keeps on climaxing. Boisterous characterisations and a punchy script ensure that this ninety minute romp shocks and impresses, but above all, entertains.