RashDash Theatre are a company going from strength to strength and their production of The Ugly Sisters at the Fringe this year is a testament to this stellar progression. Now becoming regular favourites at the festival, their frenetic mix of physical theatre, dance and live music is carving them a unique space in the theatrical landscape.
The Ugly Sisters is a retelling of Cinderella from the point of view of the much maligned sibling duo. This type of interpretation has been well worn and there is plenty of potential to slip into cliché, but RashDash carefully skirt around such pitfalls through vibrant staging, tenderly realised characters, and the use of the sensational three-piece band Not Now Bernard, who provide the raucous progressive punk rock music that carries the piece along.
Abi Greenland and Helen Gaolen enter at the beginning looking dishevelled and shocked to tell us they’re reclaiming the word ‘ugly’. Their characters flirt with the grotesque in their physicality and their abrasive nature, but the comedic ability of the duo also shines through wonderfully. Their performance contains a deep vein of emotion beneath the surface and their sincere affection for each other can be very touching when it is revealed. They guide us through their underprivileged upbringing and expose the reasons they came to hate Cinderella, placing our sympathies firmly upon themselves as underdogs.
The piece is fragmented in style, which sometimes hinders the flow of the narrative, but the songs that make up each section are so well written and performed I found myself hungry for the next one. Most memorably it was the delicate swelling harmonies in a song sung between the sisters and their mother that made me close my eyes and brought a shiver to my spine.
As the piece goes on, the social commentary becomes more overt when the sisters apply to perform in a reality TV talent show to keep up with their more popular step sister. They could perhaps afford to delve deeper into this broad and multi-layered subject, but their comment on the issue of obsession with beauty and celebrity is well made and coherent all the same.
There could also have been more tenderness in the movement; the company are excellent at high energy performance, but I felt that some more gentle physicality would have given a broader palette of movement and greater impact to the more fast-paced sections.
However, overall this is a very powerful piece of theatre from a company whose skill keeps growing year on year. The music, the lighting and the brilliant performances all combine with impressive efficacy. And when the sisters leave at the end, haggard and ruined by the mill they have been put through, we are left with a sense that this performance is important as well as fantastically entertaining. A sensational show from an exciting company that undoubtedly has plenty more sensations to offer.