Theatre: On the Fringe

Fire Eater Tristan Bates Theatre n A Dark River Young Vic Studio n The Selkie Bride The Tricycle

TWO WOMEN are wailing competitively over the corpse of a young girl, a scenario which seems perfectly understandable until the corpse first sneezes, and then sits up and complains: "I'm tired of being dead."

Set against the Irish potato famine, the scene delves deep into its tragedies and distils them into the combination of eccentric humour and parody of blind faith that permeates Fire Eater. The young girl, Mavourneen, is going to America to earn money to send back to a family which is slowly being reduced to "flesh stretched over bones". But there she meets the notorious philanthropist, Amanda Nicholls, a woman who is constantly being mistaken for a gentleman, and suddenly decides that there is more to life than absent potatoes, kitchen gossip, and sex with men.

Mark Wing-Davey's production bobs jauntily over the surface of issues with oceanic depths, wresting a defiant fighting humour from Brighde Mullins' play about the artless innocent who takes a woman for her husband.

The blind stumblings of a society that will turn either to God or the bottle to hide from life are contrasted with the smoked-salmon philanthropy of New York salons. And Viviana Verveen as Mavourneen weaves a telling comedy into her portrayal of the innocent savante who finds salvation in neither.

Her uncomplicated and ardent devotion to Amanda - played with firm-jawed intensity by Emma Dewhurst - cuts a sharp contrast with the complex emotions portrayed in A Dark River, a play in which Lorca's volcanic emotions spill over into the frigid arena of a Nineties London law firm.

The Big Picture Company has adapted Blood Wedding and released its visceral essence, with choreography encapsulating Kathak dance and flamenco, and film projections of lush natural landscapes.

It is a risk to juxtapose Lorca's torrid flow of words with the embarrassed musings of ambitious twentysomethings, and there are times in this otherwise inspired production where banality dogs the plot's modern meditations on the relationship between two lawyers, Nina and Irfan, which is shattered by Irfan's cousin Shahzaman. Even so, the overall impression is stylish and captivating.

The Strathcona Theatre Company also deals with frustrated love in its production of The Selkie Bride, which examines the plight of outsiders in society through the myth of seal women who shed their skins and marry men, only to find themselves crippled by their attempts to abandon the sea for human society.

There is a poignancy to the company's adaptation of this myth, aimed at children beween eight and 11, since it is performed by learning-disabled actors. The largely learning-disabled audience reacted emotionally to the evocative production, which portrays the complex thoughts and emotions lurking behind appearances.

`Fire Eater' (0171-240 3940) to 17 July; `A Dark River' (0171-928 6363) to 17 July; `The Selkie Bride' (0171-328 1000) to 10 July