Sound & Fury News
News from the Boys of Sound & Fury
Saturday July 17, 2010
In the Peg!
We are now presenting the Canadian premiere of Spaceship Man here in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada at the Winnipeg International Fringe Fest! Get your tix, and head on down to the Gas Station Theatre!
Tuesday June 1, 2010
Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes
As many of you know, Shelby & Vinny have moved on from S&F to do other projects they've been hankering to do, from real Shakespeare to Burlesque/Variety webisodes and other enchantments. No drama here, folks, just them wanting other things to do. While I mourn their departure to be sure, I am thrilled to welcome to the roster two fine mid-Western fellas, Patrick Hercamp & Ryan Adam Wells, who bring with them years of improv experience, backgrounds in classic comedy, and talents and skills to be revealed onstage in the coming months. And they both look good wearing a dress. And we all know how important that is. Please welcome them - I know you'll love them! --Richard
Thursday May 27, 2010
Pick of the Summer, Winnipeg Free Press
"The box office behemoths from Los Angeles-based Sound & Fury will premiere their new sci-fi parody this year only at fringe festivals in Hollywood, Winnipeg, Adelaide and Edinburgh."
Friday, February 26, 2010
Last 2 days in Adelaide, and a great review from Rip It Up
Sound & Fury’s Private Dick
Hilarious doesn’t even begin to describe Sound & Fury’s Private Dick. From the moment they enter the stage, the laughs begin. Done in 1940s suspense-styled film noir (complete with voice-overs from the thoughts of private dick Dick Vaganza) the three men of Sound & Fury act and laugh their way through many male and female characters with absolute stylish silliness. From the lovesick Girl Friday Doris, Shylock the bookie, client Robert Bob and the sexy (bearded) mysterious woman Faye K-Name, Private Dick is fueled by hilariously cheesy metaphors and sexual innuendo. Gangsters, crooked church leaders, the prop whiskey that wasn’t a prop, obvious ad-libbing and singing and dancing, Sound & Fury’s Private Dick is the perfect concoction of suspense, thrills and absolute comic genius. Absolute must see!
Final Word: Uproarious. --Catherine Blanch
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Private Dick video promo!
The short video promo for Sound & Fury's "Private Dick" (coming to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August!) is now up online, both here on our website on the video page, and on youtube as well! Have a look!
Monday, February 16, 2009
FOUR STARS from the Advertiser!
Sherlock Holmes and the Saline Solution
Review by RUSSELL EMMERSON, The Advertiser (Adelaide, Australia)
"WATSON? They're on.
Let's get this out of the way: this is a very silly show. Bad puns, throwaway lines and cheap shots dominate a parody of a Sherlock Holmes investigation. Other shows have been caned for these same characteristics, but they weren't Sound and Fury. The problem is, they're nice guys – they come out and chat before the show before throwing up an easily-permeated fourth wall – and are enjoying themselves too much to write them off. And by that time, you're enjoying yourself too much to be critical. But if you look beyond the gags, beyond the quick costume changes and plot convolutions, you'll see three talented Americans with quick wits and an excellent understanding of working an audience. Definitely a highlight of a guffaw nature."
Thursday, August 21, 2008
4 Stars from The Scotsman
THIS is a delightful hour, whether or not you are acquainted with Edmond Rostand's play. A team of three create a cast of many, aided only very slightly by the audience.
In the opening scene several audience members had speaking parts, setting the scene – and very good they were too.
But the three on-stage were excellent. Richard Maritzer is a marvelous Cyrano (with a very 21st-century case of Body Dysmorphic Disorder rather than an genuinely huge nose), Vinny Cardinale is a Gwyneth Paltrow-esque Roxanne and Shelby Bond is everyone else.
The show fairly gallops along playing with sarcasm, insults, beauty spots and the silent French 'n'. The story is well known although the ending is given a twist here. The famous letters are beautifully performed by Cyrano , there is some excellently choreographed fighting, and Cyrano and Christian go off to the front with a touching parody of So Long, Farewell from The Sound of Music.
--Kate Copstick
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
5 Stars from Fest Magazine!
This is the first year comic trio Sound and Fury have bought one of their shows to Edinburgh, and it’s well worth the wait. This musical parody of Cyrano de Bergerac, enacted in modern-noveau style, is a vaudevillian treat performed at lightening pace and with rapier-like wit.
The Los Angeles-based troupe begin by chatting to the audience, casually introducing their act as if we’re long-lost friends catching up over a coffee. This is all part of their grand plan – to present an hour of comedy in a friendly, accessible manner. It’s a plan with audience interaction at its heart and as a result, there are no passive bystanders.
The story is simple; Cyranose falls in love with his cousin Roxanne (“it’s okay, we’re in France”), but is blighted by insecurities about his big nose and instead helps another man to win her heart. Meanwhile, since it’s 1642, sarcasm has just been invented, which is a useful tool to have in the armoury of any budding-comedy troupe and is consequently employed in abundance.
'Cyranose' is silly—think Monty Python with American accents—and mime sword fights, cheap wigs and bad accents all contribute to the hilarity and havoc.
The three men—Shelby Bond, Vinny Cardinale and Richard Maritzer—have sparkling chemistry, and their tremendous quick-wit is exemplified when, after an audience member suggests ‘Cantelope’ for one particular sketch, Maritzer comes out from backstage to shout, “We cant elope, we’re married.”
Cyranose is a deliciously silly play, a song-and-dance treat, and a Fringe highlight.
5 Stars from FringeReview.co.uk
Low Down:
Sound And Fury rework the story of Cyrano de Bergerac and his unrequited love for the fair Roxanne through a mixture of gag-a-minute comic routines, silly song parodies and audience-baiting improvisation, bringing old-fashioned vaudeville to the Edinburgh stage.
Review:
As the trio that make up Sound And Fury admit, theatre isn’t hugely respected in America. To say you’re performing onstage is often taken to mean “not good enough for TV”. Perhaps it’s not surprising then that they’ve opted to view Cyrano De Bergerac through a more American lens, that of variety and vaudeville. The story is a familiar one: witty, accomplished Cyrano is in love with Roxanne, but is ashamed of his huge nose (in this version, a result of Body Dysmorphic Disorder rather than any nasal grotesquery). Instead, Roxanne has fallen for handsome yet stupid Christian.
De Bergerac ends up helping the young man woothe woman he loves with his ownl yrical declarations. As with all vaudeville, the plot is merely a framework upon which to hang a series of routines and jokes of tremendous variety: references to Blaise Pascal and his adding machine vie with pop lyrics, running gags about a constantly moving beauty spot, discussions on French pronunciation, and near-the-knuckle innuendo.
As Cyrano, Richard Maritzer holds the audience, as well as the play, together. It takes a confident performer to get the crowd to recite the first eighteen lines of the script (read from laminated cards) as he does: an ingenious device to bring the paying public immediately onside. The other two play multiple roles: Vinny Cardinale is a diverting (if bony-chested) Roxanne and the actor McFlurry; while Shelby Bond, ever-grinning, gallops between costume changes as Christian, De Quiche, and various others, taking a childish delight in the pace and sheer silliness of it all.
With minimal props, and on a bare stage, the cast make a virtue out of their limited circumstances, which include having had their swords impounded by customs, while also making use of cartoon-like sound effects: a result of having toured this show globally for the last twelve months. Indeed, so tight are the performers that it’s hard to tell if sometimes the improvisations around mistakes are just that, or have been incorporated for more comic business. Not once, however, do they lose sight of the main plot.
In the end, this is an hour of unadulterated fun, and nothing more, as evinced by their closing number, “The Morality Song”. However to hold a cold, wet Edinburgh audience rapt for an hour requires skill as well as charm. Erudition and smut held together with the manic energy of The Marx Brothers: these are truly modern vaudevillians at the height of their powers.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
5 Stars from the Edinburgh Evening News!
Trio keep the laughs coming
By MARTIN LENNON
"EDMOND ROSTAND was probably very earnest when he wrote his most famous play, Cyrano De Bergerac. Chances are, he wouldn't have liked this version very much, and that would have been his loss.
Before the crowd had even sat down, the comic trio had them in stitches, getting them ready for when the show began properly.
That took a while, because the funny men were just having too much fun with the crowd. They could have kept that up for the whole hour and no-one would have complained or asked for their money back, because the actors were so naturally and effortlessly hysterical in themselves.
From the start to the end, Richard Maritzer, as Cyranose, Shelby Bond and Vinny Cardinale – each taking multiple roles – had the audience laughing.
Much of the show was improvised around audience reactions but this wasn't as haphazard as it might sound.
Each of the threesome are clearly masters of their craft, and every crowd can be sure of a completely different, first-class, hour-long belly laugh."
For those of you not in Edinburgh, the Evening News is in the top three newspapers here - so this is a real coup. We are on cloud nine!
Thursday, August 07, 2008
4 Stars from One4Review
Three brave Americans strive to bring class and comedy to the masses at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival by presenting their adaptation of 'Cyranose'. Immediately they terrify playgoers by coming amongst us to encourage audience participation. Faced with the shock of having to talk out loud during a show and the obvious language difficulties, immediately added to the humour of the show.
The well-known story of how Cyranose loves his cousin Roxanne, and how Roxanne loves Christian is the kernel at the heart of this performance. As the layers of the plot are added to the whole thing gets nuttier and nuttier, branching out in so many directions you find yourself spinning through time space and pop music. This hilarious romp is worth fitting in so many ways it is difficult to successfully put into words.
At least one of these three attractive talented young men (two of which we are assured are single!) will appeal to well over 50% of the audience, Shelby Bond, Vinny Cardinale and Richard Maritzer are ‘Sound & Fury’.
You deserve a sound beating and may find yourself in a fury if you don’t get to see this spectacle!
Saturday, August 02, 2008
First Edinburgh Review: 5 Stars from Hairline
hairline.org.uk
Sound and Fury’s latest offering is a dazzling period style theatre show with razor sharp wit and rapport. We all know the Cyrano de Bergerac story: Cyrano falls in love with Cousin Roxanne but blighted by insecurities about his nose he assists in the wooing of her through young handsome Christian.
The story is retold to great and hilarious effect by the three male actors onstage, taking all parts in this comedy adaptation. Quick fire banter seamlessly covers any mishaps (perhaps there are some - it is difficult to tell…) and sharp observations are interjected by the players when the audience, gamely and enthusiastically, is encouraged to participate. The three performers are adept and engaging with their chemistry and interaction with each other, fizzing and sparking so that the audience can’t help but be taken along for the ride. The zesty actors are complimented by the witty and observational script that references everything from Eighties pop classics to current political affairs and recurring jokes about the French and Canadians. It’s difficult to pinpoint just a few of the high points in this high-standard work but the jokes regarding the reason for Cyranose’s nose complex are exquisite; even the baser gags are carried out with a charm that is so often missing from today’s toilet humour comedy agenda.
Referring to the “Fourth Wall” as the barrier between viewer and performer they quickly pick up on audience reaction (don’t let them catch you sending text messages!), making it as much part of the show as the already scripted one. It’s difficult to find fault with this production that, whilst essentially set-less, is utterly absorbing and evocative for the imagination.
Miss this and miss a real gem. --Catriona Ruth Paterson