The Bunker, Thursday, February 20
This reimagining of the King Arthur tale is the lightest of Jethro Compton’s Bunker Trilogy, as the first-half is played for laughs before it takes a serious turn. Three boarding-school stiff upper-lip type English soldiers Arty (Hayden Wood), Lancelot (Sam Donnelly) and Gawain (James Marlowe) joke and reminisce about school days and lost loves on the WW1 front line. The meek and naive Gawain is the butt of Lancelot’s jibes, especially when he talks of a mystical girl, Morgana (Bebe Sanders), he encounters. Darkness surrounds the jesting, as the three are the only survivors of the self proclaimed Knights of the Round Table. Morgana is set in the same WWI bunker as the other plays in the trilogy and the intimate surrounds, as well as the sound, score and lights, are perfectly executed to create an incredible atmosphere as you are right amongst the action. Equally as impressive are the performances. Wood shines as Arty (he’s mostly been used as the comic relief in the other two plays Agamemnon and Macbeth) while Donnelly once again is astounding after playing the lead in Macbeth. Morgana is another theatrical treat from Compton confirming this trilogy’s status as the must attend package of the 2014 Fringe. ****1/2
