Edward Rapley's 10 Ways to Die on Stage sold out in the double bill with Jos Houben at the Basement during the Brighton Festival this year.

Here is the review from Total Theatre 

Edward Rapley
10 Ways to Die On Stage
The Basement
18 May 2011

The alternative versions of Edward Rapley's one man show-wrapped-within-a-show eventually prove his point. 'It will get worse,' he says. And it does: the salt water that at first was just on the unpleasant side is heavingly undrinkable later, with half a kilo of salt in it, so when he does drink it, in an entirely consistent act of self punishment, it has the great comedy and pathos combined. Later, he performs three dances that encapsulate the show so far, each an increasingly minimalist version of the other, until the last is almost purely a dance of the eyes and eyebrows except for the delicately gauged grimaces of the mouth that tell you his salt ordeal is due to take place again.

The show operates through quite gentle, subtle physical comedy most of the time, carefully constructed, with a cogent rationale. It is sometimes hugely funny. One of his confessions is: 'I am sorry for threatening you with a knife… while our parents were out.' The comedy lies in the pause – is this something terrible and horrible emerging? – that leads to an out-loud guffaw when we realise this is one of those classic childhood moments.

Physically Rapley delivers – a fine balance in movement and sculpted pose, studied diffidence plunging into needy excess, a nice corporeal meshing of the idea that dying onstage is a great metaphor for failing in life. It maybe lacks pace in the middle to end but many of the 'scenes' are nicely judged, like the five things not to do if you want to be happy, delivered with both poignancy and great comic timing.

Bill Parslow

Catch 10 ways to die on stage during Exeter Fringe at the Bike Shed Theatre next week.

It is playing the 25-27th and you can buy tickets through the Exeter Phoenix box office http://www.exeterphoenix.org.uk/ Phone 01392667080

Edward Rapley – 10 Ways to Die on Stage

Review

“If you are in Oxford tonight, don’t miss the fabulous Edward Rapley presenting a revised and longer version of his brilliant one-man show. 10 ways to die onstage will be showing as part of tonight’s Jumble it Up programme in the Burton Taylor Studios. In the version of this show that I saw, Rapley had appropriated, revised and contemporised the idea of the clown to brilliant effect. Rapley’s stage persona blew up balloons, tipped water on himself, ragged with the audience and threatened to jump off a ladder into a tiny little blow-up children’s paddling pool. When I saw '10 ways to Die on Stage' this wild-haired actor performed the show I saw in plain t-shirt and jeans with no red nose, and yet was the most sincere and accomplished ‘fool‘ I have ever seen performing live.

Lively and versatile, Rapley flips between joy and dejection rapidly and skillfully and the effect is intensely engaging and intimate. The line between auto-biography and devised theatre performance seem blurred and the confessional, actor-bares-all quality in the work is totally convincing. The only thing that makes me think it is devised rather than completely improvised, is the evident skill in the timing and the imagery used throughout the work. In this piece we are subjected to the nervous ramblings of a terrified actor, the tragicomedy of a balloon being blown up and deflated to great emotional effect, the impishness of Rapley threatening to pour water on the expensive electrical equipment surrounding the stage and many other spectacles that are funny, discomforting and sometimes terribly sad. Rapley’s emotional navigations only feel tricky or awkward when that is intended; which makes for paradoxically uncomfortable and comforting viewing. It is comforting to be sheltered in the dark, anonymous audience and not up on the stage, and yet uncomfortable to empathise (as one inevitably does) with the somehow terribly naked portrait of flawed, fragile humanity presented before us. The lone figure on the stage is an isolated yet triumphant figure, embodying perhaps that defiant spirit of humour which I described in yesterday’s post. The control and timing throughout the show is excellent and Rapley himself is utterly engaging to watch. A redemptive show; you will laugh until you cry and will feel more human somehow after seeing this man apparently lays wide his great clown heart before you.

I loved it and am sad that I won’t be able to make it along myself for a second round of Rapley.”

April 2008

by THE DOMESTIC SOUNDSCAPE

http://thedomesticsoundscape.com

10 Ways to Die on Stage

is at Postcard Festival at Jackson's Lane - the 9th of July 

http://www.jacksonslane.org.uk/#/16