Edinburgh Festival: Reviews

Raymond Monelle
Tuesday 24 August 1999 23:02 BST
Comments

CLASSICAL

Eislermaterial

Edinburgh Festival Theatre Heiner Goebbels' Eisler-material is a shortish entertainment based on the songs of Hanns Eisler, settings of Brecht and Altenberg - sentimental little numbers with tawdry tunes. The expert musicians of the Ensemble Modern sit in a square and honk their way through these wry pieces, with Goebbels' crazy interludes. Everything is amplified and there are lighting effects and electronic noise. The singer Josef Bierbichler is no more than a cabaret artist and sits hunched up as though bored out of his skull. Unless you speak German you are lost - you can't read the translation as the lights are off.

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