Drams None - but a whole bottle may be needed to lament that you heard
her
only for a brief 70 minutes
Music Songs of Jacques Brel, Nick Cave, Tom
Waits, David Bowie
Performers
Date 15 August 2005
Venue The Spiegel Garden (Venue 201)
Address George Square
Reviewer Iain Gilmour
|
|
|
Camille |
This former architect
needs no reviewer to bolster her appeal as a performer and a chanteuse par
excellence.
In a welcome return to the Festival and the fitting ambience of the Spiegeltent, Camille kept the audience focussed
and enthusiastically responsive with a clutch of songs throughout a 70-minute
performance.
She successfully conveyed much of the emotional feeling of both music and
lyrics, with an occasional political aside ("the moral sneaks in the White
House"). Camille was variously tender, passionate, bold and brutal,
pensive and persuasive, sexy, sad, strident - and falling about drunk.
Her performance of Brel songs in the Spiegeltent last year (after an unfortunate start when her
chosen venue collapsed, leaving her nowhere to perform) drew ecstatic reviews
and led to a major role in a shortly-to- be released film.
Brel was the starting point for this year's show and
again she captured the earthiness and sensitivity of his work.
In Chanson
des Amants there was the pathos of ageing lovers
and desolate longing in the recurring "O my love". A sense of futile
monotony came with Next-- the prosaic call of a woman plying her trade
in a brothel.
Camille literally let her hair down for
From Brel, Camille turned equally successfully to
songs by contemporary writers. Here there was a mixture of humour,
social realism, acute observation and even a touch of political correctness.
Humour with a sardonic edge to it came in the first
song I once met a man with a sense of adventure where the lures of
several would be lovers are met with a dismissive: "In these shoes? No way".
Observation pervaded her realistic portrayal of a wine-swigging woman falling
into a drunken stupor.
|
|
There was similar observation in Is
that all there is? Nostalgic childhood memories bring the regretful I
knew it all and the realisation How careless
we are when we're young.
There was a hint of political correctness at the end with "Misery is the
river of the world"
Camille's vocal range and meticulous volume control ensured an
performance not to be missed. (The only semi-complaint heard was a remark that
her backing five-man band needed a bit more volume control.)
The danger is that Camille is gaining so much international recognition that
she may not be back at the Fringe next year.
© Iain Gilmour
Run August 8-14, 17-21, 25-28