A Glance at New York

You get so used to one or two performers in Fringe productions that it's quite a shock to walk into the small space of the Wildman Room and be confronted by nine highly costumed actors all milling about noisily.

This is Axis Theatre Company bringing to life the clamorous streets of mid-Nineteenth Century New York. Bringing it rather too much to life for me. Having individual stories slowly emerge from a crowd is one thing but I found it distracting and not a little irritating to have a constant echo of lines and almost ceaseless movement.

Having said that, there's no chance of being bored as greenhorn George, fresh from the country, is fleeced, cheated, fooled and conned by the street-wise New Yorkers. The style is all striking poses and declaiming in a stylised way and I respect the attempt to convey the alien, dangerous edginess of this world but I only found myself transported to it when everything stilled for a beautifully sung Follies trio.

There's a dominating performance from Jim Sterling (greatly helped by his hat) as Mose the Fireman, the central character of Benjamin A. Baker's original vaudeville play. I also enjoyed Ian Tooley as innocent George, greatly helped by his very different hat. In fact the costume design by Lee Harper and Matthew Simonelli is truly awesome, I just wish I could have warmed to the rest of the production more.