(From the Gingers series at Census by Kieran Dodds)
Only my second stand up gig of the Fringe (I don’t count the excellent Liz Kingsman as stand up). It’s to see a WIP show by Stuart Lee at The Stand. He does not disappoint. It’s brilliant, gasp out loud humour at the cleverness of his mind. It may be WIP but that has little impact on the quality, and anyway he’s been practicing it for three weeks now. His new show is about stand up, and its deconstruction, so far so meta, and it leads to a brilliant ‘sketch’ about Phoebe Waller Bridge and her ‘invention’ of breaking the fourth wall. Truly hilarious. His reminiscence of a 1989 intro sequence is quite brilliant and reappears a couple of times in the show, but interpreted differently and with a touch of genius. Met him after and thanked him. A charming bloke is he.
Then taking in the proximity to the National Portrait Gallery I quickly popped in to see a nice photography show called Census, of which the photo above was my pick of the crop.
(Freely encouraged to capture the action on stage at Work.txt)
I was delighted to attend the Scotsman Awards in the morning at The Pleasance Beyond and to see Manic Street Creature pick up the Mental Health award.
Later I popped over to Summerhall yet again, (my 11th Summerhall show) to see another great production called Work.txt, in which there is no cast and the audience become the performers. So it’s immersive and participative but not much of it is improvised as a very clever and funny script, projected onto a large screen, tells us as audience members, those who love/hate their work, earn more or less than 30k, are Geminians and so on (there’s a lot of ways of slicing and dicing the 100 or so in the room) to read out the next line, build a Jenga city out of oversized Jenga blocks (at one point the entire audience/cast were on stage beavering away.) It’s hilarious. 4 Stars.
(hard at work)
Next up, two Edinburgh Festival shows, The first is by Leith’s Grid Iron Theatre Company, who specialise in site specific work. This one was in Leith Academy and called Muster Station. It’s an immersive show in which the audience are moved around the school (the muster station of the title) as evacuees. Scotland (Fife specifically) has just hit 45 degrees and is about to be hit by a massive tidal wave that threatens our very being. Our destination is Finland. In the opening scene we are herded through an immigration check by a variety of (some kind, some brutal) immigration officers and put into a holding pen whilst some of the characters (some plants) are revealed to us. It’s a high point of the show and promises a great deal more over the next two hours, sadly it didn’t materialise. What we are treated to is five 20 minute plays within plays that fall short of scaring us, lack believability and are actually all a wee bit dull if I’m honest. A great concept that doesn’t quite come off. 3 stars.
Next Up The Jungle Book Reimagined, Akram Khan’s bold multi media show, taking the old jungle book story and again setting it in a post climate apocalypse. The cast are all dancers but there’s also a huge amount of projected animation and a rather cod script played through the PA which the actors lip psych to. The music for the show is diverse but not very joined up so what I felt I was witnessing was an embarrassment of riches, but not much dance (movement sure and very fine movement at that). Act 1 dragged and was frankly a mess. The interval, however, reset the show. Better music, more dance, less animation and a more striking and clear storytelling arc. It’s beautiful, for sure, but it fell way short of my expectations. 2 stars for Act 1 4 for act 2 so a 3 star experience overall.
In Gabriel Byrne’s autobiographical one man official Festival show, Walking With Ghosts, we get a stunning glimpse inside the head of one of Ireland’s most famous actors. It feels like an exercise in cleansing his soul, releasing his demons.
In two long acts he first of all describes his childhood in glorious humour, but also familial love. One of six Catholic children, this involves considerable church-based humour that may not have been for everyone, but I remember, vividly, the harshness of the nuns at my primary school. It’s at times hilarious and acted out in a relaxed way that benefits from excellent direction, sound and lighting.
Act two is a much more serious affair where he reminisces about the darker side of his life at seminary school where the dreaded Catholic child abuse raises its ugly head. But he tells the tale without hatred, indeed, his meeting the aging perpetrator of his teenage sex crimes is presented with pathos, not anger.
His typically Irish love of the bevvy eventually crosses over into alcoholism and this is the darkest section of the show.
All in all it’s a powerful and moving night of theatre with a modest man (no talk of his film career, other than nervously getting drunk at its outset with Richard Burton). This story is far from the Usual Suspects.
It merited a standing ovation and very, very deservedly so. 5 stars from me.
(The throne is set for the arrival of the Queen of Scotland)
A Stand Show at the impressive Freemason Hall on George Street (a first for me) Graham Spiers had an easygoing bonhomie with his esteemed guest which was to the betterment of the show. The strength and also the problem with Sturgeon shows (I saw her with Matt Forde maybe 4 years ago) is that she is both entertaining and supremely locked down. She’ll never, ever, fuck up in an interview like this and she knows it and in a sort of meta way often refers to the fact that she could say the wrong thing (or a Twitter hungry thing), but she won’t. And she didn’t.
Today’s treat was an audience with Queen Nicola Sturgeon, our force of nature First Minister. In which she said “F” and “arsey” much to her, In Conversation With interviewer, Graham Spiers’, consternation.
The consequence of this is that although she is interesting and impressive she’s actually a wee bit dull. Her answers are flawless, considered, long and right on.
There was talk of the much more feisty Finnish PM. There was reference to a pair of twats (not the interviewer and interviewee but Rishi and Truss (less)) from the audience. And there was a protest, of sorts, outside.
All in all, a polished performance by both protagonists, but ultimately no breaking of the fourth wall and no real insight into what makes the queen tick.
CJ Hopkins’ Horse Country by Wales’ Flying Bridge Theatre Company (although you wouldn’t know it, so impeccable are the two protagonists’ American accents) at Assemble One is a mind fuck.
It won a Fringe First in 2002 and the quality of this performance 20 years later is certainly of that standard, but what the actual fuck?
Compared in the PR to Waiting for Godot you can certainly see the absurdist comparison but where WFG has a beautiful charm and a sense of purpose (even if that purpose is ultimately unfulfilled) this is a much deeper, much more complex metaphor about the American dream, capitalism and horses. The two characters (Sam and Bob played by Daniel Llewelyn-Williams and Michael Edwards) race through an hour of dialogue with a bit of slapstick thrown in, at a hundred miles an hour. You get your money’s worth in terms of words per minute on a minimalist set and, it must be said, a minimalist audience too, and it’s all fine stuff. The trouble is, it’s so meta as to be meaningless (to me) and consequently I was doing a hell of a lot of watch watching. My pal James, a fan of CJ Hopkins, was rather more enamoured of it.
But I have to show my hand and declare that I was outdone by this one so can only give it three stars.
My pick of the weekend. Little Warrior. I hope to see the ‘Full Monty” in time.
This was not great weekend for the entertainment. Although hardly a disaster.
Let’s start with the good. I saw a lovely short documentary by LS Films at The Vue in the film festival on Saturday afternoon called “Little Warrior” about a young Venezuelan female boxer coached by Gary Young, via the internet, from Edinburgh. It’s beautifully shot and a teaser for the feature that may come if funding does. I do hope so as it’s really lovely. 3.5 stars.
Then we went to the Book Festival to see the glorious PJ Harvey unspool horrifically in a sixth form wankathon. Special criticism goes to the interviewer, Don Paterson, who I am reliably informed is a great poet and PJ’s mentor. Trouble is though, he liked the sound of his own voice more than PJ’s. And PJ’s poetry reeks of pish and ham. A truly awful evening in the company of greatness. 2 stars.
The day finished with a cheeky wee invite to the Film Festival closing party at which I had a good old chat with Mark Cousins and his partner. Very enjoyable.
On Sunday I went to an absurdist comedy (I hate to say it but it was meta) called Horse Country at Assembly Studio 2. Two amazing male performers present a very absurd, surreal, meta show that simply wasn’t to my taste. That said I have to doff my cap at their performances. James loved it. But James is meta. Performance 4 stars, script 2 stars. Overall 3 stars.
Hens Teeth’s lovely Love you more. My pick of the day.
I’ve already shared my thoughts on the Dream Machine experience here. (It’s six stars because it’s a once in a lifetime experience. (Although I will be going back to experience it again.)
But I took in a further three shows yesterday. The first, The Chairs, Revisited at The Pleasance Jack Dome by Vagabond Productions is a fucking shitshow. An elderly couple, living 400,000 years in the future in a lighthouse, invite the local great and good to their home to hear an oration from an orator. It’s told in rhyme (loose rhyme). But these visitors are either imaginary or are just not seen to save cost because it would be a cast of thousands. (Have to leave that for for the movie.) Instead the visitors become mime opportunities and they are represented by the chairs they invited to sit on. Many, many chairs gradually populate the stage. It’s fucking bollocks. 2 stars.
Love You More (at Space, Surgeon’s Hall) is ostensibly a female two hander by Bristol’s Hens Teeth Productions is a delightful surprise. In a sea of metaness (like the aforementioned pish) this is a straight up story play about the cool girl at school who befriends the geek and somehow develop a friendship that works. Told in reminiscent flashback it charts the long term relationship between Megan and Charlie in a simple set that doesn’t get in the way of two excellent performances. It’s only 45 minutes long but it’s a little diamond in the Fringe. Last show today so you’ll need to be quick. 4 stars.
Last up, at the same venue we saw Eric Davidson’s Spin We Gaily Daily Ukulele Ceilidh. A truly horrendous title (and very off-putting – it was chosen by a friend) that belies a very good and very funny one man revue show. The spin we daily bit refers to a giant tombola wheel with cryptic song themes (nicked from Elvis Costello) that he spins between songs to choose the next one. What we get is political satire, and very funny it is too. Fairly sweary but no C Bombs and certainly stemming from the left wing. Great entertainment and think he’s transferring to Fringe on the Sea next week. Certainly one to seek out. 4 stars.
Dream Machine is a free experience provided partly by the Edinburgh Festival but presented by Unboxed (it runs until late September at Murrayfield Ice Rink in Edinburgh).
It’s actually a massive scientific experiment into neurology but it’s also one of the most astounding experiences you will ever enjoy in your life.
And it has been described as state-sponsored psychedelic tripping.
Arriving at Murrayfeild you are grilled about your mental health so that nothing in this experience will cause you any distress, but the truth is very, very few people have any negative outcome. Indeed, precisely the opposite.
After a detailed briefing you’re shown to a calmly lit circular room and sat, with your own cosy blanket, in a circle on the most comfortable recliner chairs in history, between two loudspeakers embedded in the head of the seat.
A lovely girl with a soothing voice introduces you to the process, takes you through a deep breathing exercise and then runs a short test experience to ensure you are comfortable. You can leave at any point.
Then the full 35 minute experience begins. (Although the truth is you lose track of time and I honestly thought it was under ten minutes). With your eyes closed a white strobe flashes at you to the wonderful soothing music of Jon Hopkins. But in your mind this white light creates a kaleidoscope of colours and patters such as the one above that I drew after the experience. But the colours and patterns change constantly, some people see images, but not me.
It’s mind boggling. It’s beautiful. It’s unique. And it’s free.
It is the single most relaxing experience I have ever had and it is so, so beautiful. Euphoric in fact.
You know that feeling? You’re in that sub-Brechtian shizzazzle, but the crowd choice for tonight is either heavy drag or Irish hip hop improv mood.
Sure you do. To be sure.
As the vote is cast I’m in a 20 minute queue for a George Square Guinness (£6.50. Actually fuck off), quietly praying that the Irish hip hopper wins the day.
He does.
Abandoman it is. (At Udderbelly. Or is it Underbelly? Who knows.)
So, nine of us, fresh from good chat and burgers, head off to the Udderbelly/Underbelly tent to meet the darling of Edinburgh’s hip hop improv scene; Mel, clutching her comfortable wooly grey gloves, like her Gran would have adored her for. Little would she know they’d be minor stars of the show.
I’m girding my loins to confess that I once lied to my daughter on a 10k time boast or that the best thing I could come up with on things I’d lost was, “my virginity”. But these secrets remain as I wasn’t thrust centre stage.
Abandoman is a Fringe favourite, and for a reason, he’s great. He does all that Showstopper and Baby Wants Candy do, but he does it on his own. Naked. High risk. It’s a monumental achievement to hip hop night in, night out with no back up. Just him.
(BWC and Showstoppers just do it better though.)
Did I like it? Yes, I laughed out loud many times but there’s something missing in it for me. Some of it in the diction and clarity of the performance and a lot of it in the slightly contrived AI concept behind it. I’ll take Baby Wants Candy first, Showstopper next.
It’s cool. It’s funny. But I’m a fussy twat and this couldn’t clamber over the three star bar for me.
The truly beautiful Larkhall. Miss it at your peril.
Two more really great shows and couldn’t have been more different.
Let’s start with Larkhall – Piano and Creative Coding at, yup, you guessed it, Summerhall.
It’s a beautiful show by astounding pianist and, eh, creative coder, Larkhall in which he, a variety of collaborators and a computer called Otto wire up a piano, via some effects pedals and a hard disc, to a screen. What Larkhall plays, and it’s really quite something – systems music-based with elements of Penguin Cafe Orchestra in there as a reference point if you need one – is linked, via his coding algorithms, to a variety of video installations that create images in real life, like fractals (although nothing as obvious as fractals) labyrinths, great American highways at night, mysterious sea creatures and more in response to his heart felt and glorious piano playing. I promise you have never seen the likes before and its truly wonderful. Four, edging five, stars.
Liz Kingsman: One Woman Show at The Traverse comes here full of London glory. Winner of a South Bank Award for comedy and a darling of the Guardian, her ‘meta’ show (yes another one) is brilliantly conceived with layer upon layer upon layer of rug pulls, verbal trickery, storytelling genius, character play and nods and winks to popular culture that she slags, but in a playful, not horrific, way. It’s glorious laugh out loud, but deeply enthralling stuff. Don’t laugh too loud though, you might miss the next plot twist, if indeed there is a plot. It’s very, very funny and very, very clever. Another 4 stars for me.
The remarkable Miamuna Memon in Manic Street Creature at Summerhall
And Then The Rodeo Burned dow (at Space Upper Theatre) is a two-hander female meta play about gay cowboy clown. The very funny, and delightful, duo of Chloe and Natasha (https://www.chloeandnatasha.com) popped over from New York (they started out in Maryland) to present this amazing meta, yes meta again – it’s a thing now – and surprised everyone by winning a well deserved Fringe First for this show about Clowns, cowboys, love and arson. It frankly doesn’t complete a narrative arc and so could confuse in act two but it’s a delight from start to finish with some great movement (clowning) make up and humour. But it’s gone. Check out the content on their website though. I think they’ll get pretty well known. 4 Stars.
Happy Meal at Traverse 2, another Fringe First winner suffered from one of its two performers being off sick and iso the playwright admirably stepped in, script in hand, to take their place. It’s a love story about a trans girl becoming a boy and a trans boy becoming a girl in the 1990’s when internet chat is in its infancy. Bursting with tech goodies and featuring a superb intro where one of the cast personally greets all the audience dressed as a (dancing) penguin. It’s high quality stuff but wasn’t my favourite Fringe show by some distance. 3 stars.
Next up The Silent Treatment at Summerhall. Another one woman, autobiographic, show about a professional singer, Sarah-Louise Young, creator of An Evening Without Kate Bush and Julie Madly Deeply, who loses her voice but is forced by ‘the industry’ to keep quiet about it. She tells her tale with the aid of a pink scarf, a microphone and a pair of boxing gloves that all offer her quite incredible puppetry opportunities. Directed with considerable flair on a shoestring budget by Sioned Jones this is one of the finest and most original plays I’ve seen in a long time a solid 5 STARS from me and 6 from Jeana.
And finally we have another 5 STAR performance by Miamuna Memon Called Manic Street Creature at Roundabout at Summerhall. It’s a three hander piece of gig theatre in which Miamuna tells her semi autobiographical story of her relationship with her male partner in Camden town having moved south from Bradford. Not wanting to spoil too much, I’d just say that gig theatre is a big risk because if you don’t like the music you are stuffed. We loved the music and the performance as it transitions from more gig to more theatre throughout the course of the 70 minutes. Suffice to say it’s about mental health and is incredibly moving. Many of the audience were in tears as the story unfolded. But it’s uplifting, thought-provoking, life-affirming entertainment that everybody should see. Truly great.
Having seen five of the six Fringe First winners I am stunned that Summerhall has won nothing yet. Mustard, for sure, didn’t qualify and I don’t know how many of the others i’ve seen here would but I’d have put all of the following Summerhall shows in Fringe First contention:
Masterclass. My pick of the weekend. Superb, with a great ending.
It’s a meta festival. It’s also a gay festival and binary and trans. But it’s all brilliant.
I mean, before last week I didn’t even know what Meta theatre was. I sure do now.
Here’s how wiki describes it… Metatheatre, and the closely related term metadrama, describes the aspects of a play that draw attention to its nature as drama or theatre, or to the circumstances of its performance. “Breaking the Fourth Wall” is an example of a metatheatrical device.
Anyway I’ve seen a lot of it. It’s a ‘thing’ this year.
So, to the six shows of yesterday and today… Takes the total to 32.
Soweto Gospel Choir are a delight. A LOUD delight. these people have passion and guts and volume. It’s great. At Assembly Main Hall on The Mound. It’s a 3/4 star split for me.
Breathless at The Bunker (Pleasance Courtyard) was the first of five Fringe First winners I booked. It was outstanding and odd and beautiful and small and special. Another one woman show about a 38 year old going out on her first gay date but with a big secret. She’s a hoarder and that gets in the way, literally, metaphorically and emotionally. A superb show. 4 maybe 5 stars.
Next up my show of the weekend so far. A meta theatre piece by Brokentalkers Theatre Company at The Pleasance Jack Dome is an amazing switchback ride of male/female power. A mysognysic film director played by a woman in a male fat suit is initially interviewed by an Irish talk show host in a masterpiece of sound design. Act one is fairly straightforward as we learn that the film director who has written the movie Fat Cunt and invites the chat show host to share a rendition of the script is a woman and the tables turn. That’s when it gets all meta. who’s who? What’s what. It turns into a thrilling (and hill;aroius battle of the sexes. But if you want linear narrative it won’t be for you, 5 stars for me.
The Beatles Were a Boy Band is an interesting and provocative piece of political theatre that challenges the men in the audience to think about the fear young women face in the streets of our cities. It’s funny and well presented but runs out of steam and feels more like a WIP than the finished article. It’s good. I liked it. But I can’t go beyond 3 stars.
More meta theatre for the brilliant “And then the rodeo burnt down”. A beautiful love story about two rodeo clowns gradually falling apart, just before the storyline does. I was intoxicated by this. Really engaging, brilliant performances and highly original. Great Fringe Theatre. 4 stars (maybe just about 5). But you’ll need to be quick as it finishes on Monday.
Lastly Happy Meal at The Traverse. A trans love story in which girl (turned boy) meets boy (turned girl) online in the 80’s. Will they, won’t they? It brings to life the trauma of transitioning in a really believable way. It’s lovely and was a big audience hit. Not my show of the Fringe, by some way, but a beautiful and thought provoking hour of theatre. It’s a 4 for me.
On Saturday we loved the Ukranian Freedom Orchestra in The Festival at The Usher Hall. Tonight it was time to see the Ukranian Freedom Ballet in the Fringe at the Pleasance EICC.
Like the orchestra it was a rapidly assembled troupe, but unlike the orchestra it had little in the way go highbrow ambitions, preferring instead to opt for a sort of music hall titillation style that was perfectly competent but lacking in any real purpose.
A perfectly enjoyable evening of unambitious Strictly + entertainment, but no more than that. 3 stars.
Yet another wonderful day of theatre as the gift kept on giving. I started with Ghosts of the Near Future at Summerhall. An existential tale (highly allegorical and pretty deep ie hard to follow) in which a Magician sets out on a North American Road Trip to play his dream venue Las Vegas, along the way he encounters various weird characters and settings. It’s made all the more interesting by the use of micro cameras and elaborate miniature Nevadan desert ‘sets” that chart the journey’s progress. There’s also considerable use of film projection and music. It’s a powerful combination and in the setting of Summerhall’s eerie old Demonstration Room. It’s challenging but extremely rewarding hour and It’s a four star for me.
Mustard, at Summerhall also, continues the run of FIVE STAR one women shows I’ve seen in Edinburgh this week. It really is an astounding piece of storytelling about a young Irish woman who, when her anxiety levels increase, can “fell the mustard coming on” in her brain. This translates into a form of self harming where she smears her body in mustard. In the story the self harming is induced by an intoxicating relationship she has with a rich London Professional cyclist that goes wrong. The depiction of her descent into a pit of self loathing and anxiety is something to behold and had the entire audience spellbound for an hour that felt like ten minutes. This is seriously good theatre and shouldn’t be missed.
Next up my Fringe Lottery choice. It was always high risk and, for me the gamble did not pay off (my sister, by contrast absolutely loved it) Taiwan Season: The Whisper of the Waves, again at Summerhall is bonkers. A mixture of dance (VG) poetry(not VG) and symbolism including much ancient Greek folklore talk (Icarus and Sisyphus both make an entry). Frankly it was torture. I’m not even gonna rate it as I was the wrong guy in the wrong place.
Breathe at Pleasance Dome is that rare thing this year. A one MAN show (although SK Shlomo now self identifies as They). They describe it as a play that turns into a rave. And that indeed is what it is. They were world champion beat boxers and played the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury in the long lost past. But this is another poor soul wracked with self doubt and anxiety, so that their life turned suicidal before music helped them back out of the mire. The story is told with incredible technical ability. Shlomo has a digital glove that allows him to loop sound: his beat boxing, the audience, a small keyboard sampler and create rave songs on the hoof. It’s remarkable. He weaves this musical magic around the tale of his rise, fall and rise again. It’s compelling, clever and highly enjoyable. Another 4 stars from me.
And finally, talking of music being made up on the hoof, we have Showstopper (very similar to Baby Wants Candy, although a little more complex and arguable more professional). The show we witnessed last night was called Red and set in communist era Russia to the style of Jesus Christ Superstar, Hamilton and Sweeney Todd. It’s eye-popping stuff but for me Baby Wants Candy edged it by a short head. Bursting at the seams in one of the Fringe’s biggest venues I imagine tickets will still be hard to come by. Recommended 4 stars.
(The triumphal SAP. You HAVE to see this. If you don’t like it I will give you your money back)
This truly is the Fringe that keeps on giving. The Fringe of the Woman.
I’ll start with a major disappointment though. The wonderful Ontrorerend Goed’s “Meta” show “Every Word was Once an Animal” is not a patch on their previous work. I mean it has its moments – especially “the curtain scene” but it’s self indulgent and partly uninteresting. I can’t believe I’m three starring the Fringe Harlem Globetrotters. But yes. I am.
Next the show that Joyce McMillan slept through, I know because I was watching her, was worthy and actually interesting, but not compelling. It was basically a history of Haiti sold as a ghost story. I loved the cast and the enthusiasm and endeavour and LOVE for Haiti’s history but as a piece of theatre it failed to move me. It’s called Bogeyman at Pleasance Dome. It did teach me the difference between Voodoo (USA) and Voedoo (the real thing). I hate to down it because the cast were great but it’s not more than a three for me.
It gets better. So much better.
The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s Godspell. Brave choice of show. Oh no, Godshit and that. Christian Godshit at that. (There’s a swipe at that in the devised script.) Schwartz doesn’t make it easy with his dialogue, that’s for sure – so any production has to work hard. This does, and it’s magical. A ten-strong cast of MA students keep it moving along with six brilliant solo performances. Jesus, John and two others are exceptional (please, a programme). Act 1 is great. Act two is exceptional. I was fighting back the tears as it concludes in an inferno of magnificence. Very good indeed. Four stars.
Now. Five stars to the women.
This is my festival of women.
Show after show after show. From young Lana Stone writing a great University script, (and then being visited by Phoebe-Waller-Bridge) to The Unicorn, Motherload, She/Her, We should Definitely Have More Dancing… the female writing and expression has been blowing us blokes out of the water. Today I saw two more.
Right, why is this? My Glastonbury was dominated by female artists too. My brother in law, who attended with me reflected on this at the end of Glasto day 2. “We huavnae seen any blokes”.
Have we lost our voice? Is this a revolution? I don’t fucking care frankly. I just love women’s company more than men, always have, so it’s great to see them dominating and I mean DOMINATING music, theatre and comedy.
I mean. Sorry Paul McCartney. Sorry Clive Anderson. But, you know…it’s the year of The Lioness (I hate that description with all my heart for the record).
Back to the job.
The first was Waterloo by Bron Batten (@bronbatten). It’s kinda stand up, but it’s kinda theatre too. And it’s kinda perforance art, and it’s ultimately kinda science.
What it DEFINITELY is, is brilliantly entertaining and thought provoking and challenging. She tells the story of her love of a toff (military toff) with such conviction that it hurts. And the imagination, the colour scheming, the whole Ukranianishness of it, is breathtaking. I wholeheartedly recommend it. Bravo Bron and Summerhall.
But the most compelling thing I have seen this year, even better than all these…is Sap.
Oh.
My. God.
I’m not going to say any more, other than it’s a two woman show (Rebecca Banatvala and Jessica Clark) in the miraculous Roundhouse. (It’s like a gold leaf stamp of quality.)
I’m not telling you any more, because to reveal a second of the plot would be to spoil it.
It’s thrilling. It’s jaw dropping. It’s gasp out loud.
You wanna see world class acting for, literally, nothing? Here it is.
We should definitely have more dancing moved me to tears.
A big Fringe day and mighty me, what quality.
Let’s quickly gloss over Jo Griffin at Assembly Roxy. A Four star end to her show, but I’m afraid the first 50 minutes struggled to garner two in a totally indecisive stand up comedy set where she wanted to get real dirty but kept getting off at Haymarket. Avoidable.
Then we enjoyed a wonderful dance show at Summerhall called False Start in which four dancers (two of each gender) limbered up in athletics gear to the music of a very good faux Kraftwerk soundtrack (in itself outstanding and something I’d listen to at home regularly). All slo-mo, repetition and systems dancing it was a gripping encounter for 20 minutes but at 45 was just too long. Had it been edited to 25-30 I’d have given it a solid four stars but the length undid it. They were performing a sprint but as a marathon it dropped to three stars.
Megalith started our day at 12:15 at the very Excellent Zoo Southside (I’m expecting great things there tomorrow). It’s a show about copper mining 10,000 years ago and explores the notion that rock (stone) is the source of every piece of technology that we own. It’s described as a theatrical poem. Now, I’m guessing this all sounds a bit wank, but it’s not. It’s a fascinating piece of performance art and I absolutely loved it. Seriously good quality entertainment with Techno, humour, stone circles and danger. 4 stars.
Circus Abyssinia (Ethiopia to you and me) in Underbrelly’s Meadows circus tent is an absolute cracker of a show that nobody could fail to enjoy (we’ll pass over the jugglers). Unbelievable dexterity on roller skates, hula hoops, swings, ropes and has extreme contortionisim and I mean EXTREME. All set to a pounding Ethiopian music bed. It’s brilliant, but it’s a warm venue. Another 4 stars.
The Gods, The Gods, The Gods, in Assembly’s Speigeltent on George Street is great gig theatre in which three performers on separate stages direct the audience to dance as they play an 11 track album that’s based around philosophy, a love story and godlike mythology with a mix of jazz, spoken word, techno and The Streets type rap. It’s engaging, beautiful, incredibly enthusiastic and I fell in love with them. Another 4 star job.
My first standing ovation of the week and the first time I cried was at “We Should Definitely Have More Dancing.” A criminally undersubscribed three-woman header by Oldham Coliseum Theatre in which all three women play the same character, Clara, who has been through a VERY difficult time medically. I’ll not say why because I didn’t know when I went and it’s maybe a spoiler. Anyway, expect tears (many of the audience were visibly moved as the lead actor, Clara Darcy, recounts her real life story, with the help of her ‘sisters’ who take on many roles besides Clara’s). The writing and direction is extraordinary and the story is told in such a confident and beguiling way that any sense of maudlin is excised from the story. I was moved to tears, leaped to my feet at the end and I bow deeply with respect at the feet of Clara Darcy and her co writer Ian Kershaw and directors Tatty Hennnesy and Rab Shaw. A monumental piece of theatre. Thank you and 5 stars no question.
(The view from our magnificent seats in the choir stalls – a rare public treat)
We were priveleged to get tickets to the Festival performance of the Ukranian Freedom Orchestra in the Usher Hall. this is a new full symphony orchestra only put together in the spring and now touring the world. Their four pieces were outstanding especially, for me the opener (Valentin Sylvestrov’s short filmic but massively engaging Seventh Symphony) and the closer (the unbeatable New World Symphony by Dvojak – it’s an absolute belter). Sandwiched between was Chopin’s Piano Concerto No2 (perfectly beautiful but not my cup of tea) and a soprano aria from Aida that was mercifully short. Not gonna star rate this as it’s undateable.
Next up Clive Anderson’s daily podcast show called Seven Wonders where his guest does a desert Island Disc-esque selection of Seven Wonders in their life. His guest was Canadian Comedian Tony Law and very funny it was too. Anderson’s shabby gentleman look contrasted well with Law’s daddy lumberjack aesthetic. A hilarious hour that passed in flash. (wonders included the NFL, Albertan Grain Farmers, His Wife and Mary Beard – who he took to a Who concert). I’d recommend this on a daily basis because you don’t know who you’ll get but the format is familiar but fab.
We then repaired for dinner to the Mosque Kitchen, yes you mosque and Found out that our final show of the day, Johnny Got His Gun was to be replaced with Johnny Got Covid so we all went home.
I opened with The Unicorn. A one Woman Show about sex addiction at The Pleasance. A terrific performance by Georgina Fairbanks who is enthralling as she tells her tale of a descent into sexual indulgences that don’t always go as planned. Graphic but gripping. If only I hadn’t seen Jodie Comer in Prima Facie a few weeks ago this would be a five star show, but it couldn’t quite scale those production heights. A great 4 star opener though.
Next up, Something in the Water at Summerhall. An absurdist exploration of sexuality through the medium of puppetry, projection and squid sex. It’s bonkers. Sometimes very funny but ultimately a little too long. Three stars.
Day one closed with a madcap three person sketch show by the team behind Radio 4’s Soundbleed. Sketch shows inevitably vary in quality but this is mostly at the very highest end of originality and laugh out loud moments. Oh, it’s called Tarot: Cautionary Tales and I give it 4 Stars overall. Very, very funny.
Day two took in six shows.
Materia is a love affair with Polystyrene at Summerhall that is enthralling and I give it 4 stars.
Fire Signs is an award winning Edinburgh University production written by Lana Stone. It’s great and covers young love in a highly amusing way and a decent sized six hander cast (big by this year’s Fringe standards). Also 4 stars.
She/Her is a Brian Cox Produced 7 woman storytelling show with music. It’s not especially challenging but it’s a lovely piece of work directed by and including his wife. It’s femninist in its sensibilities and very much worth your time. Another four stars.
The title of my fourth show at The Assembly Rooms is: Fool Muun Komming! [BeBgWunderful/YEsyes/ Hi5.4sure.TruLuv;Spank Spank:SOfun_Grate_Times]. By some incredible coincidence it’s presented by the partner of the trans person who I saw yesterday in Summerhall’s Something In the Water. Both are bonkers (this one concerns an alien arriving on earth). It’s charming, lovely, funny but too long. So 3 Stars from me.
Number five is the pick of the Fringe for me so far. Motherload at Summerhall. Yet another One Woman Show featuring Mother Nature in an elaborate globe costume. It’s part comedy, with audience participation, (yes I was on stage playing a baby ape at one point) but part horror as she challenges the fragility of her existence. The best thing I’ve ever seen (maybe apart from Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth) on Global Warming in that it challenges and enthrals throughout. My first 5 Star show of the Fringe, and a must-see.
Finally we have Baby Wants Candy, a perenial crowd pleaser in which six actors/singers improvise a musical on the night – in this case Harry Potter and the The Half Blood Prince Albert. Despite not being an HP fan and having only limited knowledge of the work it was hilarious. I might have to go again. Really great entertainment. Another 4 stars.
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