Dan March

Social networking may rear its fashionable head in this one-man comic play from Dan March, but it’s the more timeless topic of fatherhood that’s really up for appraisal. It is, ostensibly, a true story. March, a struggling actor, really did have a one-night stand, really did receive a MySpace message 21 months later informing him he was a father, and really did find himself turning down a tour with the Royal Shakespeare Company to be with his baby daughter.

But for such a personal narrative, this is a thoroughly stuffy hour of ‘dramedy’ because March uses this undivided stage time to prance, exclaim and generally ham it up as he would at a real-life RSC audition. When he occasionally lets the thespian cloak slip a little he can elicit some laughter, but his repeated, determinedly poignant intimations of his new-found connection with his daughter are saccharine and frankly unforgivable in a Fringe comedy. New fathers may relate; the rest of us are left suppressing our scoffs.

Gilded Balloon Teviot, 668 1633, until 25 Aug, 1.45pm, £8–£9 (£7–£8).