Reviews & features: Fringe
- Filtered by:
- Fringe
Star Appeal: A look at reviewing trends at Edinburgh Festivals 2012
26 Sep 2012
Full raw data sets of aggregated reviews from 2012 Edinburgh Festival shows now available
The Fringe may be a distant memory but here at The List we’ve been doing some post-festival number crunching. For the last four years we’ve compiled an aggregate of reviews from all the major publications reviewing at the Festival. The result is our…
Cinderella
3 Sep 2012
Cartoonish vibes in choreographer Alexei Ratmansky's ultimately glorious Perrault adaptation
As with contemporary productions of Shakespeare, the measure of a fairytale ballet isn't so much the story but what you do with it. Here choreographer Alexei Ratmansky, who created the piece for the Mariinksy in 2002, has chosen to bring a cartoonish…
Eleanor Conway's Midnight Rumble
3 Sep 2012
Conway turns fatigue into an art form in hilarious midnight show
Moving up in the world of Fringe, Conway returns to form with a new format, a new venue and a host of guests hot off the press including wrestling legend Mick Foley, hilarious newcomer Dana Alexander and the pick of the best of rest – from hidden stars…
Shane Koyczan: Talk-Rocker
30 Aug 2012
Canadian spoken word poet conjures tears as well as belly ache laughs
Canadian spoken-word poet Shane Koyczan combines poetry with anecdotes to create an hour of word-wending magic that conjures tears as well as belly-ache laughs. Evocatively he recalls the loneliness of growing up, the bedroom monsters of his childhood…
Well, It's Woody
30 Aug 2012
Seamless cabaret night with a programme to savour
Edinburgh legend BBC Pink Tent guest while singing aficionado Woodstock Taylor lures you into a packed piano bar to enjoy an eclectic mix of song, instrumental music, spoken word and comedy. This rather enigmatic lady arrives in dark glasses and hat…
Hey, Piano Bar Lady!
29 Aug 2012
Musical comedy taking it back to 80s New York via New Zealand
New Zealand singer Linn Lorkin is perched at her keyboard, tousled red hair, whimsical expression and billowing patchwork dress suggesting she’s quite the eccentric dame. Now in its second year at the Fringe, her one-woman biographical show is a…
The Les Cloechards – Dirty But Nice
28 Aug 2012
Part-time hobos rock the stage with bizarre but brilliant takes on old classics
These jokers, who seem French but are actually German, apparently – (their name is an amalgamation of three languages, but essentially means ‘The Tramps’) - have got their show’s subtitle just about right: They are very dirty, and they’re also quite…
Cambridge Impronauts present 2012: An Improv Oddessy
28 Aug 2012
Enthusiastic but rehearsed improv
Of the glut of improv the 2012 Fringe has brought in, the Cambridge Impronauts’ bright blue boiler suits promised a well-organised stint of audience participation and laughs. The Oxbridge colleges (and Edinburgh’s own university) appear to revel in the…
The Idiot at the Wall
28 Aug 2012
Promising debut from English/Gaelic company
Elspeth Turner’s play was inspired by Gaelic folktales and songs and there’s certainly something comfortingly old-fashioned and fable-like about the storytelling here. The familiar enough premise – the culture clash between metropolitan sophistication…
Unmythable
28 Aug 2012
Infectiously energetic trio enthralls kids and adults alike in hour-long sprint through classical my
The action opens on the Argot where an overly zealous Jason, and his less competent shipmates, is on his way to fight the man-eating dragon that never sleeps and claim the golden fleece in order to prove himself to be a hero. Along the way, the…
Asher Treleaven: Troubadour
28 Aug 2012
The Aussie comedian amiably breaks his life down into six parts
It’s a question you wish more stand ups would ask before embarking on a 30 date Festival run: ‘is my life actually interesting enough to talk about for a whole hour?’. Of course by posing this query at the start of his show Asher Treleaven sets himself…
The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs
.jpg)
28 Aug 2012
Powerful but rather static monologue
There’s no denying the power of American monologuist Mike Daisey’s one-man show. A one-time worshipper at the altar of Apple, the writer’s desire to learn more about the human beings assembling his favourite gizmos inspired a trip to the Chinese…
DeAnne Smith: Livin’ The Sweet Life
28 Aug 2012
Routinely adorable, impish comedy
It’s taken Montréaler DeAnne Smith only a few years to achieve what many circuit veterans never come close to. With her trusty ukulele and sweetened yet ribald observations on sex and life, she struck gold at the Sydney Comedy Festival, prompting…
The Boy With Tape On His Face - More Tape
28 Aug 2012
Comedy that sticks: an equally formidable collection of games, gags and gambits
Have you been following @tapefaceboy over the last couple of years? If not, you’re probably one of the few who hasn’t. TV appearances, newspaper interviews and comedy awards have saturated the blogosphere with duct tape-based hashtags and propelled Sam…
Jonny & The Baptists
28 Aug 2012
Enthusiastic comedy blues, whole-heartedly committed to political satire
Ex-Roaring Boys frontman Jonny Donahoe has enjoyed well-heeled success at previous festivals, and landed at the Fringe 2010 with the kind of dynamism required to prosper in a double act. He transfers the same wild, raw energy to his new trio…
Tom Stade Totally Rocks!
28 Aug 2012
Lavishly furnished routine from master of hardcore comedy
It’s certainly worth doing your research before travelling to a Tom Stade show, as he won’t be for everyone. Comedy audiences may well have seen watered down versions of the Canadian’s stand-up on TV, when censors request that he keep the hardcore sex…
Seeing Double: Figures
24 Aug 2012
High concept two-pronged show is the perfect slice of Fringe fun
Seeing Double: Figures and Vision are a pair of thoroughly modern farces playing out different sides of the same story. While the Pleasance Hut and Baby Grand are rather small venues for the large audiences the shows have been drawing, their proximity…
Folk at the Pleasance
24 Aug 2012
An enjoyable variety of folk music in a relaxed and intimate setting
This folk session is led by a tentative, yet somehow regal Sophie Ramsay, who in her flowing red dress and tumbling brown hair resembles a folky Kate Bush. After a soft introduction the Scottish songstress performs two songs, the first a melancholic…
Künt and the Gang - Free
24 Aug 2012
Against the odds, a stream of filth can only stretch so far
Word of mouth has certainly worked for Künt and the Gang. Stewart Lee and various amused Facebook and YouTube proponents are among those who have been banging the drum and the tightly spaced seating here just about coped. The first thing of note is that…
Simon Amstell: Numb
24 Aug 2012
Raw, moving narrative from the despairing comedian-cum-poet
'It’s all about rules,' Amstell tells us urgently, as if his life depends on it, continuing an anecdote on why he had opted for the particularly joyless route of becoming a vegan. 'We need rules. Living with other people imposes those rules. Otherwise…
Luke Wright: Your New Favourite Poet
24 Aug 2012
Rock’n’roll tour de force of performance poetry
Despite the title of Luke Wright’s show this year, he doesn’t mind if he’s not quite your new favourite poet. Being second to Larkin is not, he concedes, to be sneezed at. I’m not quite sure he really occupies the same niche as the post-war poet…
Ta Daaa!
24 Aug 2012
Clowns with magic skills that are no joke
It takes a few minutes to really get the measure of Frehd Astarr and Tim Eee Presley, but once you do, you want them for your best friends. Claiming to be aged eight and ten respectively, Frehd and Tim are dressed in full clown regalia, including big…
Grit
24 Aug 2012
Powerful and quietly moving depiction of children in conflict
The new show from Scotland’s Tortoise in a Nutshell is barely three-quarters of an hour in length. Yet the journey it takes its audience on, both geographical and emotional, is extensive. The piece draws on real-life accounts by war correspondents to…
Fran Moulds: Significant Human Error
24 Aug 2012
Multi-character yawn from a spirited performer
Fran Moulds is the latest in a series of female character comedians who have laid on a feast of Fringe creations in recent years with one thing in common: their shows have all been extremely high on intricate character detail but decidedly low on…
Trevor Browne - I Think... I Am
24 Aug 2012
Barnstormingly bad character creation
From horrible start to dreadful finish, I Think... I Am is just god-awful wrong. Hamming up the role of a former folk-rock god who is trying to reclaim his previous glory, Browne treats us to some pre-show ‘entertainment’ which has us paying heed to…
