Reviews & features: Issue 637

Fahrenheit 451

Performances make up for in gusto what they can lack in finesse

The Prodigy’s ‘Firestarter’ opens this cautionary tale set in a future envisaged by Ray Bradbury, where books are burned for fear of independent thought. The track sets the tone for a production in which performances make up for in gusto what they can…

Festival of Spirituality and Peace

The quality of human relationships and their ability to engender peace in our hearts is the loose theme of this year’s laudable festival. Its film strand kicks off with a digitally restored print of Derek Jarman’s inspired adaptation of Benjamin…

Unsupervised Detention

Tight sketch comedy by gifted young players

Tight sketch comedy by gifted young players and, though some scenes suffer from a too-actorly approach, there are more hits than misses and evidence of a genuine facility with the surreal. The introductory premise of bored schoolkids in detention…

Serate Bastarde

Subversive, shocking, clever and utterly nuts comedy

Carmen, Renata and Silvia are intellectual, Italian lefties, and they want to make you think about current affairs, through spoof pop videos, bared boobs and free samples of Berlusconi’s sperm. With a Kabul-set Sex and the City remake, a bikini dance…

TeakShow

More absurd than funny

Shrieking, bulging eyes, hummus throwing, pelvic thrusts, lounging on the mantelpiece, and twists on familiar scenes give this show a surreal air. The exaggeration is overdone, though, to the point that some sketches are more absurd than funny, losing…

Patch Hyde & Adam Tempest

A sweet way to spend an hour

The Fudge Kitchen certainly makes for a kooky venue. With scrummy smells, free fudge and very limited audience squeezed in, this feels like an exciting Fringe experience. The comedy, courtesy of charming daytime fudge-makers Hyde and Tempest, remains at…

The Funeralogues

Gently comic with genuine poignancy

Set in a churchy C space, this piece by US actress and playwright Stacy Mayer is a mild-mannered wander through the mind of an obsessive. ‘Stacy’ is captivated by all aspects of the funeral business and will do anything to gatecrash a wake. Gently comic…

Susan Harrison

The writing and chosen subjects let her down badly

There’s clear talent abounding in this pint-sized comic actor, but the writing and chosen subjects of Five Characters in Search of Susan let her down badly. She adds very little to well-worn tropes of the posh ‘street’ kid and reality TV wannabe, while…

Stephen Carlin

A fierce invention at play

While his show title insists that he’s blowing the lid off the whole filthy business, the London-based Scottish comic’s ambitions are more low-key. There is certainly a fierce invention at play with his often surreal material about whisky, shatterproof…

Jollie

Story-based songs on various countries

What do you get if you cross two men called John and Ollie? Why, ‘Jollie’ of course! And what do you get if you base an entire hour on their invitation to perform at ‘an important European festival’? Story-based songs on various countries, all delivered…

I’ll Always Think of You that Way

Fresh, zany and surprising

Rehab, depression, attempted suicide, departed husbands and death aren’t immediately comic material, but the adventures of silver-spoon idiot Savannah, and Alison, her fat, steadfast, depressed friend are very funny. It could do without the explanations…

Peter Duncan’s Dark and Dangerous

Safe, dated, yet surprisingly humble

Following an encounter with the keepers of heaven and hell, early 80s Blue Peter presenter Peter Duncan has one hour to justify his career and deliver himself from purgatory. Tied together by audience participation, tomfoolery with a video screen, and…

Sam Simmons

Lacking in spontaneity but his methods are inventive

For his Fringe debut, the Australian puts his all into a song-and-goof show about the things you find down the back of the sofa. His absurdist observations may be lacking in spontaneity but his methods are inventive and being from the ‘if in doubt…

The List Operators

Enthusiastic and frantic hosts rip through their material

In this 100 Greatest age, it was inevitable that a Fringe show would be concerned exclusively with the making of lists. This Aussie pair (one naively boyish, one mildly sleazy), are enthusiastic and frantic hosts and they rip through their material…

Don Quixote – Theatre of the Blind

Audio-aural experience works pretty well

Given the constraints involved in putting on a Fringe show, blindfolding the audience and performing to their other senses seems an eminently sensible idea. How else would you stage Cervantes’ classic on a budget? Here the audio-aural experience works…

Mike Bubbins

Lacks punch but a natural charm just about sees him through

Stocky Welshman Bubbins is the spit of The King of Queens’ Kevin James and, unfortunately, his Fringe debut is about as adventurous as the tepid US sitcom. The former PE teacher’s tales of daytime TV, smalltown life and material strife are often…

Oh, My Green Soap Box

Whimsical yet heartfelt

Lucy Foster aims to illuminate why we haven’t yet pulled our collective finger out and saved the planet. We get sidetracked by the trials of everyday living and loving just as her proposed game-changing environmental campaign gets sidetracked by…

Plagiarismo

Pootles along without anything much happening

An hour in Richard DeDomenici’s affable company is always entertaining, but this short lecture on artistic plagiarism is among the weakest of his works. He gets easy laughs from clips pointing out various pop music thefts, but the show pootles along…

Boy in Darkness

A lot of ambition that hasn’t found the right vehicle

Mervyn Peake’s novella set in the same world as Gormenghast is rich with possibility, so when Curious Directive offers to stage it with projection, puppetry, audience interaction and an exploding armchair, things look promising. Bafflingly, few of these…

Harbingers

Unable to rein their natural exuberance into anything remotely amusing

This trio are so far out of their boxes that they are clearly unable to rein their natural exuberance into anything remotely amusing. But 50 minutes in their company for *Enough Rope is not overly painful given the effort they have taken to become just…

Mark Walker

Immensely likeable and dynamic

An hour in Walker's company and you'll know not only his star sign, but his hopes, dreams and curriculum vitae (rock star, impersonator and pebble-dasher). Immensely likeable and dynamic, Walker shows potential in comic avenues such as impersonation and…

Grandees

The mugging and gurning from the cast becomes migraine-inducing

From the gruesomely unfunny opening narration to the intensely overacted pap that comes later, The Grandee Way is not a route to be recommended. The story of an 80s nightclub which may be the target of a bombing campaign (immediately hilarious), the…

And All the Children Cried

Provocative stuff

This hard-hitting and heartfelt drama deals with what society considers the most transgressive act of all: the sexual abuse of children by women. Set in a women’s prison, two of the inmates confess their crimes and tell their sorry stories to one…

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Steve Cramer's Festival blog

There’s a paradox to being a reviewer. On the one hand, one is constantly badgered by theatre companies to see their shows, and on the other, when you arrive at their venues, they won’t let you in. Colonel Blood had easier access to the crown jewels…

The Juan Maclean

A reminder of just how exhilarating live music can be

This was always going to be good one. ‘Jesus, this place is small’ says production lynchpin John Maclean confronted by a wall of 100 bodies in a packed-out Sneaky’s. With four people, a drumkit and half a dozen synths crammed onto a tiny stage, and…