Reviews & features: Reviews
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Peter Straker’s Brel
15 Aug 2012
Belgian chanteur Brel’s life explored in song, costumes and storytelling
Jamaican born Peter Straker has been involved in British TV, music, and theatre for decades – he’s been in Doctor Who, collaborated with Freddie Mercury and starred in Hair and Phantom of the Opera amongst other things. In this latest show however, he…
Tania Edwards - Killer Instinct
15 Aug 2012
Funny Women finalist in career regression
Straight off the bat, the eminently likeable Tania Edwards insists that this is going to be her year. It’s ‘break or breakdown’ time. Unfortunately, several things could be conspiring against her as she moves ahead with her grand plans (which may have…
I Am, I Am
15 Aug 2012
Highly entertaining slapstick minstrelry from promising troubadour comedy duo
For ones so young it's obscene how much confidence these duelling acoustic troubadours from Cambridge have. With their genre shifting ditties and punning rhymes I Am, I Am are most obviously comparable to The Flight of the Conchords but their very…
2008: Macbeth
14 Aug 2012
Theatre of war re-imagined for the 21st century
The first we hear of Major Macbeth, he’s radio-ing in from his Scotland-52 helicopter saying he’s going to undertake a dangerous raid on Arab insurgents in an unnamed Middle Eastern country in defiance of his commander. The attack is successful, so we…
Caesarian Section – Essays on Suicide
14 Aug 2012
Polish company grapples with deeply human emotion elegantly and sensitively
With a title like Caesarian Section – Essays on Suicide, this production by Wroclaw-based company Theatre ZAR was never going to be a light undertaking. Yet despite it’s heavy subject matter – it is described as being about ‘suicidal compulsion and the…
Educating Ronnie
14 Aug 2012
Compelling true-life fable engagingly told
Joe Douglas’ day job may be that of professional theatre director, but his one-man show is based on a strand of his own life that’s far richer than anything he could have made up. The story dates back ten years to his gap year in Uganda. Alongside…
Ford & Akram
14 Aug 2012
Warm, charismatic show from the bumbling comedy duo
Female duo Yasmine Akram and Louise Ford sit side by side in silence. As the former beams a radiant smile, the latter glares glumly in to the front row. Embarking on a voyage to fulfill an elderly relatives last request the show consists of a…
I Shall be Remembered – The Story of Madame de Pompadour
14 Aug 2012
All that glitters is not gold in one-dimensional take on a fascinating figure
The stage at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre has been dipped in gold. Glittering trinkets lie on gold-rimmed furniture and gold-framed paintings line the walls. This is the 18th century court of King Louis XV and the domain of his savvy…
Detention
14 Aug 2012
Mr Bean meets Olympic gymnastics: physical comedy, Hong Kong style
Hong Kong show Detention is a highly accomplished example of a form of physical comedy that is extremely popular in east Asia. If you haven’t encountered this kind of work on the Edinburgh Fringe in the past, think Mr Bean crossed with Olympic…
Mr Braithwaite Has a New Boy
14 Aug 2012
Decent performances can’t redeem predictable Aussie farce
With this new comedy by Steven Dawson (who also directs and designs it), Melbourne’s LGBT-focused theatre company Out Cast Theatre plays lazily to the crowd, favouring lashings of none-too-subtle and none-too-imaginative cheap smut and broadly-drawn…
Discover Ben Target
14 Aug 2012
Prop-heavy, unpredictable riot is a triumph of chaos-masked complexity
Throughout Discover Ben Target the gathered punters are taken on numerous bizarre and wonderful journeys. The first, a figurative express trip from “This is unusual” to “Why-in-shitting-hell-are-we-not-sitting-at-the-back?” to the last; a casual stroll…
Panning for Gold
14 Aug 2012
Well-conceived, simply staged play dealing with emotional trauma has fittingly dramatic climax
This heartfelt and heart-warming play unfolds at a support group where three young women meet with an older group leader and, over the course of a number of sessions, confront and attempt to deal with their related emotional problems. The cause of their…
The List
13 Aug 2012
Maureen Beattie delivers this bleakly poignant dramatic monologue from Stellar Quines
In 1916, American playwright Susan Glaspell wrote a one-act piece, Trifles, about two women using their intimate knowledge of the domestic sphere to hide clues right under the noses of a group of men investigating a murder. It may be nearly a century…
Trevor Noah: The Racist
13 Aug 2012
Identity crisis makes for hilarious comedy
It takes a particular kind of individual to get up on stage and open their soul to a room of strangers in order to achieve ratification for their existence. Part of that drive might come from the oft-cited routes about having learned to use humour to…
Through the Looking Screen
13 Aug 2012
A black tale of loneliness and log-ins
The experience of turning The Office into an operatic extravaganza for Comic Relief in 2009 clearly gave Anne Chmelewsky a taste for the comedic possibilities of a musical form normally associated with grim tragedy. But the ‘high heels and high Cs…
Nish Kumar - Who Is Nish Kumar?
13 Aug 2012
An astute and positive debut from a comic with an infectious love of words
Nish Kumar has been kicking around the Fringe for a few years on various projects (most notably alongside Tom Neenan in Gentlemen of Leisure), but this superb hour marks an astute solo debut. Biding time before launching himself as an Edinburgh stand-up…
Alan Francis
13 Aug 2012
Intelligent discourse on religion, politics and economics from Edinburgher
Alan Francis is a traditional comedian whose intelligent discourse is delivered through a thick Edinburgh accent, despite him now holding residence in London. The routine opens with a light-hearted look back at recent times as Francis bemoans his…
Desperately Seeking the Exit
13 Aug 2012
Witty and painfully honest one-man show
The birth, death and resurrection of a jukebox musical form the basis of self-confessed ‘Angloholic’ Peter Michael Marino’s new one-man show, Desperately Seeking the Exit, directed by John Clancy. Chronicling the creation, destruction and resurrection…
Dan Wright
13 Aug 2012
Energetic and enthusiastic journey through Michael Jackson fandom
Michael Jackson touched Dan Wright. 32 years old and still pining for the star who blazed a trail and burned out too soon, Wright takes us on a trip down memory lane, from childhood to the present day as a hardened fan, via those awkward, bullied…
Flâneurs
13 Aug 2012
A walk on Edinburgh’s wild side
One can only hope that at least some of the ‘true’ events described in this one-woman show didn’t actually happen. According to young live art maker Jenna Watt, her close friend, Jeremy, was seriously assaulted in London, a large number of other friends…
The Chris and Paul Show
13 Aug 2012
Almost (great) silent comedy
This north American comedy duo have got two very good things going for them: they’re pretty adept at performing silent comedy and they’re reminiscent of that great post-war double act Abbot and Costello. But they really need to tighten up their act. For…
Graters: Julian Ignores His Friend and Talks To A Pretty Girl
13 Aug 2012
Ambitious but flawed idea for a sketch show
James wants to be a stand up. Julian calls himself an entertainer and cheerfully ditches his friend to talk to two women in the pub. Played out to the side of this tableau – one that remains on the stage throughout - are Julian's 'crap' ideas that he is…
Thin Ice
13 Aug 2012
Theatrical brain feast that holds the attention span
What sets Thin Ice apart is not so much its narrative – a disjointed love triangle between academics in the Arctic Circle – as its remarkable depth of thinking. Beneath the slight surface, it’s as dense and tightly packed as a glacier. What’s strange…
Truth
13 Aug 2012
Surreal character comedy from Angus Ecstatic creators
Vachel Spirason tells us multiple times at the beginning of Truth that he is a “storyteller”. For much of this bonkers 60 minutes, his story makes no sense at all – but trust that it all comes together satisfyingly in the end. With the invisible help…
Des Bishop Likes To Bang
13 Aug 2012
Tragic-comedy with hip hop tones
I’m American so I love myself, but I’m Irish so I hate myself,’ declares Bishop from his stance in front of the central point of his show, an electronic drum kit. It is an instrument, he opines, upon which it is impossible to create music about any sad…
