Reviews & features: Theatre, Miles Fielder
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Rémy
16 Aug 2012
Vivid Napoleonic re-imagining written and performed by talented Claire Gaydon
On the strength of this, the first show produced under the banner of newly formed theatre company Everything I Own, writer/performer Claire Gaydon is a talent to keep an eye on. Her historical drama, which unfolds in the aftermath of Napoleon’s reign of…
The Fantasist
16 Aug 2012
Imaginative treatment of mental health
The visionary-idealist-romantic of the title is a French woman named Louise who is tormented by her bipolar disorder. As the show opens we find Louise in a hospital in England where she is receiving treatment. She’s got a good, caring nurse and a dear…
And the Girls in Their Sunday Dresses
15 Aug 2012
This post-Apartheid era Zakes Mda adaptation has universal resonance
With its absurdist humour and metaphorical meaning, this clever, funny, political play is like a South African version of Waiting for Godot. As with Beckett’s luckless protagonists, two women (brilliantly played by South African comedians Hlengiwe…
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…
It’s So Nice
10 Aug 2012
Irreverent and beguiling history play
Part physical theatre, part clowning about, this bilingual show that takes a look at the relationship between Mary, Queen of Scots and her cousin Elizabeth I is an absolute delight. It takes the form of a history play-cum-lecture-cum-travelogue as…
Oliver Reed: Wild Thing
8 Aug 2012
Rob Crouch paints a blazing theatrical portrait of the renowned boozer
In this excellent one-man show, the renowned hellraiser recounts his wayward life from beyond the grave and, appropriately, during the course of a mammoth boozing session. Rob Crouch does a superb job of playing the British film star of the 1960 and…
You Obviously Know What I’m Talking About
8 Aug 2012
Intelligent comic theatre about obsessive-compulsive nerd is surprisingly good
This cleverly devised bit of comic theatre boasts a marvellous set. Good job, too, given it concerns an extreme obsessive-compulsive, a reclusive nerd named Winfield Scott-Boring, whose entire carefully ordered daily life takes place within the confines…
Half A Person: My Life as Told by the Smiths
7 Aug 2012
A fair performance let down by clichéd, unimaginative writing
A twentysomething Smiths fan living in London tells of his brief encounter with a girl from Manchester and his friendship with a terminally ill gay man. Pivotal moments from the life of the young lad, who is of course called William, are underscored…
Life is Too Good to Be True
6 Aug 2012
Not quite the whole truth from show examining Stephen Glass, Barbara Ehrenreich and Lady Gaga
The place of truth, lies, delusion and self-realisation in our individual lives and within society as a whole is the big theme tackled in this one-man show that begins modestly and ends with a high-camp finale. Written and performed by Gable Roelofsen…
Just A Gigolo
6 Aug 2012
A literate, bawdy, touching production about Lady Chatterlerly's real lover
Playwright Stephen Lowe’s DH Lawrence trilogy comes to a neat and naughty conclusion (following Fox and The Little Vixens and Empty Bed Blues) with this fine one-man show directed by Lowe and performed by veteran Scottish actor Maurice Roëves. Roëves…
One Rogue Reporter among the shows exploring journalistic ethics at Fringe 2012
28 Jul 2012
Ex-Daily Star hack Richard Peppiatt lifts the lid on journalism
It’s not at all surprising that this year’s Fringe programme should feature a cluster of shows about the purveyors of low-quality ‘reportage’ commonly and derogatively referred to as ‘hacks’. The high-profile and ongoing Leveson Inquiry into the…
Jus’ Like That!
16 Aug 2011
Recreates Tommy Cooper's final performance
Eschewing a biographical narrative, this show about stage magician and comedian Tommy Cooper simply recreates his final performance in all its balmy, cheeky glory. It’s a crowd-pleasing celebration of the utterly unique variety show talent, and Clive…
The Wright Brothers
16 Aug 2011
Conquest of flight given lively treatment
An interesting subject is given lively treatment in this show about American bicycle manufacturers-turned-amateur aviators Wilbur and Orville Wright’s conquest of the skies. The story of their protracted attempts to construct a powered flying machine…
You Once Said Yes
12 Aug 2011
Exhilarating interactive experience
This one-on-one interactive show is initially – and purposefully – disconcerting, but it swiftly becomes utterly thrilling, mysterious, funny and finally really quite sweet. It begins at Underbelly Cowgate, where single audience members are equipped for…
2401 Objects
8 Aug 2011
Remarkable neuroscience story
This piece of devised theatre tells the story of the man with the most famous brain in the world, Henry Molaison, or patient HM as he became known to the international medical community that studied him for decades before he died. Molaison was born in…
Wondrous Flitting
8 Aug 2011
Absurdist parable that doesn’t quite work
Inspired by Edinburgh College of Art teacher Ed Hollis’ book The Secret Lives of Buildings, Lyceum artistic director Mark Thomson’s first play for the Fringe since his much lauded Moving Objects is an absurdist-realist parable that doesn’t quite work.
One Night Stan
8 Aug 2011
Excellent one-man show based on life of Stan Laurel
This excellent one-man show written and performed by Miles Gallant dramatises the life of Stanley Jefferson aka Stan Laurel of Laurel and Hardy fame. With his partner taken ill on the penultimate week of their 1954 UK tour, Stan looks back on his…
One Under
8 Aug 2011
Energetic piece of devised theatre based on London Underground
Inspired by interviews conducted on the London Underground, this energetic piece of devised theatre looks beneath the sweat and stress of the cramped carriages to unearth the inner lives of people travelling on the tube. Their stories are variously…
Adrian Howells bring May I Have the Pleasure to 2011 Edinburgh Festival
27 Jul 2011
Adrian Howells creates exchange between performer and audience
Glasgow-based performer and the Arches artist-in-residence Adrian Howells has two shows debuting at the Fringe this year: May I Have the Pleasure...? and The Pleasure of Being: Washing, Feeding, Holding. In the first, Howells muses upon the irony of…
Edinburgh show Snails and Ketchup keeps focus on storytelling
27 Jul 2011
Darkly comic story told through aerial choreography
‘For me the narrative and the characters are crucial,’ says Glasgow-based Singaporean physical theatre performer Ramesh Meyyappan. ‘I’ve got to be able to see how their journeys would work in a theatrical setting.’ Meyyappan’s set himself quite a…
Too Middle Class for Chlamydia
25 Aug 2010
Fairly pedestrian – not to mention misogynist
Curiously, this one-man show in which a young middle class lad recalls the variously difficult girls he’s been romantically involved with is delivered as a comic monologue, though the material is probably better suited to a stand-up routine. A few…
Frances Ruffelle: Beneath the Dress
23 Aug 2010
Cheeky, sexy and surprising cabaret-esque show
Given Ruffelle’s showbiz background – she’s the daughter of London theatre school founder Sylvia Young and a Tony Award-winning star of West End and Broadway musicals such as Les Misérables and Chicago – it’s unsurprising that her cabaret-esque Fringe…
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
23 Aug 2010
Critical commentary on mankind's hypocrisy
Writer/actor Pip Utton follows his challenging one-man shows Adolf, Chaplin and Bacon with another deftly scripted and vividly performed drama, this one about Victor Hugo’s deformed Parisian bell-ringer. Taking the form of a monologue delivered by…
Naked Live and Never Again: My Last Discourse on Dramatic Method
23 Aug 2010
Witty monologue about an acting guru
Andrew Hawkins (son of veteran British actor Jack, star of Zulu and Ben Hur) gives a terrific performance in this witty monologue. Hawkins plays an acting guru named Jack Treadwell who, having had enough of coaching celebrities and politicians, is…
The Flat
16 Aug 2010
Spirited if amateurish production
The typical domestic dysfunction endured by a group of young people sharing a flat in London explodes into something altogether more disturbing with the arrival of a new flatmate, an apparently shy Goth girl who has some serious anger management issues.
