Reviews & features: Laura Ennor
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Josie Long - Romance and Adventure
22 Aug 2012
New found cynicism provides counterpoint to bubbliness and irrepressible daft voices
Josie Long has turned 30, and it’s changed her – if her last show was full of wide-eyed idealism and exhortations to activism, she’s now become fully acquainted with disillusionment. And not just the kind when everything’s wrong and you don’t know what…
Miriam Margolyes - Dickens' Women
22 Aug 2012
Appealing biographical show in the company of a true pro
Yelling with that unmistakeable voice and accompanied by the oh-so-refined tinkly piano of Benjamin Lee, Miriam Margolyes staggers onto the stage in the person of sozzled layer-out of the dead Mrs Gamp, from Martin Chuzzlewit. It’s a charming, gentle…
Andrew Ryan - Ryanopoly
21 Aug 2012
Uneasy, nervous act fails to break the banks
Having worked in a bank, Andrew Ryan knows all the tricks in the book of Getting Your Money, and he knows how to get the humour out of them, too. Many of the funniest moments in this show are borne of his playful sending-up of the rigid application of…
Meine faire Dame - ein Sprachlabor
16 Aug 2012
Radical reimagining of Lerner and Loewe's My Fair Lady gives much food for thought
Sitting down in the audience for Swiss director Christoph Marthaler's Meine faire Dame is something akin to entering a conversation class in a language you have no knowledge of. At first, it's completely baffling and you doubt you'll ever make sense of…
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…
Death Boogie
10 Aug 2012
Political hip hop poetry musical is all sound and fury
Death Boogie is a political hip hop musical, performed by a dancing poet-rapper rhyming over his own beatbox loops, a double bass player and violinist, all against a backdrop of comic-strip visuals peppered with WHOAs, BIFFs and BOOYAKASHs. Sound like a…
Belt Up Theatre’s A Little Princess
9 Aug 2012
Unengaging adaptation of a timeworn classic
Young York company Belt Up Theatre have been the toast of the Fringe in recent years for their immersive, intensive renditions of stories new and old, but it feels like things have gone off the boil slightly with this staging of Frances Hodgson…
Petya and the Wolf
7 Aug 2012
Childlike in chaotic naiivety but enough depth to entertain all
Two Russian actors present this idiosyncratic physical retelling of the familiar tale of how Peter outsmarts the hungry wolf, soundtracked by a recording of the Prokofiev score with English narration. Although the story is simple enough for all ages to…
Eat $hit: How Our Waste Can Save the World
7 Aug 2012
A(n extremely odd) musical with an infectious message
The Poop Project are here to talk to you about your poo – loudly, clearly, and with songs and jazz hands. And if you’re the squeamish sort, it’s even more imperative that you listen. Let’s be straight: the five performers in this show aren’t the…
Meat
7 Aug 2012
Solid black comedy that explores the danger of privilege
An exclusive dining society, an intricate and arcane set of rules, and a fabulously deranged ringleader – these are the main ingredients in the meal served up by the St Andrews students calling themselves ‘The Catherine’s Club’. Playing on an endless…
Markus Birdman: Love, Life and Death
7 Aug 2012
Sentiment without the sugar in contemplative comedy piece
Nope, it’s not just a keeping-his-options open title scribbled down on the Fringe application form in March – Markus Birdman really is here to address the big things in life and what comes next. As well he might: having turned 40 and suffered an…
Would Be Nice Though...
6 Aug 2012
Interactive show that skewers the job interviews process
Ever been to a job interview, looked around, and thought, ‘If this is the competition, God help me if I’m not in with a chance?’ Such thoughts may pass through your mind as you enter a real George Street office and are ushered through various stages of…
Chapel Street
6 Aug 2012
Snappy double monologue delivered with panache
This exuberant new piece by Luke Barnes plays as two monologues: a boy and a girl stand side-by-side, the narrative snapping breathlessly back and forth between them as their worlds draw closer and closer and ultimately collide in the messy climax to a…
Craig Hill: Jock's Trap
5 Aug 2012
Bitchy banter and camp cruelty
Craig Hill either is your bag or he isn’t. If, in the first spoken line of the show -- after the thrusting Madonna dance routine – you’re laughing uproariously at the mere implication of the word bum (as a verb), then you’re in the former camp. If not…
Michael Mittermeier: A German on Safari
5 Aug 2012
Eddie Izzard's German protege is in desperate need of fresh material
The omens were good for Michael Mittermeier. Accompanied by Eddie Izzard’s endorsement, the German has toured widely in the Anglophone world and his publicity shots contain no lederhosen or sausages. It’s a shame, then, that Mittermeier’s set is as…
I'm High on Life: What Are You On?
5 Aug 2012
Charming but uncertain storytelling from Bonnie Davies
‘This is not a stand-up show,’ says Bonnie Davies, and she’s right. Rather, Davies presents an hour of anecdotes about her childhood as the daughter of two youth workers who kept a more or less open house for all the waifs, strays and drug-dealing teens…
Jessie Cave gets family involved in Edinburgh Fringe debut Bookworm
25 Jul 2012
Lavendar Brown from Harry Potter in 'prop-heavy, slightly strange' debut
Summing up the life stories of put-upon younger siblings everywhere, Jessie Cave says of her upcoming Fringe debut: ‘it’s definitely a one-woman show, but my little sister’s in it...’ Luckily, 14-year-old Bebe is a willing participant and an emerging…
Wojtek the Bear bound for success at Fringe 2012
24 Jul 2012
How the Polish/Syrian/Persian bear became an international phenomenon
Laura Ennor discovers how the real-life tale of a Persian bear who fought in World War II and lived out his days in Edinburgh Zoo has become an international phenomenon For all that the theatre is a showcase for the power of the imagination, sometimes…
Hear A Pin Drop at the 2012 Edinburgh Fringe
11 Jul 2012
Norwich sound artist Holly Rumble on listening to pins and birds
These may be tough times for the public sector, but at least the officials at Edinburgh City Council are blessed with the Fringe to liven up their daily litany of licensing requests. Sound artist Holly Rumble provided one such chink of light in a local…
Medea
23 Aug 2011
Modern-edged take let down by cast
Critical Mass theatre’s modern-edged take on Euripides’ story of the woman who killed her children never quite delivers the emotional clout promised by its heart-wrenching storyline. Stella Duffy’s script is gutsy and raw, but delivered unimaginatively…
Devotion
23 Aug 2011
Incredible performances hindered by weak story
Insofar as it attempts to convey the depth of feeling engendered by the traditions and solemn ceremony of the bullfight, Devotion just about succeeds, powered by two stunningly intense performances from its male leads. However its story is too slight…
John Robins: Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
23 Aug 2011
Prosaic anecdotes told with gusto and irresistible affability
For a show purportedly about religion, it’s remarkably light on ideas. The professed theme is a launch pad for a collection of faintly prosaic anecdotes, told with gusto and an irresistible affability. Robins is a fluent storyteller, and after puffing…
The Boy with Tape on his Face
19 Aug 2011
Line up early for a mime with universal appeal
The Boy has become a victim of his own success. A word to the wise before we lose ourselves to unabashed gushing: if you want to see this show, turn up early and be prepared to queue, for someone here has made a grave error in their choice of space. For…
Crunch
17 Aug 2011
Cunning manipulation of attitudes to money
A theatrical performance acutely parodying motivational lectures, or an actual motivational lecture? Gary McNair is playing with his audience, and they’re probably not the type who thought they were susceptible to such things. They probably think…
The Segue Sisters in … Jailbirds
17 Aug 2011
Flippant harmonious fun behind bars
It’s utterly incidental to the show, but let’s run through the story anyway: the three Segue Sisters have been convicted of song theft and sent down to a prison that’s a cross between Chicago’s sexed-up cell blocks and a Disney dungeon. As the trio of…
