Fest 2017 Issue 2 by Fest Magazine

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Meow Meow INTERNATIONAL SINGING SENSATION

Dave Johns The Bugle Live Podcast Hannah Gadsby Simon Munnery Meet Me at Dawn Cirkopolis Werelband Buried: A New Musical Kid Critics Plus

Your FREE Festival Guide

11 – 14 August

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Cover Image Claudio Raschella - Design Andrea Lauer of Risen from the Thread

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Writing Team Rosie Bannister, Theo Bosanquet, Arnoud Breitbarth, Marissa Burgess, Polly Checkland Harding, Seòras Coxon, Ruby Foster, Eve Green, Si Hawkins, Lauren Hunter, Malcolm Jack, Louise Jones, Katharine Kavanagh, Laura Kressly, Edd McCracken, Alice McGuire, Brett Mills, Daniel Perks, Lewis Porteous, Lucy Ribchester, Jay Richardson, Alice Saville, Claire Sawyers, Matthew Sharpe, John Stansfield, Tom Wicker, Ben Williams, Holly Williams, Kate Wyver, Will Young

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Contents

Comedy 30 Ahir Shah

Siren Song

Cabaret star Meow Meow on her fishy new show.

He’s smart and funny. It’s a winning combo.

Theatre 48 Nina Struggling for liberation through the music of Nina Simone.

You’ve seen him in the cinema, now you can see him doing what he’s actually done for the whole of his career.

Dance, Physical Theatre & Circus 60 Wereldband: Släpstick Music, clowning and, yes, slapstick in a flawless performance.

Live wires

How podcasting has changed standup – and vice versa.

Cabaret & Variety 62 Diane Chorley A well executed parody.

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Dave Johns

Perfect Day Struggling for ideas? Brain overloaded? Sit back and let Fest plan an ideal day at the Fringe

The Wee Boulangerie

Circus Abyssinia: Ethiopian Dreams

Clerk St 10:00am

Kick things off by grabbing yourself a quick breakfast – ideally in the form of what will undoubtedly be the best almond croissant you’ll ever encounter, courtesy of The Wee Boulangerie in Southside. As its name suggests, the joint is a dinky delight, so if there’s no space to perch then take your otherworldly pastry to the Meadows for an al fresco petit dej’.

Underbelly’s Circus Hub on the Meadows 3:00pm - 4:00pm

Nick Cope’s Family Songbook Gilded Balloon Teviot

Perfect Day

11:15am - 12:05pm

After raiding the sweet treats of The Wee Bou, head down the road for a family-friendly show from indie-folk troubadour Nick Cope (formerly of ‘90s band The Candyskins), who playfully sings of dragons, pirates and poo in between friendly chat with his audience.

Following a lunchtime pint at George Square, it’s back to the Meadows for a spot of impressive circus skills from the 14-strong Konjowoch Troupe, led by Ethiopian jugglging duo Bibu and Bichu. Expect juggling, contortion, clowning, dancing and gravity-defying stunts, set against an enchanting colourful backdrop.

Perfect Day

Lady Macbeth: Unsex Me Here

Hannah Gadsby

Dance Base 8:00pm - 8:55pm

5:30pm - 6:30pm

For those of you that didn’t get the memo: award-winning Aussie comic Hannah Gadsby is retiring from the biz. Turns out she’s also set on going out on a high, too, with latest show Nanette a wonderful swansong, thanks to her masterful blending of warm, silly chat with the provocative stuff that 2017 calls for.

Wildmanwood Marshall Street 6.45pm

The Ting Thai Caravan stable have pulled another reliable blinder with Neapolitan-style wood-fired pizzas at Wildmanwood, where it’s worth also leaving space for sides of deep-fried olives, caprese salad or rocket with pear and pecorino. Prosecco’s also available on tap—both by the glass and carafe—for bubbly pre-show bevving.

One of Shakespeare’s most damned female roles gets flipped on its head, as three male dancers are cast as the bloody-handed Lady Macbeth, highlighting the relationship between masculinity and femininity while exploring the wider, lesser-told elements of the character’s story.

festmag.co.uk

Assembly George Square Studios

Credit: Andrew Gough

Cover Feature

Siren Song 8

International singing sensation Meow Meow tells Alice Saville about making a splash with her latest project, The Little Mermaid, at the EIF

ats famously hate water. But Meow Meow, a cabaret artist who’s so committed to her feline persona that she’s vetoed all mention of her real name or country of origin, has plunged into the watery theme of her new show with unlikely enthusiasm. The space is decked with goggle-eyed balloon fish seaweed and enough mirror balls to bamboozle any chasing sharks. This kitsch extravaganza is all inspired by The Little Mermaid – not Disney’s wideeyed romance but the Hans Christian Andersen version, a story that’s guaranteed to give small kids nightmares. Meow Meow agrees: “It’s totally disturbing, and that’s probably part of why I’m attracted to the story, because part of me wants to take her, to rescue her from the choices she has.” She might just be the feminist hero that daydreaming, long-suffering Ariel needs. Her work has attracted a legion of high-profile fans and collaborators—from theatre director Emma Rice to the London Philharmonic to Barry Humphries—with its resolutely, seductively adult approach, mixing unapologetic sexuality with a fearless self-confidence in her ability to whip up a sea of audience members into a storm. Her version of The Little Mermaid is a cabaret show that draws on a typically eclectic range of influences including the work of novelist and feminist mythographer Marina Warner. “I’m a huge fan,” says Meow Meow. “She writes so fantastically about the fairytale from a feminist perspective in From the Beast to the Blonde.” It’s far from a straightforward retelling, exploring how we create romanticised myths in the era of Instagram and reality TV. “Some of the reviews are

insisting it’s a huge diversion from the story. Actually, it looks different but it’s very close. You’ve just got to think in an open way about the imagery.” Meow Meow’s take on Ariel is a single woman so desperate to be loved that she’ll perve on technicians; drag reluctant male audience members on stage; and even agree to go to a karaoke bar – the ultimate humiliation for a full-throated diva who barely needs a mic. “It’s about desire and what lengths we will go to to pursue an idea of love, and about self-mutilation,” she explains. “That’s something I wanted to plunge into and plunge out of whole.”

“ It’s an alternative version of love which is where you’ve got people around you to feed your soul, not necessarily putting everything on one person” Ultimately, it’s also a firm stand against the myth of the desperate woman who will sacrifice anyone to find ‘the one’ who completes her. Unlike Hans Christian Andersen’s heroine, Meow Meow never cuts out her tongue: which is lucky, because her songs are the beating heart of the show. Here, she’s drawn on an army of female collaborators, with new compositions by songwriters including Amanda Palmer, Kate Miller-Heidke, and Megan Washington. Their invisible continues

›

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Credit: photo - Claudio Raschella, design - Andrea Lauer of Risen from the Thread

Features

Credit: Pia Johnson

Cover Feature

› presence becomes a kind of reflection of the show’s

non-monogamous, decidedly un-Christian moral. “When I’m on stage I feel like I’m surrounded by all these women. It’s an alternative version of love which is where you’ve got people around you to feed your soul, not necessarily putting everything on one person.” Her non-monogamous mermaid is Meow Meow’s third appearance at the Edinburgh Festival, following last year’s similarly subversive Weimar Cabaret with another friend, Barry Humphries. That was a chance to resurrect a banned, deviant musical culture and bring it to new audiences: “They feel like prayers for humanity. These songs are horribly important; what a privilege to make a space for them.” I can hear Meow Meow glowing down the phone as she talks about cabaret’s unique qualities, its “multiplicity of interpretations and angles. Each song is its own world, which is very exciting because when you put them together you’ve got this sort of jam-packed thing, it’s just layers and layers of meaning and emotion and love that you can pack in.” It’s a space that can zoom from 1920s cabaret bar to 2000s concept album, as she covers “fucking genius poet” Thom Yorke. “You want to be speeding through the ages and ideas and sensibilities,” she explains. “You want to wake people up as well as calm them.” Meow Meow might have a deliberately kittenish persona, but as I talk to her it’s clear that she takes the power of what she does very, very seriously. But corset-wearing cabaret artists are easily dismissed: I’ve read reviews of her work that drip with the invisible saliva of a drooling male critic. She admits that she’s “disillusioned on a general level” with overly superficial readings of her work. “One of my most fascinating experiences, quite early on in my career, was coming off stage and having one guy saying, ‘Ooh, she’s a real dominatrix isn’t she’, and

then another person who said, ‘You’re like a big mummy, making us all jam’.” As well as being a Madonna-whore complex made flesh, these reactions made her realise early on that “you can’t control what people will hear”. And maybe they explain the tight hold Meow Meow keeps over her own biography. At a time where social media makes anonymity not just difficult, but suspect, she’s uncharacteristically reluctant to talk about the persona she’s created for herself. “It’s not a persona, it’s just me!” I press her further. “It’s about living in a heightened way, I think. That’s the most truthful I can be.” She distances herself from her more conventional birth name, claiming that it belongs to “my stalker.” She doesn’t like to mention her, she says: “There’s always litigation pending when that happens.” Maybe this steely self-control is part of what gives Meow Meow her lustre. But it doesn’t mean she’s remote. She’s famous, in fact, for her wobbly stage dives into an unready audience. In The Little Mermaid, for example, she yells, “Don’t look at my bottom!” as she flashes it to the entire crowd in her mock-struggle to get into a stretchy mermaid’s tail. What makes Meow Meow’s work so satisfying is the sense that, vampire-like, she feeds off an audience. “I always want to touch them in both a physical and metaphysical way. When I’m feeling difficulty doing things in my everyday life I pretend there’s an audience there. That’s the thing that makes me get out of bed and make an effort!” This month, Edinburgh is one big, very damp stage, ready for her to make a splash.

VENUE: TIME: TICKETS:

The Hub times vary, 3–27 Aug, not 8, 15, 22 £15

DISCOVER NEW ZEALAND AT THE EDINBURGH FESTIVAL FRINGE 2017 WHITE FACE CREW - LA DANS UNE MARIONETTE BINGE CULTURE - VIE WHALES GILDED BALLOON AT THE MUSEUM @ 10:30

“A remarkable happening” “Superb…Marvellous…Sublime…So good!…Absolute joy…World class” Theatreview - Theatre Scenes

BINGE CULTURE - WHALES MODERN MAORI QUARTET: THAT’S US! ASSEMBLY SATS & SUNS @ 12:30

“Hilarious and harmonious entertainment at its best” “A remarkable Theatreview happening” - Theatreview

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“More of this please ★ ★ ★ ★” (on 2016’s If There’s Not Dancing at the Revolution,I’m Not Coming) “Hilarious The List and harmonious entertainment at its best”

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“a delightfully adventure, engrossing, entertaining and emotionally touching” NZ Herald companies”dark ★ ★ ★ ★ - Broadway Baby ELEANOR - JANE DOE UP (WE NEED TO TALK) BINGEBISHOP CULTURE - BREAK ASSEMBLY @ 15:00 gems and heartbreaking moments” “… comedic

“Breathtaking in its sincerity, groundbreaking in its approach” Theatre Scenes ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ - The Theatre Guide, Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2017

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SUMMERHALL @ 15:15 & 18:15 “Superb…Marvellous…Sublime…So good!…Absolute joy…World class” “…plenty of fun to be had…” Theatreview ★ ★ ★ ★ - The List

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“Bizarre, sexy and very, very funny” Broadway Baby SUMMERHALL MONDAYS @ 18:00

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SUMMERHALL @ 19:30 “… the pick of the crop” The Advertiser (Adelaide, Australia) “More of this please ★ ★ ★ ★ ★” - The List

(on 2016’s If There’s Not Dancing at the Revolution, I’m Not Coming)

ELEANOR BISHOP - JANE DOE JUAN VESUVIUS - I AM YOUR DEEJAY

“… insightful, powerful and must not be missed” ASSEMBLY @ 23:00 NZ Herald “Bizarre, sexy and very, very funny” - Broadway Baby

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13 Features

Dave Johns:

“ Ken Loach has radicalised me!” From jobbing standup to global film star, Dave Johns has done it all. But, he tells Ben Williams, he’s not wasting the added profile of a late career boost

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Credit: Steve Ullathorne

o one is more surprised at Dave Johns’ recent movie stardom than Dave Johns. The 61-yearold “working class Geordie lad” has been a jobbing standup for 30 years, and happily so. But since scoring the lead role in Ken Loach’s Bafta-winning I, Daniel Blake, Johns’ new life has been, in his words, “a headfuck”. “I’ve been on a weird trip,” says the new movie star, over the phone on a day off from shooting his next project. “I’d done bits of TV, but I’ve never really been exposed to that world; to the Cannes Film Festival or the Baftas, or meeting Woody Allen in a lift, or having a conversation with Steven Spielberg about giants. When the film won the Palme d’Or suddenly all these people—all these stars—knew who I was. I’m on the red carpet standing next to Meryl Steep and Emma Stone, and all I could think was: ‘This is insane, I’ve gone mad!’” Rubbing shoulders with the Hollywood elite hasn’t come naturally to Johns, he admits, and the juxtaposition of the film’s subject matter—poverty, hunger, the welfare system, people in need of help—and the glitz of Hollywood isn’t lost on him. “In Cannes there are super yachts all over the place, you’re having gold leaf quail eggs for lunch. It’s madness,” he says. Eating eggstravagant lunches (sorry) hasn’t been Johns’ strangest experience, though. That was winning Best Newcomer at the Empire Film Awards. “I was up against people like Tom Holland,” says the comic, baffled. “He’s the new Spiderman, and he’s 21. I’m 61! ‘So what happened to the Best Newcomer?’ ‘Oh, he died of old age.’” All these fish-out-of-water stories would make a great standup show, thought Johns, and that’s the focus of his new hour, I, Fillum Star. The last time

the Tyneside-born comic performed a solo show at the festival was in 1999. With three more ‘fillums’ in the works since Daniel Blake, why come back to Edinburgh at all? “I love standup,” explains Johns. “There’s no better feeling than being on stage with some mad crazy thing in your head that you think is funny and an audience happens to find it funny as well. A film is a collaborative thing, but standup is very immediate; it’s just you on your own.” With a new-found fame comes a new audience, though. There will be many punters at the Fringe who only know Johns from his straight performance in a very serious film. That’s to his advantage, he reckons. “It’s a nice position to be in, because they come with preconceived ideas of what you are, so you can pull the rug out from underneath them. I do get recognised on the street now, and some people do come up to me and say, ‘I love the film’. But I also have people who stare at me for a while and then say, ‘Did you deliver my mam’s fridge?’” continues

›

Credit: Steve Ullathorne

› Fame and success isn’t the only change I, Daniel Blake has brought to Johns’ life. The film’s subject matter—and particularly working with Ken Loach— has reignited his own political consciousness. “Ken’s radicalised me,” Johns jokes. “I’ve always been Labour, always been a socialist, but I’ve now been doing Q&As for food banks, and I was invited to speak at the Labour Party Conference. Ken’s a very passionate guy and I think we need to thank ourselves that we have people like him and [writer] Paul Laverty who can give a voice to people.”

Features

“I’ve never really been exposed to that world – to the Cannes Film Festival or the Baftas, or meeting Woody Allen in a lift, or having a conversation with Steven Spielberg about giants”

Unsurprisingly, political reaction to the film was mixed. Jeremy Corbyn praised the movie and, at PMQs, encouraged Theresa May to see it. Whereas former work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith described it as “unfair”, claiming it focused only on “the very worst of anything that can ever happen to anybody”. Of course, these words were

spoken long before the Prime Minister lost her majority at the snap election. Does Johns think the movie had an effect on the result? “I do!” he responds, passionately. “I think the film has helped in changing the narrative of, ‘everybody who needs social security is a scrounger and doesn’t want to work’. No, they’re just ordinary people in a system that’s been set up to save money and not to help them. It shouldn’t matter what political persuasion you are, it’s about being a human being and having compassion. “I’m very happy about how many young people are getting their weight into politics now, because the only change that will come is from young kids. With Brexit, I don’t think anyone over the age of 50 should’ve been allowed to vote, because it’s not going to affect us, we’ll all be dead when the kids are going to have to live with this decision. You old bastards, you fucked the country!” At 61, Johns might be past his own Brexit vote limit, but he’s clearly not an old bastard. Having been thrown into a glamorous world after decades in grimy comedy clubs, he knows he’s in a privileged position. “I’ve become an overnight sensation right at the end of my career,” he jokes. And if it all goes tits up? Well, there’s always Celebrity Big Brother. “Can you imagine? They’d have to get a Stannah Stairlift in for me. ‘You’ve been evicted. Please leave the Big Brother house.’ ‘I’m going! It can only go as fast as it can go!’” VENUE: TIME: TICKETS:

Pleasance Dome 7:00pm – 8:00pm, 3–27 Aug, not 15, 22 £11.50 – £13.50

A Thoroughly Modern Resentment Fascism, radicalism, right-wing blogs and the power of WhatsApp – Javaad Alipoor’s new play is nothing if not a social and political vipers’ nest. Stewart Pringle dives in.

Features

avaad Alipoor puts his cards on the table early: “I hear it a lot that there’s been a ‘renaissance in political theatre’, but my question is, how good is it as theatre, and what does it have to say politically?” The Bradford-based theatremaker is in Edinburgh to open his new show, The Believers Are But Brothers, a complex, challenging and boldly neutral exploration of extremism and what Alipoor terms “resentment powered fascism” in the 21st century. He’s an instinctively political animal, his work springing from a need to question and probe. To explore rather than to explain. “I feel like a lot of the political work I go to see, I go in to watch it and someone teaches me about something, or provides some pedagogical service, and I kind of go, ‘I don’t know what your fucking political CV is. I don’t know what you’ve done politically to put you in that position.’” It feels like a fair cop, nowhere more so than in the very white and very middle class environment of the Edinburgh Fringe. “So what I really wanted to do with this play was not teach, because me and my audience are very similar, they’re going to be a left-liberal audience, so I’m not teaching them anything. I felt that I needed to complicate things. And it felt like a way into doing that is to go, ‘I’m a Muslim, and I’m going to show you some Muslim things that maybe you don’t think you have access to’, and what I try to do through the show is to play around with those expectations of what a Muslim is.”

Alipoor talks fast and he talks smart. His conversation is peppered with references to web resources, poets, philosophers and bloggers. He’s purposeful and considered, with the convictions of an artist who has spent the last decade viewing the world with increasing focus and deepening perception. His early theatrical interest was spurred on by the teaching he received from Madani Younis at Bradford’s pioneering Asian Theatre School. “It’s basically his fault that I’m doing this for a living,” Alipoor reflects. He and Younis, now the artistic director of the Bush Theatre in London, share a Bradford upbringing, as well as a sense that theatre should embody and fight for the change it wants to make in the world. They’re also artists whose thinking is defiantly against the grain of the liberal arts consensus. Since then he’s founded his own company, Northern Lines, and gone on to make work which springs from community engagement, with their first major success arriving with Orgreave – An English Civil War in 2014. It used a hybrid of community and professional actors to tell the story of two families living through one of the most notorious periods of the miners’ strikes, and its approach was typical of Alipoor’s refusal to conform to the consensus, to the easy satirical targets, to pacifying binary narratives. Asked about the inspiration behind this particular show, Alipoor explains: “Whether we like it or not, the 21st century has landed. It actually landed a while ago in a way that we didn’t recognise at first.” He times this dawning not to 9/11, which a Western-centric

viewpoint would generally espouse, but to the Arab Spring. “When that all started, the 20th century was over.”

trolling of Gamergate. What rests at the heart of the piece is a vital conviction: that ISIS and the alt-right emerge not from political preference or religious extremism, but from what he terms a “kind of resentment-powered fascism”. The Believers grew from a frustration Alipoor felt regarding the popular narratives applied to these new fascisms, and to those who flee the UK and join ISIS. “The mainstream discussion about why young Muslims get involved in this goes something like, ‘21st-century post-modern identity is a very complex thing, it’s multi-layered and multi-faceted – some His brilliant new play examines how far we’ve people are idiots who can’t deal with this, so they fall come since Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazi- back on some kind of simple old fashioned tribalism.’ zi self-immolated and began the first revolution. It Bullshit. That’s fucking bullshit.” tells three interlocking stories, of three men in the Instead, what Alipoor’s research has thrown up, throes of their own radicalisation. It is told through articulated brilliantly in his play, is a fantasy land monologues and web chats, through WhatsApp more inspired by Game of Thrones and World of conversations that spill out onto our own phones, Warcraft than any holy writ or imam’s preaching. Of through snatches of computer games and videos of a world of endless deserts and ripped jihadis that is military atrocities. A young girl is blown to pieces exotic and sexy and powerful when urban adolescent again and again. Pages of virulent 4Chan memes lives in the UK can feel grey and unpromising. It’s a scroll past. worthy thesis. The Believers Are But Brothers is not the first piece “I don’t think we’re making work about that yet. I of work to draw paralells between the radicalisation haven’t seen that work yet,” says Alipoor. of young Muslims by ISIS and that of white basement dwellers by right-wing reactionary politics, but it may VENUE: Northern Stage at Summerhall be the most precise. Providing no concrete answers, 12:45pm – 1:45pm, 5–26 Aug, not 9, 16, 23 it is nevertheless forensic in unpicking the social and TIME: TICKETS: £12 psychological makeup of 4Chan and the misogynist

“ I’m not teaching them anything. I felt that I needed to complicate things.”

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Features

Live wires Live podcasts are hitting the Fringe in a big way this year. Jo Caird talks to some of the acts behind the mics

here’s an intimacy about podcasting that you don’t get with any other medium: that feeling of closeness to someone whose voice you have in your earbuds week in week out over months or years. It’s entirely one-sided of course, but that doesn’t matter – you feel like you know them and get more from the listening experience as a result. It’s unsurprising, therefore, that a growing sub-genre of live shows inspired by podcasts is proving such a hit with fans, giving eager listeners the opportunity to come face-to-face with their podcaster besties, and nerd out with fellow acolytes at the same time. The trend is coming to Edinburgh this summer, with two titans of the comedy podcasting world—My Dad Wrote a Porno (MDWAP) and The Bugle—bringing live shows to the Fringe for the first time to play alongside established favourites such as Richard Herring’s Edinburgh Fringe Podcast. Audiences at previous live Bugles have been “very, very keen”, says Andy Zaltzman, who has been itching to do a live version of the show since he started it with John Oliver back in 2007. “Obviously you get an audience of fairly committed fans if they’re coming to see a specific show being recorded. They’ve been great fun to do.” The live show is pretty much the “same mixture of satire and bullshit” that Zaltzman records these days with a rotating cast of co-hosts including Nish Kumar and Wyatt Cenac, since Oliver stepped down in 2015. But the presence of a “crowd that’s on side” allows him to “take it in slightly different directions”, he says. “To have an audience that’s already tuned into your wavelength makes things easier and more fun.

My Dad Wrote a Porno

You can just get straight into what you want to be doing comedically. The winning over process has been moved to people having listened to the show.” The MDWAP team—Jamie Morton, Alice Levine and James Cooper—have noticed something similar, with fans of the trio’s discussions of Morton’s dad’s erotic novels dressing up as their favourite characters at sold-out live shows around the world. “The brilliant thing about our listeners is how invested they are in the whole Belinda Blinked universe,” they told us in an email. “We often have people get in touch to say James and Alice say exactly what they’re thinking as they’re listening, so opening up the book to a live audience is always fun to see how they respond.” While My Dad Wrote a Porno: Live is almost a separate entity to the podcast that inspired it— Morton, Levine and Cooper have no plans to release recordings of the live show—liveness has always been an essential element of Richard Herring’s Edinburgh Fringe Podcast. This festival-focused incarnation of the Richard Herring Leicester Square Theatre Podcast, in which Herring interviews fellow comics in his inimitable irreverant style, is returning to the Fringe for the fourth time. “Having an audience there changes the dynamic quite a lot,” says Herring. “Comedians will up their game a bit. But also you have this really welcoming and friendly environment, and the guests relax a lot more when they realise the audience are there to listen to more serious stories and longer stuff. So then they can, if they wish, talk about much more personal things as well.” continues

›

Andy Zaltzman

› The Bugle Live Podcast occupies a position somewhere between these two, with Zaltzman putting out edited recordings of the show on the regular podcast feed in amongst the studio recordings. Keeping both live audiences and listeners happy can

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“ To have an audience that’s already tuned into your wavelength makes things easier and more fun”

be a tricky line to walk, he explains. “A lot of things are funny within the context of the gig they’re performed in, but if you’re not at that gig then that doesn’t necessarily work,” he says. “It’s finding the right balance and making sure that the version you put out for people to listen to at home does not have that quality of alienation that you sometimes get with recorded comedy.” Get that balance right and you have not just a great live event but also a potential income generator that enables further investment in the podcast and other creative projects. Herring, for example, never planned for his podcasts to be money-makers per se. But a combination of selling tickets to live shows and fundraising from listeners allows him to push

the form and be more ambitious with other projects, such as his live sketch comedy podcast As It Occurs to Me, which returns as a video series this year. “When I started off [podcasting] it was just for the fun of it,” he says. “It has paid off for me as a business move, but I never would have predicted that.” You might think, therefore, that Herring would be a touch peeved about other people jumping on the live podcasting bandwagon. Not a bit of it. “It’s good for everyone if podcasts become a bigger thing because then people look for other podcasts,” he says. “The more people that can get involved with it and see it as a viable way to create stuff, the better.” SHOW: VENUE: TIME: TICKETS:

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Richard Herring’s Edinburgh Fringe Podcast New Town Theatre 1:50pm – 2:50pm, 11 Aug,18 Aug £12 My Dad Wrote a Porno: Live Gilded Balloon Teviot 6:00pm – 7:00pm, 10–11 Aug £12 The Bugle Live Podcast New Town Theatre times vary, 16 Aug, 27 Aug £14

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Hannah Gadsby: Nanette A unique, superb swan song HHHHH PAGE 26

Comedy Reviews

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COMEDY CRITIC

Marissa Burgess

Simon Munnery once told me in an interview that if he liked a joke and it worked 10 per cent of the time it stayed in his set. Which pretty much sums up what makes him stand out as a comedian. It’s impossible to imagine the Fringe without him these days. From his Perrier-nominated League Against Tedium show in 1999, through Simon Munnery’s AGM and being arrested on the Royal Mile at 3:00am in 2000 for dropping his trousers on Arthur Smith’s alternative tour, he’s been causing a stir somewhere for much of the past couple of decades. He’s also fond of his eccentric props but, unusually, his latest show Renegade Plumber looks stripped down compared to some of his previous efforts. It seems he’s been putting his energies into one prop in particular this year, or rather one invention. In an attempt to try and keep his Australian wife warm when camping in the UK, he’s been fashioning a heater with the use of a camping stove, pipe, and saucepan. Think a comedian can’t find a way of making that funny? Well, you’ve clearly never seen Munnery. Even the plumbing system diagrams get a big laugh. The key to Munnery’s success and eclecticism seem to be his continual indulgence in his interests, and those interests are wide ranging. Aside from engineering he also treats us to a rendition of the protest song Mrs Barbour’s Army – just because he likes it. There is however some observational humour here too, which dips a toe into the political, from the cutting of archaeology A-level to Grenfell Tower. He always manages to make a pertinent point and still end on a high note. This show is early in its run and therefore still pretty loose – he’s still clearly working on it. But Munnery’s inherent innovation makes him a Fringe must-see nonetheless. Though he has fewer Edinburgh shows under the waistband of his tights than Munnery does, Spencer Jones is fast becoming an unmissable act too. Also a lover of invention and props, he’s once again armed with his loop machine, an eccentric haircut and a huge array of apparently unrelated bits and bobs. The gentle theme is that Jones is attending The Audition, which despite being for a “job interview for dickheads”, is something he’s pretty excited about. With his Tommy Cooper grin and some eclectic wardrobe choices, he’s a wonderfully endearing char-

Simon Munnery: Renegade Plumber «««« The Stand Comedy Club, 3:20pm – 4:20pm, 3–28 Aug, not 14, £12

Spencer Jones: The Audition «««« Heroes @ Monkey Barrel, 6:20pm – 7:10pm, 4–27 Aug, not 15, £7

John Kearns: Don’t Worry They’re Here «««« Heroes @ Monkey Barrel, 5:00pm – 6:00pm, 4–27 Aug, not 16, £7

Simon Munnery

Credit: Jill Wooster

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Reviews

Spencer Jones

John Kearns

acter – whether he’s calling himself Spencer Jones or The Herbert. Given the amount of technology in the show and the number of objects that are glued precariously together, things often go wrong in a Jones show, so this year he’s ready with a jingle to cover it. ‘Something’s Gone Grong, Something’s Gone Wrong’ just adds to this show’s loveable qualities. This year he’s also got too many tennis balls— there’s an added humour in imagining him sitting at home glueing googly eyes onto them—as well as some nonsense with a vibration machine and some particularly cute moments involving audio of Spencer talking to his young son about where adults come from. The sum total of John Kearns’s props are his trademark tonsured monk wig and tombstone teeth. Oh, and there might be another later on but we won’t give that away. As ever Kearns mixes the laughs with

a gorgeous melancholy in his latest offering, Don’t Worry They’re Here. He’s upset by the sudden postrace death of the Grand National-winning horse Many Clouds, which he may or may not have placed a bet on. Even a Creme Egg can’t console him. His friend Mehmet in the café tries to cheer him up but will anything succeed in getting his mojo back? There are some evocatively imagined set pieces here, such as Jeremy Corbyn’s bathing habits and Kearns’s day dream of a sweet shop, should he ever own one, with vintage posters, straw boater hats and a pretty girl behind the counter who would laugh at his jokes. Kearns draws you into his strange, slightly dissatisfied but sighingly beautiful little world, once again creating a lovely hour of deceptively low-key humour. The bittersweet yet strangely warm feeling will stay with you as you wend your way into the evening.

Gimme Five Hannah Gadsby ««««« "This will be her final show. For the many of us who have greatly enjoyed her work so far it's a massive disappointment" – p. 26

Jayde Adams is Jayded «««« "Last year’s Best Newcomer nominee is a mighty heart-on-her-sleeve talent" - p. 29

Paul Revill: Revillations ««« "The show is an argument for Revill's decision to be a comedian, and it's a convincing one" – p. 32

Erich McElroy Tops Trump «« "It falls by the wayside to resemble a speck in topical comedy's rear-view mirror" – p. 36

Comedy

Smug Roberts: Just Me «« "The set is underpowered and lacking in pin-sharp jokes" – p. 37

Hannah Gadsby: Nanette HHHHH VENUE:

TIME:

TICKETS:

Assembly George Square Studios 5:30pm – 6:30pm, 2–27 Aug, not 15 £11 – £12

Gadsby is giving up stand up. This will be her final show. For the many of us who have greatly enjoyed her work so far—not to mention the many starred reviews and awards over the years—it’s a massive disappointment. But by the end of her hour you really can’t argue with her. Her problem is that as a comedian her job is to create tension in the room then diffuse it with the punchline; with laughter. Stories meanwhile, she argues, create tension but explore it, and bring about some kind of catharsis. She reveals, truly shockingly, that there are stories she told in past standup shows that she couldn’t finish because of that need for a punchline. She had to hold back. Towards the close of the show there are moments where she doesn’t cave

in and diffuse the tension, and oh, is the silence as the room absorbs it powerful. She’s angry as she explores how societies around the world have repeatedly bashed women. True to form, she delves into her knowledge of art history, examining religion’s many, many examples of inherent prejudice. And that infects the present day, enabling the election of a pussy-grabbing president, and allowing famous men on sexual assault charges to be more concerned about their reputations than about what got them arrested in the first place. Whatever she does next, let’s hope that it’s something we can all sit in on and witness. Because whatever it is, it’s going to be good.

/ Marissa Burgess

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Jonny Pelham: Just Shout Louder HHHH VENUE: TIME: TICKETS:

Gilded Balloon Teviot 7:45pm – 8:45pm, 2–27 Aug £9 – £11

Self-deprecation is a standup comedy staple, yet more often than not it reeks of contrivance and self-obsession, the preserve of narcissists and hacks who slavishly cultivate outlandish images. Jonny Pelham is different in that references to his various slight disfigurements achieve a palpable sense of catharsis. He’s so hard on his physical appearance and personality flaws—his commentary going far beyond what anyone else could think in even their cruellest moments—that he reaches a position of security, where nothing can hurt him. It’s from here that he delivers routines equal parts caustic and vulnerable that other acts

Tamar Broadbent: Get Ugly HHHH VENUE: TIME:

Comedy

TICKETS:

Underbelly Med Quad 5:30pm – 6:30pm, 2–28 Aug, not 14 £9.50 – £10.50

Tamar Broadbent’s hour is, on the surface, that Fringe cliché: the break-up show. Having been dumped by a boyfriend of four years she recounts the struggles she has encountered since in regaining confidence and finding a place in the world as a single, young woman. This is placed within

seem now to be wilderness years that form the bulk of this set. Born into an academic family and raised by a therapist, Pelham is instinctively self-aware and goes deep in his psychoanalysis. When he turns his eye to society as a whole, he reaches conclusions others would prefer not to face, but are all the better for hearing as part of a supportive audience.

would have a tough time selling. He explains that this has been a good year for him, the comic having engaged meaningfully in politics for the first time and even found love. This thread of self-satisfaction would doubtless be less palatable in other hands, but in Pelham’s it seems hard won, as though he’s achieved a semblance of normality after a wasted life. It’s his good humoured recollections of what

/ Lewis Porteous

broader concerns about society’s emphasis on beauty as a yardstick for women, and she rails against online culture where appearance is all. But there’s real talent here that finds novelty in what could be hackneyed material. Most obviously, Broadbent is a singer/songwriter, spending much of the show behind her keyboard delivering smartly crafted comic songs. There’s one about women who somehow manage to remain attractive while exercising in the gym, while a later one recounting her relationship with her sister is revelatory in its honesty. The touchstones here are Britney Spears and Taylor Swift, and she simultaneously draws on

and mocks the kind of independent womanhood these performers sell. Her songwriting evidences real talent in the particular rhythms of musical comedy, even if they don’t always build to the comic crescendo they might. Broadbent is such a reassuring performer that content which in other hands might shock more conservative audience members is here instead unthreatening. Audience participation is handled well, and her rapport with the crowd culminates in the obligatory but enjoyable singalong. Boasting an original comic voice, assured musicianship, and a beguiling onstage presence, she’s a geniune triple threat. / Brett Mills

HHHH VENUE: TIME:

TICKETS:

The Stand Comedy Club 12:00pm – 1:00pm, 3–28 Aug, not 14 £12.50

How crucial are beards in the comedy business? Billy Connolly seemed not quite Billy Connolly during his occasional shaved periods, and thankfully Tony Law’s brief return to facial smoothness is now behind him, although his regrowth is currently attached to an alarmingly sensible haircut; think ‘troubled physics lecturer’. Looks shouldn’t really matter, of course, but a lot of Law’s appeal is visual. There are the outfits—this year it’s a sporty feel, from some completely unnecessary hand apparel to a more revealing wardrobe adjustment later on—and a series of exciting new facial expressions. That beard just adds an extra layer

Jayde Adams is Jayded HHHH VENUE: TIME: TICKETS:

Pleasance Courtyard 9:30pm – 10:30pm, 2–28 Aug £8 – £12

The old cliché, ‘emotional rollercoaster’, just doesn’t quite cut it for Jayde Adams’ new show: this is a full-blown emotional fun fair, packed with heights, plummets, garish outfits, belted-out songs and great chunks of various movies. Or is that more of a circus? Anyway, jaded it definitely isn’t. You’ve never seen someone pack

so much life into an hour. Dressed as a copper-topped Forrest Gump, Adams emerges with the air of a subversive children’s entertainer, and proceeds to embark on one of the braver show beginnings – one of those lengthy reenactments which must baffle anyone watching who hasn’t seen the flick in question. But the real meat of Jayded is the increasingly popular comic working through her rogue’s gallery of friendships over the years, most of which appear to have gone horribly wrong. Like a real venting friend, Adams veers from blaming herself to offering a furious middle finger to everyone concerned, which might be insufferably self-involved

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of avuncular confidence to his mad-eyed brilliance. Absurdity for the Common People is a sort of sequel to last year’s lengthily-titled, newly-sober effort, as the whole show is based on what he insists was the least successful bit of it: his 1970s trampolining career. Naturally Law indulges numerous other flights of fancy along the way, notably a stint leading bonobo monkeys from a hotel. But there are new methods of expressing them— acoustic guitar! Beatboxing! Shadow puppetry!—and even nods to current affairs. One controversial new trampoline jump he invents causes very familiar familial riffs. The well of wild ideas remains potent, then, although anyone who’s seen a Law work-in-progress will know that they need serious honing and culling too, and this show is still endearingly loose, in places. A real biographical nugget even slips in along the way. “I drove garbage trucks in the royal parks,” says Law, late on. “That’s next year’s show.” The mind boggles. / Si Hawkins

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Tony Law: Absurdity for the Common People

in other hands. Last year’s Best Newcomer nominee is a mighty heart-on-her-sleeve talent though, bursting into euphoric, cathartic song at various junctures, and revealing a genuinely jaw-dropping range. At one point she almost bursts into tears, too. Come the big finale and you wouldn’t be at all surprised if— like the movie re-enactment she once performed in full at an East London party—the show massively overran, but no, this is a controlled explosion, even allowing for some mighty fine audience participation involving a big Gump-style suitcase of props, special effects, and a fan. She’ll pick up a lot of new ones this month too. / Si Hawkins

Ahir Shah: Control HHHH

TIME:

Laughing Horse @ Cabaret Voltaire times vary, 3–27 Aug

TICKETS:

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With the urgency of someone who’s had their world view shattered and is desperately casting about for answers, Ahir Shah comes out hard and fast with a great opening line about his name, and a winning alignment of his relationship status to that of the UK’s with the EU. The fact that neither routine is wholly based on hard fact is no impediment to this sharp, impassioned and skilled gag writer, who appreciates that the value of an effective simile lies not in its accuracy but its power to lodge in the memory and to move, even if that’s out of a trading bloc with our nearest neighbours. While still reeling from Brexit and the accompanying tolerance of racism he perceives marshalling in its wake, Shah explores the cases of

Terry Alderton: All Crazy Now HHHH VENUE: TIME:

Comedy

TICKETS:

Pleasance Courtyard 10:40pm – 11:40pm, 2–27 Aug, not 14 £8.50 – £11

A Terry Alderton show is a bit of a rabbit hole at the best of times. And, on tonight’s showing, this might just be the best of times for a comedian nominated for the Perrier award in 1999. Since then we’ve had winners who have amply demonstrated what an artful and

is one of the few countries in the EU with nothing to be ashamed of, conveniently whitewashing the ravages of Empire. History would seem to support Shah’s insistence on learning from our mistakes lest we be doomed to repeat them. And he makes his case comprehensively and consistently hilariously, even if his impact beyond the politically like-minded is open to question.

intelligent, decent people he knows who voted Leave. And, as a hearton-sleeve left-winger, takes a swipe at the inexplicable anti-Semitism in Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party. But these are momentary diversions from the main business in hand, which is his relentless pillorying of the Right’s yearning for a return to some nostalgic fantasy age, exemplified by trade secretary Liam Fox’s insistence that the UK

/ Jay Richardson

cerebral form comedy can be. But none of them has been genuinely, vicerally terrifying, like Alderton. What’s perhaps so unsettling is the shaky ground Alderton’s comic persona stands on. One minute he’s a self-referential tricksy formalist, the next he’s a brash club comic ready to knock seven comedic bells out of a heckler. One minute he’s telling jokes about being medicated, the next he’s on to chicken pole vaults (nope, no idea either). It’s not that some jokes are crass and others are clever, or that sometimes he hits gold and sometimes he falls flat. It’s more that he is both of these things, held in some weird tension.

And, boy, does he sell it visciously. With collaborator Johnny Spurling, this is a tight, frenetic hour right from the off. The pair’s double-act sections are a highlight, channeling Morecambe and Wise as a bickering couple – only with real venom. Alderton, alone, flicks schitzophrenically between his multiple personas without letting any of them feel like a character, and we’re given barely milliseconds to stop and think about the barrage of quips, nonsequiturs and flights of fancy. But this isn’t comedy for thinking about. It’s visceral comedy for feeling – and for fearing. Totally weird, man. / Evan Beswick

Dane Baptiste: G.O.D. (Gold. Oil. Drugs) HHHH VENUE: TIME:

TICKETS:

Pleasance Courtyard 9:00pm – 10:00pm, 2–27 Aug, not 16 £12 – £14

Dane Baptiste doesn’t claim to have all the answers, but in G.O.D (an urban manifesto arriving a tad late for the year’s elections) belly laughs and epiphanies abound, so we’ll have to make do with that instead.

which he’s known with a selfeffacing wink, nod, or killer line. There’s a lot of surface-level soul searching, and he takes the time for some introspection as he subjects the religious overtones of consumer society to inquisition. It’s wonderfully laid-back satire. There’s an admirable depth to what he’s trying to achieve here, but it needn’t be taken sincerely to be enjoyed. It’s a sermon that won’t send you to sleep, delivered by a man who’s made it his mission to gently prod at the flawed divinity of social order. Not that he has a God complex or anything.

Few comics on the circuit blend the cerebral and the crude as seamlessly as Baptiste, and he’s returned to the Fringe on blistering form. Grappling with the eponymous commodities as reference points, he uses his hour to deconstruct the base desires at the heart of modern life. It’s very much an encompassing theme, with the show named accordingly, rather than a hurriedly devised title for the brochure deadline in May, followed by a show unrelated to it. His dissection of TLC’s No Scrubs is a fantastic demonstration of his pragmatic powers, and he always tempers the bravado for

/ Matthew Sharpe

his techniques for chatting up women. But the twinkle in his eye points to tales of regret and missed opportunities that highlight the consequences of debauchery. This isn’t an apology, but it is at least apologetic. A keystone for the show is Revill’s experiences as a drama student, and he sends up the theatrical games pretentious acting teachers foist upon their charges. His blokey

demeanour means he was never going to fit into that milieu, and it is comedy that offered him an escape route. It’s unfortunate that the physical humour that peppers the show isn’t as tightly honed as the verbal, for there’s a notable charm in the gag delivery that shows skill with a punchline. The show is an argument for Revill’s decision to be a comedian, and it’s a convincing one. / Brett Mills

Paul Revill: Revillations HHH VENUE:

TIME:

Comedy

TICKETS:

Laughing Horse @ Cabaret Voltaire 3:00pm – 4:00pm, 3–27 Aug, not 9, 16, 23 FREE

The “revillations” on offer here chart Paul Revill’s journey to standup. His narrative begins as an only child growing up in Luton and, later, a nondescript English village. It’s once he gets to his teenage years and discovers drink and drugs that his life course changes, opting to study drama at university, much to his parents’ ire. From that beginning we are led on a journey that aims to explain why someone might choose to spend their August gigging for free in a tiny room in Edinburgh. This, then, is an origin story. Given the focus on booze and narcotics this has the potential to be boorish and laddish. And there is a veneer of that as Revill outlines

Gavin Webster: It’s About Time We Had More Women in There HHH VENUE: TIME:

TICKETS:

The Stand Comedy Club 2 7:35pm – 8:35pm, 2–27 Aug, not 3, 14 £9

Concerned that his Geordie accent makes everything he utters sound sexist, Gavin Webster nevertheless delivers an hour focused on the idiotic ways in which women are treated, especially when this

is by groups purporting to be feminist. His particular bugbear is quotas which, he argues, mask the complexities of female oppression. His bile towards such simplistic solutions to intractable problems is filtered through his anger towards people such as liberals, along with the other 90 per cent of humans he hates. As such, this is an angry show, resolutely committed to the idea that comedy can engage in politics. But this makes it sound more astringent than it is. Webster’s invective is delivered in haltering, stuttering rambles, revealing a glimmer of insecurity beneath the fury. This is a sweeter show than it appears at first. Which is good, as

he’s aware of the contradictions inherent in a shouty man insisting he knows how to solve women’s problems. But he also often retreats from the particularities of his politics: more than once he reveals he’s a Labour voter by upbringing but could not stick with that party when Blair was in charge, and it would have been fascinating to hear more on this. His concern for the power of the overly-concerned means he worries that we might be nearing the end of comedy, as society collapses into factions afraid of offence. This would be a shame as, given the evidence here, humour continues to offer a space for truths to be told.

/ Brett Mills

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Aditi Mittal: Global Village Idiot HHH VENUE: TIME:

TICKETS:

Underbelly Med Quad 6:35pm – 7:35pm, 2–27 Aug, not 14 £10 – £11

Aditi Mittal doesn’t convince as a village idiot. But if hers is the role of the wise fool, bringing enlightenment to her people and, in turn, educating foreigners with humour, then at her reliable best, she’s a smart and perceptive guide to culture clash. With only a handful of professional female standups in India, hers is a view of one in many, many millions, especially droll on how the nation that gave the world the Kama Sutra has somehow become so prudish about sex education (a legacy of British imperialism, naturally). Caustically satirical when the

Reviews

mood takes her, drawing from an infamous 2014 poll that found that many Brits thought the Empire to be, on balance, a good thing, she likens our rapacious lust for territory to a child’s computer game. Scathing of Slumdog Millionaire’s poverty porn and aware of her own relative privilege, she presents a balanced assessment of the UK and India’s attractions and horrors, which nevertheless allows for incredulity at Western food waste, inspiring a memorably pithy definition of a "second world country". Elsewhere,

she’s far more light-hearted, her itinerant lifestyle informing a surprisingly lengthy and detailed assessment of contrasting Indian and European toilet habits. Occasionally, as when she expands on India’s religions, Mittal is more interesting than funny, albeit while contextualising a complex subject. The link she makes between standup and prostitution is underdeveloped too but it doesn’t undermine a very promising Edinburgh debut.

/ Jay Richardson

Phoebe Walsh: I’ll Have What She’s Having HHH VENUE: TIME:

TICKETS:

Pleasance Courtyard 9:30pm – 10:30pm, 2–27 Aug, not 14 £9 – £11

Phoebe Walsh is either so far ahead of the curve that the audience struggles to keep up with her, or else she’s simply incapable of adhering to any conventional writing structure. Her show’s ostensible focus is on the comic getting to know herself, but the routines which put this theme across are so fractured and rife with non sequiturs that we wonder how confused she must have been before undertaking her self-exploration in earnest. If her discomfortingly harsh descriptions of her parents are anything to go by, Walsh was bred

Myra DuBois: DuBois Entendre HHH VENUE:

TIME:

Comedy

TICKETS:

Laughing Horse @ The Counting House 10:30pm – 11:30pm, 3–26 Aug, not 25 FREE

Someone as faux-glamorous as Myra DuBois does not belong on the free fringe, as she is constantly reminding us. The several entrances to the ballroom in which she is based for the month being all too accessible, there are people toing

to be insecure, self-absorbed and eccentric. She loses some of the room when she talks about her family because the sense of humble tragedy she evokes is just too overpowering. When she describes coming out as bisexual to her mother and father, we do at least get a sense of each accepting their daughter, albeit in the most distracted or cringe-inducing of ways. The performer is at her strongest when she focuses on her own neurosis independent of its possible causes. Sharing chips in restaurants turns out to be one major cause of anxiety for her, while her relationships are characterised by needy tactical negotiation. One very lengthy routine in which Walsh acts out a night spent clubbing with friends is baffling and meanders without any kind of discernible point being made, but otherwise she just about succeeds in putting across a world view which defies comprehension.

/ Lewis Porteous

and froing from the bar. She chastises them for not including her in the round and has an ongoing feud with the rather rambunctious air conditioning that seems unnecessary for such an airy room. This is all before she has managed to begin the show in earnest. Which comes as somewhat of a blessing in disguise as this gives her acid tongue a chance to wag over all the gathered revelers for this late night drag act, a show that’s heavier on the comedy than the musical numbers. There’s a touch of Mrs Merton in her friendly/antagonistic banter with her long suffering sound tech; a Yorkshire Lily Savage vibe about the

way she dominates the room; and a touch of Bet Lynch in the handling of her perceived social status. It all feels like something you’ve seen before, but that doesn’t make it any less enjoyable to watch her snap at those she sees as lesser than her. Due to the unruly nature of the free fringe and the Scooby-Doo-esque door openings of The Counting House, the show never quite gets going (DuBois perfectly sums up it as “like doing an assembly at a rough school”) and a couple of magic tricks gone wrong are more filler than killer. But DuBois excels when letting loose on the naughty kids in the room. / John Stansfield

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16 FebruArY - 18 March 2018

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The critically acclaimed comedy dining show from the producers of Faulty Towers The Dining Experience

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All tickets include 3-course 3-27 August meal + 2-hour show Principal Edinburgh (Not Mondays)

19-21 George Street EH2 2PB Venue 119

0845 154 4145 interactivetheatre.com.au/theweddingreception

HHH VENUE: TIME:

TICKETS:

Gilded Balloon Teviot 10:00pm – 11:00pm, 2–28 Aug, not 14 £9 – £11

Offering a meditation on the nature of good and evil, complicated by perspective and the moral certitude of Disney movies, Alice Fraser delivers another wide-ranging hour. The Australian comic incorporates such unlikely influences as quantum physics, Buddhism and gay dirty talk, with a banjo tune thrown

Erich McElroy Tops Trump HH TIME:

Laughing Horse @ Espionage 3:45pm – 4:40pm, 3–27 Aug

TICKETS:

FREE

Comedy

VENUE:

In economics, market saturation forces businesses to innovate and adapt. In comedy, the solution is pretty much the same, which is what makes Erich McElroy Tops Trump such a redundant and unremarkable offering. McElroy himself is an American-born comic living in London, which surely makes him the ideal candidate to bridge the cultural gap and offer Fringe audiences an insight into the omnishambles that was the 2016 presidential election. Amid the glut of shows seeking to do the same thing, though, it falls by the wayside to resemble a speck in topical comedy’s rear-view mirror.

in for good measure. Dressed in big-shouldered, dominatrix-meets-schlocky ‘50s sci-fi villain attire, Fraser reveals that she always preferred the baddies to the heroes in Disney stories. A bookish nerd of mixed Catholic/Jewish heritage, the comic was brought up hippy by her mother’s side of the family and strictly by her formal father, whose ban on television made the young Fraser’s escape to watch movies at her friend’s house delicious forbidden fruit. The comic’s relationship with her father is neatly illustrated in an account of him attending a gig she performed at, with the compere’s casual sexism prompting him to act in a way that stirs conflicting emotions in Fraser. She also reflects on

He’s got a ticket-baiting title and an accent that lends the impression of authenticity, but not much else. Revealing that a Trump takedown wasn’t his first choice for a show, but that he felt obligated to cover it, McElroy seems pretty pleased with himself. He’s one of those people who replies to Trump’s tweets, and for our benefit he’s printed and laminated them too. The transient brevity of Twitter is somewhat diminished when it’s condensed to a guy smugly reading aloud his proudest 140-character putdowns. There’s an uncomfortable irony in his suggestion that the titular businessman operates in an insular feedback loop; McElroy delivers his derision from a detached pedestal, seemingly unable to resonate with his audience and playing to a gallery that isn’t really there. If you can’t find funny things to say about a reality star and real-life Twitter troll becoming the leader of the free world, then you need to rethink your satire. / Matthew Sharpe

her friendship with the blokeishly right-wing Dave and potentially suicidal fellow comic Laura Davis, their respective personalities providing additional scaffolding for her morality. Taking in a spell she spent in the Middle East working in women’s education and the treatment of white Australia towards its indigenous population, Fraser throws a dizzying number of anecdotes and ideas at Empire. Ultimately, a confrontation between the maternal and paternal sides of her family afford it a satisfying feeling of structure and closure. Yet there are moments on the way you’ll find yourself struggling to keep up if you’re not sharp enough to make the connections. / Jay Richardson

Credit: Steve Ullathorne

Alice Fraser: Empire

Smug Roberts: Just Me HH

TIME:

Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters 10:15pm – 11:15pm, 4–28 Aug

TICKETS:

FREE

VENUE:

Smug Roberts begins his show inviting the audience to dislike him. With multiple children from various marriages, he insists he’s messed up his life. Now in his fifties, and concerned about his health, returning to the Fringe is a statement of making the most of things,

a memento mori. His laidback delivery style and the twinkle in his eye encourage the crowd to be on his side, despite his invitation for the opposite. This is comedy rooted in the everyday, as he outlines his concerns over his children and events such as their first day at school. The set-ups invite recognition, and the storytelling is strong. So it’s a shame when many of these narratives don’t really go anywhere, the punchline failing to deliver the required comic jolt. Maybe he should move away from the quotidian and explore the fantastical more, for there are two sequences where the set comes alive. One concerns him

chatting to his dog; even Roberts seemed surprised by the audience’s reaction to this. The second is a piece of physical grotesquery arising from the need to get a doctor’s appointment quickly. In this evocation of heightened worlds, reality and fantasy clash, and he could get more comic mileage out of this moment. He’s a beguiling presence, who interacts with the crowd well. Indeed, rowdier punters might have given him more energy to play off. But overall the set is underpowered and lacking in pin-sharp jokes, which means these tales of life and regret don’t have the punch they might. / Brett Mills

on a TV screen with several of Demetriou’s pre-recorded sketches, including a ‘70s cop show called ‘Law of the Land’ in which the standup plays the role of embittered detective Frank Law. There’s a comedy course for beginners that ends in a lynch mob, and his own dealings with his agent stating his intentions for the show. It’s all very slick and Demetriou seems more at ease in front of the

camera than in front of an audience. His nervous energy when live treads on some decent punch lines and there’s a heavy reliance on over-emphasised swear words in lieu of actual jokes. But you can’t help but marvel at the sheer number of manhours that must have gone into the creation of this multimedia show. Said time might have been better spent honing his live stagecraft.

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Stoph Demetriou: The DunningKruger Effect HH VENUE:

TIME:

TICKETS:

Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters 11:10pm – 12:10am, 4–28 Aug FREE

It would be all too easy to review a show about the Dunning-Kruger effect, the psychological theory in which people with low intelligence perceive themselves as much smarter than they are, by stating the performer himself suffers from the same delusions. Especially when the show itself comes to the same conclusion albeit with tongue planted firmly in cheek. Stoph Demetriou, however, is too talented a filmmaker to have low cognitive ability – it is just a shame it doesn’t translate to his comedy show about the affliction. Much of the show takes place

Reviews

/ John Stansfield

HH TIME:

Laughing Horse @ City Cafe 4:15pm – 5:15pm, 3–27 Aug, not 15

TICKETS:

FREE

VENUE:

A vital and vibrant part of the free fringe is whimsy-laden shows that revel in confusing their audiences. Their pleasure is in disorientating punters, many of whom sit bemused, the performer seemingly taking delight in the discombobula-

tion they’re causing. Olaf Falafel is such a comedian, his show a destabilising concoction of unabashed silliness. But while the joy in such palaver is precisely this sense of dislocation, there still needs to be something that grounds the comedian’s world in order for the audience to know where they’re being taken. It is in this aspect that Falafel doesn’t quite hit the mark. An opening musical number, clearly intended to set the tone, instead produces mainly bafflement. There is tension in the air. And though Falafel’s engaging personality eventually puts everyone at ease, it’s a false start that doesn’t augur well.

Popular Comedian Rob Mulholland HH VENUE: TIME:

TICKETS:

Just the Tonic at The Caves 8:00pm – 9:00pm, 3–27 Aug, not 14 £5

Rob Mulholland begins his first Fringe hour by ranting about whole swathes of standups he reckons have become hugely successful by pretending to be something they’re not. Which is fine if your own stuff then offers a bold alternative; not so much if it chiefly relies on cheap shock tactics to make audiences think you’re “boundary pushing”, as his publicity puts it. That blurb suggests that this show might be rather interesting, as Mulholland applies for Arts Council funding to stage a play about a comedian tricking the Arts Council. In fact, that’s a fairly short section early on where he apparently, unapologetically, rips them

Multiple callbacks indicate a desire to produce a Harry Hill-style cavalcade of juggled jokes, but the scaffolding’s not in place to hold all this up. When momentum is achieved it is suddenly halted by a moment that doesn’t quite sing. This is a shame because there’s skill in the brevity of some of the one-liners, such as a great gag about spaghetti. Technically complex moments using video and Powerpoint indicate an interest in the comic value of visuals. The hour works towards an admittedly rousing finale of audience participation that is delightful. But it’s an unfortunately uneven journey getting there. / Brett Mills

off. The projector dominating the stage throughout is used bafflingly briefly, and the main thrust is actually him and a mate spending that money in seriously seedy ways. But then the whole show leaves a bad taste. Along the way he jokes about— deep breath—the disabled, diabetics, a dodgy cab driver whose ethnic origin he insists he won’t mention, but then makes acutely obvious, thus drawing much more attention to it than was necessary. There’s a lazy routine in which he makes Angela Merkel sound like a war-film Nazi—as if she’s the big international worry right now—a lengthy impression of someone killing a baby, and a bit where he pretends to have been raped. Fun times. If Mulholland was some wild misanthrope, this might at least have some intriguing context. But he’s generally a jolly and impressively confident presence, which suggests that it’s all a shameless attempt at onstage infamy. Funny that. / Si Hawkins

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Olaf Falafel Presents: The Marmosets of My Mind

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Assembly Festival presents

A NEW SHOW FROM THE CREATORS OF THE 2016 FRINGE HIT ATTRAPE MOI

‘Transit evokes the spirit of

JOIE DE VIVRE’

‘True circus AT ITS BES T’

The Circus Diaries

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‘If you see one show at the Fringe

MAK E IT THI S ONE ’ EdFringe Review

Created by Directed by Alexandre Fecteau

TV Bomb

ThreeWeeks

Theatre Weekly

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FlipFa brique.com

18:00 3 - 28 AUG

PERFORMERS LTD PRESENTS

A NEW PLAY BY

IRVINE WELSH DEAN CAVANAGH

Modern art & naked ambition can be a messy business DIRECTED BY NICK MORAN STARRING PERRY BENSON GEORGE RUSSO LEWIS KIRK MAYA GERBER

WORLD PREMIERE A fast-moving,

black comedy

making its

debut in Edinburgh. PERFORMERSTHEPLAY.COM

16:45 3 - 27 AUG

GEORGE STREET

Meet Me at Dawn

Zinnie Harrisâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Orpheus and Eurydice retelling is painful and brilliant HHHHH

Credit: David Monteith-Hodge

PAGE 44

Theatre

Reviews

Adam Kashmiry grew up in Eygpt; a trans man in a woman’s body, and in a society that keeps the sexes quite separate. In Frances Poet’s play, Adam’s played by two performers; one male, Kashmiry himself, and one female, Neshla Caplan. It’s a simple, lucid gesture in a play concerned with doubles. Contronyms—words that contain their own opposites—run through the text. The stage is a floor of burnished mirrors. This is a split story; local and global, personal and political. Adam makes it to Glasgow and claims asylum, only to hit a catch-22. Unable to live as a man in Egypt, he can’t supply evidence that he’s transgender. It leaves him in limbo, caught between countries, between lives, between genders. Poet ties two transitions together. Adam’s constrained by his body, Egypt by its head – Hosni Mubarak. Both are freed by the internet—Adam finds trans testimonials, and Egypt, social media—and both take their fate into their own hands. As revolutionaries occupy Tahrir Square to demand their freedom, Adam self-prescribes testosterone to demand his. It is, Poet implies, an act of self-immolation. It’s an explosive association—British bureaucracy as autocracy—and one that Poet doesn’t entirely stand up. When the revolution and Adam collapse in different ways, I wondered about the rationale of regulation. Is the freedom online—dark web and all—a freedom too far? Or might it be the making of us? Cora Bissett’s production ends with that trans choir, recorded individually online, singing together as one: “We are you, we hear you, we understand.” How long has that gone unsaid? Jo Clifford knew from an early age that she was a woman in a male body. “Children know,” she presses. It wasn’t until her mid-fifties, and the death of her wife, that she started living as such. In Eve, softly spoken as a sigh, she looks

Adam «««« Traverse Theatre, times vary, 5–27 Aug, not 7, 14, 21, £16.50 – £21.50

Eve ««« Traverse Theatre, times vary, 3–27 Aug, not 7, 14, 21, £14.50 – £19.50

Circa: Humans «« Underbelly’s Circus Hub on the Meadows, 7:00pm – 8:00pm, 4–26 Aug, not 9, 14, 21, £17.50 – £19.50

Credit: Pedro Greig

LEAD THEATRE CRITIC

Matt Trueman Reviews

“We are you, we hear you, we understand.” The words flood through the Traverse; a choir of trans voices from all over the world singing together. The song soars upwards, completely transcendent, flush-full of feeling. It will stand for a festival finally giving voice to trans stories. The National Theatre of Scotland offers two, very different and entirely similar: Adam and Eve.

Circa: Humans

Credit: Christopher Bowen Eve

back at what seems like several lives in one. There’s the child, internalising a crowd laughing at a pantomime dame; the schoolboy sleeping in dorms named after military men; the young lover orgasming for the first time; the father to two girls; the widower; and, at last, the woman. Photos of them all are projected onto the back wall so that Clifford sits in front of her younger, former self, John. Her images reflects off his; the woman she is trapped behind the men she was. Identity shimmers. Is the gaunt boy any more different to the middle aged man than he is to Clifford now? Like Kate O’Donnell’s You’ve Changed, playing at Summerhall, you get the sense of a long life lived. Clifford spent decades not just in the wrong body, but in a society that couldn’t—or wouldn’t—understand. It seems a terrible waste: years of shame and isolation, countless daily indignities. She recalls a night at the Met in New York, traipsing downstairs again and again, accompanied by a silent security guard, to its one gender-neutral toilet. Clifford’s quilted delivery can be overbearing, but her story needs airing as much as it needs hearing. She talks of cruelties encountered on public transport and pressures imposed by her boy’s boarding school, but also of small kindnesses—waiters welcoming her as “madame”—and simple pleasures like red wine and summer heat. Family too, and acceptance in place of rejection. In Eve, as in Clifford, all these things co-exist.

Bodies can, of course, be as brilliant as they are bothersome. Humans, the new show from Yaron Lifschitz’s circus rockstars Circa, runs through the corpus’s capabilities. Centring on acrobatics over apparatus, it’s a return to basics for the troupe: a show built entirely out of bodies. They flip, flop and fly across the floor; 10 individuals darting over and under one another. Pairs run through all the ways they fit together, and two lovers go toe-to-toe, weaving in and out of one another. Groups toss each other around in hand-to-hand routines, and clamber up into five-strong human towers, necks braced, legs bearing the weight. It’s as if they’re taking their physical forms for a test drive. They hit limitations too, of course. Try as they might, not one of these sublime, stretchy specimens can lick the back of their own elbow. While the intention is pared back and pure, however, the effect is often merely plain. A company known for its artistry—Lifschitz is a master of timbre and tone— has effectively delivered a straightforward show of skill and strength. A perfect human puppet bit—Kimberley O’Brien is dead-eyed and limp-limbed—gives a tantalising glimpse of what they’re capable of, but otherwise it’s all a bit display team routine. The soundtrack’s a jumble, jaunty one moment, foreboding the next, and for a show about limitations, it rarely pushes its artists to their limits. If anything, Humans is too comfortable in its own skin.

festmag.co.uk

Credit: Andy Bell Adam

Gimme Five Meet Me at Dawn «««««

A Super Happy Story (About Feeling Super Sad) «««« "Doesn't shy away from the darkness of depression, but empathy pours off the stage" – p. 48

Dr Carnesky's Incredible Bleeding Woman ««« "Unashamed, radical showcase of some excellent artists and their experiences as women" – p. 52

Box Clever «« "It's incredibly frustrating to watch two sides of a production working at such odds to each other" – p. 54

My Name is Irrelevant Theatre

« "The show lacks any reflection on a psyche that, while sympathetic in its disturbance, is undeniably menacing too" – p. 56

Credit: David Monteith-Hodge

"Zinnie Harris’s startling script leverages the difference between what has actually happened and an alternative, to heartbreaking effect" – p. 44

Meet Me at Dawn HHHHH VENUE: TIME:

TICKETS:

Traverse Theatre times vary, 4–27 Aug, not 7, 14, 21 £21.50

When someone dies, we don’t get to talk about their death with them. To tell them of our grief, and how—as the character of Robyn in this brilliant and devastating play says—we would “reorganise the universe” to have them back. To tell them where they were buried. To tell them how angry we are that they left. The question at the heart of Meet Me at Dawn is: might this be the fairest way? The play opens with two women, lovers, stranded on a rocky shore; a sink, half buried in sand, drips in the background. It’s an erroneous, out-of-place object. The women have been in a boating accident and, in this version of reality, both of them have survived. Slowly,

another possibility encroaches. Inspired by the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, Zinnie Harris’s startling script leverages the difference between what has actually happened, and an alternative—a fantasy that is deeply, desperately wished for— to heartbreaking effect. Though reality shifts in Meet Me at Dawn, the love between the two women is a solid, immovable thing at its core. Harris gives them an amusing, beautifully established dynamic, and intensely-felt performances from Neve McIntosh as Robyn and Sharon Duncan-Brewster as Helen speak of utter devotion, of years spent together. But, just as Robyn and Helen once imagined what their life would be like in a house that they could not afford, it becomes clear that the time they have together is illusory, and short. It is perhaps the greatest achievement of this phenomenal play that to spend it with them, though painful, feels like a tremendous privilege.

/ Polly Checkland Harding

a new comedy revue by Richard Sparks

‘Will enthral and enchant all who venture through this theatricum botanicum’ 2PM (3PM)

02-28 AUGUST Until 28 August2017 2017

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Jack Rooke: Happy Hour HHHH VENUE: TIME:

TICKETS:

Underbelly, Cowgate 5:20pm – 6:20pm, 3–27 Aug, not 14 £11 – £12

As the government continues to hack away at mental health provision, vulnerable people’s lives are further endangered. This is a big concern for Jack Rooke, who wants us to talk about our mental health. But talking about it isn’t enough.

Look after your mates. Make sure that if they’re feeling down, they find help. Because if you don’t, bad things can happen. His show isn’t a lecture, though. It’s a hilarious, sparkly romp through his uni years. It’s also a letter to one of his best mates, Olly. They met as journalism students when Rooke was a first year and Olly ran the university’s radio station. Schmoozing during freshers’ week proved a false start after Olly ridiculed his hair, but the two soon became good friends. Rooke’s stories of all-night drinking sessions, performance poetry and pub crawls get plenty of laughs,

and deservedly so. He’s a hilarious, instinctual performer who can change the mood of the room in a second. It’s a skill he uses to great effect in this comedic show about a serious subject. By the end of Olly’s story, sniffles are heard throughout the audience. Rooke is supported by Ben Welsh, who takes on entertaining responsibilities above and beyond those usually designated to an assistant. As much as this is a piece about Rooke coping with the dark side of mental health, it’s also a celebration of friendship and a reminder to look after the people you care about. Though tear-inducing, it also lifts the spirit to celestial heights. / Laura Kressly

The simplicity of the concept is countered with the subtle techniques that bring each moment to life. The blocking; the use of music; the interaction with the audience; all complement the core material. Some items are read concurrently, which makes for hilariously shocking combinations. Guilty laughter bubbles through the crowd whenever we embarrassingly confess.

Some lists are written down, some are folded into paper aeroplanes and launched – the act of writing creates a new memory. These are the lists that we may never make, too paranoid of being judged. But when they are announced to the world, all we want is to hear more. The performers speak plainly, but they speak a glorious truth. / Daniel Perks

Lists for the End of the World HHHH VENUE: TIME:

Theatre

TICKETS:

Summerhall 1:45pm – 2:45pm, 2–27 Aug, not 14, 21 £12

“Things I want to do before I die.” It is the first of many lists in this show; it is also the last. Taken verbatim from over 300 people, each one engages with its audience – we exclaim and agree, we cringe and sigh, we cry and reminisce. Because we are weird and wonderful; we think we’re alone in a world where there is always someone else. For an hour, three performers recite lists. That’s it. And yet an hour is too short. The lists feel too short. Every subject is one that we want to discuss, share and debate over. They are beautifully specific: “What would you do if you knew no one else would find out?”; “The different ways to hide a dead body.”

VENUE: TIME:

TICKETS:

Pleasance Courtyard 3:15pm – 4:15pm, 2–28 Aug, not 16 £8 – £10

We are all monsters – it’s an inherent trait that resides deep within, waiting to be unleashed. Joe Sellman-Leava’s girlfriend argues the point that no one is innately good. Sellman-Leava’s research discovers that Mike Tyson lashed out, Patrick Stewart kept it locked up inside. He himself seems awkwardly charming, but even he erupts when pushed to the brink. It’s easy to forget that Monster is a one-man show, such is Sellman-Leava’s skill of inhabiting a plethora of characters. Conversations between multiple people are effortlessly executed; separate scenes are instantly distinguishable. He takes the trouble to demarcate the action from the start,

The Nature of Forgetting HHHH VENUE: TIME:

TICKETS:

Pleasance Courtyard 12:00pm – 1:15pm, 3–27 Aug, not 14 £10.50 – £12.50

Are memories the thing that make us human? And if so, what happens when our memory fails us? This is the main theme of Theatre Re’s touching The Nature of Forgetting, which uses music and physical theatre to explore the mind of Tom, a 55 year-old with early onset dementia.

Reviews

HHHH

ensuring that the audience are immediately engaged. It means he can skip between narrative threads and never lose focus. Is it harder to recognise misogyny in celebrities? As a boxing champion, Tyson seemed to detest women; Stewart’s father was violent to his wife, but also a decorated war hero. It’s only one of many passing comments that Sellman-Leava casts out, but a premise that haunts his reality. His internal struggle between being a pacifist and truly understanding his character’s rage is externalised and emotional. Director Tom’s advice is to “man the fuck up” (#everydaysexism). But it ruins his relationship and we all feel the pain – we’re invested in the break-up. Monster is perfectly paced and performed with very few props – the power of Sellman-Leava’s magnetic storytelling needs no further decoration. He is honest without being gushing, captivating without being anti-climactic.

festmag.co.uk

Monster

/ Daniel Perks

It starts with the forgetting of a name, mistaking daughter for wife as she prepares him for his upcoming birthday party. Soon it escalates into a torrent of mixed up memories from infancy to schooldays to marriage. Devised in collaboration with neuroscientist Professor Kate Jeffery, and informed by interviews with people affected by dementia, the show captures the frustration and fear that comes with losing your past. Guillaume Pigé is brilliant as Tom, switching from reminiscence to confusion in the blink of an eye. He’s backed by a strong ensemble who use mime

and fluid physical theatre to create, then steal away, his recollections. Alex Judd’s music, played from the back of the stage, adds to the atmosphere. That the narrative at times feels fragmented only adds to the idea of Tom’s frustration and a sense of the helplessness of his ailing mind. The message is rammed home, with memories twisting and turning, fading from one to another, which feels laboured in one or two places. Yet as the candles on the cake are blown out, you get the sense that while his memories may be fading, Tom is still very much human after all. / Rosie Bannister

A Super Happy Story (About Feeling Super Sad) HHHH VENUE: TIME:

TICKETS:

Pleasance Courtyard 2:20pm – 3:20pm, 2–28 Aug, not 9, 16, 23 £9 – £12

Depression can be terrifying when you’re caught in its grip. By making a literal song and dance about it, Hull-based theatre company Silent Uproar’s A Super Happy Story (About Feeling Super Sad) brings that home, but with humour that’s as warm as a hug.

Nina – A Story About Me And Nina Simone HHHH VENUE: TIME:

Theatre

TICKETS:

Traverse Theatre times vary, 5–13 Aug, not 7 £21.50

This is so much more than a concert where Josette Bushell-Mingo plays Nina Simone. Sure, she sings with a powerful, emotional intensity that pulls you out of your seat. But this is also an exposing examination of Simone’s resistance, a cry in horror that nothing has really changed. Bushell-Mingo starts with a rally – Harlem, 1969, ‘Revolution’. But she can’t go on – the revolution hasn’t happened. We are still in a place where we must shout that ‘Black Lives Matter’, and Bushell-Mingo is angry. Seventeen-year-old Laquan

Writer Jon Brittain brought cabaret to the Iron Lady in Margaret Thatcher Queen of Soho, and meticulous research and sensitivity to transgender issues in Rotterdam. Here, based on interviews with mental health organisations and sufferers of depression, he’s crafted a musical about Sally (Madeleine MacMahon), told in chapters. She’s a happy person. Only she’s not. Inside, nothing feels right. There’s a knowingness to the primary-coloured breeziness of the opening number, sung by MacMahon with Sophie Clay and Ed Yelland, who play the various friends and family in Sally’s life. It’s almost too much, trying too hard – like the smile that makes Sally’s jaw ache as

McDonald is shot 16 times in 13.8 seconds by a white policeman in 2014. We are pinned to our seats, speechless, when a raging Bushell-Mingo conducts a harrowing thought experiment: what if she were to pull a gun out right then and shoot all the white people? It’s not revenge; it’s self-defence. For the majority of the show, the music is a natural extension of the story. The band, led by pianist Shapor Bastansiar, start up a melody at every poignant moment, a natural, organic progression in Bushell-Mingo’s tale. This story is uncomfortable, it’s tear-jerking and it’s painful. Bushell-Mingo lets loose both barrels and doesn’t give us the comfort of a fourth wall. If she asks a question, she wants an answer, regardless of how embarrassing or shameful it may be. She is fearless in going past the point of no return. And then eventually she regains her composure – it’s on with the show.

/ Daniel Perks

she tries to keep it on her face. This is a production of clever contrasts. Director Alex Mitchell and musical director Matthew Floyd Jones (also on piano) use the opening upbeat tone to knock us for six when Sally ditches the microphone, turns to us and recounts her first breakdown. Quietly delivered by a superb MacMahon, with aching vulnerability, it’s suddenly personal and painful. Well acted by all of the cast, A Super Happy Story doesn’t shy away from the darkness of depression, but empathy pours off the stage. Well aimed at audiences of 16+, Brittain’s unshowy writing brings mental illness into the light.

/ Tom Wicker

For all our sins...

dUs

PRESENTS

oorrdd

Dana Hajaj Matthew Zajac

ismiss

4-26 August @ 6.05pm

adapted by GLENN CHANDLER the creator of Taggart

from the novel by MICHAEL CAMPBELL

THE SKY IS SAFE

by Matthew Zajac

PRODUCTIONS

A love story. A war story. A microcosm of our time.

Main Hall, Summerhall Edinburgh Festival Fringe Fri 4 - Sun 27 August 2017 7.45pm (except 14/21 Aug) Preview Wed 2 Aug. BSL (signed) performance Weds 9 Aug 7.45pm Running Time: 60 minutes. Age suitability: 12+ Amal is a Syrian refugee, Gordon a privileged westerner from northern Europe. They meet on the opulent streets and shadowy alleys of Taksim the commercial heart of Istanbul.

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“determinedly confrontational and challenging” The Scotsman

“ Your imagination tingles: this is bold, breath-taking stuff.” The Herald

“a high-octane celebration of youthful optimism and desire” The List

TUTUMUCKY

PROCESS DAY

ZOO Southside Venue 82

by Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar

VELVET PETAL: BEDROOM

ZOO Southside Venue 82 Tue 22 - Sat 26 August, 7:00pm £12/£10 concessions

Summerhall Venue 26

Thu 17- Sun 27 August (not 21, 22) 1:15pm, £10/£8 concessions

Book: 0131 662 6892 | zoofestival.co.uk

Book: 0131 560 1581 | summerhall.co.uk

by Botis Seva

Wed 16 - Sun 20 August, 7:00pm £12/£10 concessions

Book: 0131 662 6892 | zoofestival.co.uk

by Fleur Darkin

Part of British Council Edinburgh Showcase 2017

ZOO southside

scottishdancetheatre.com

Quarter Life Crisis HHHH VENUE: TIME:

TICKETS:

Underbelly, Cowgate 2:40pm – 3:40pm, 3–27 Aug, not 14 £10 – £11

How old were you when you first began to feel the inklings of adulthood? I was 26, as was Alicia, the everyday heroine of this warm, funny and thoughtful spoken-word play. What seems, in performance, to be a tightly curated autobiography is actually a superbly scripted character study. The natural delivery and engagement is a testament

Alicia’s mind. Considerations of large topics thread through the personal anecdotes: immigration; sex; expectations of women. Poetry is formed from brightly projected emojis, or from audience responses to questions, posed safely and sweetly. The message is positive, the visuals—designed by Luay Eljamal in collaboration with Mercy and director Jade Lewis—clear and pertinent. Eljamal also creates the soundtrack of grime and street sounds that keep the energy high as Mercy moves to the beat or offers high fives. The audience whoops. We’re very glad to have been here, and receive back love and optimism in return.

to the talents of Yolanda Mercy. She is a new kind of triple-threat performer: superb as a poet, playwright and actor—with a great ability to integrate contemporary digital culture into the flow of her solo show too. Illuminated circles of shifting pattern focus images from Alicia’s phone. Yes, she gets distracted and has to check the pings. Naturally. They are from Tinder, her distant dad, or warnings from her online diary about approaching events. Marriage, death and love are all present as the show weaves its connections forwards, backwards and across tribes. The acheivements of previous generations weigh heavily on

/ Katharine Kavanagh

family, barring her husband who died on the journey. Chaim’s entire family was killed so he comes to Canada alone. A narrator dubbed the Wanderer, played by the edgy and enigmatic Canadian folk singer Ben Caplin, who also wrote most of the music, tells much of the story around their short scenes. The couple doesn’t get enough stage time, which sells short their changeable, tense relationship. The anti-Semitism Chaim experiences isn’t explored either, despite its prescience. As entertaining as Caplin is, Moscovitch’s script focuses

too heavily on his character. The music is excellent. There’s a good mix of ballads and upbeat numbers that generally serve to move the narrative forward, though if one or two were cut to make way for longer scenes, they wouldn’t be missed. With a pleasing, gypsy-inspired aesthetic in the shipping container stage and plenty of toe-tapping music, there’s a lot to like about this show. But the characters who are the focus of the story are shortchanged in favour of the narrator’s banter and songs. / Laura Kressly

Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story HHH VENUE:

TIME:

Theatre

TICKETS:

CanadaHub @ King’s Hall in association with Summerhall 9:30pm – 10:45pm, 5–27 Aug, not 7, 14, 21 £10

In these days of strong anti-immigration sentiment across the West, Canadian playwright Hannah Moscovitch reminds us that white North American families were once immigrants too. The story of her ancestors’ escape to Montreal from the Romanian pogroms, told with Romanian and Klezmer music, is a fitting statement that all people want somewhere safe to call home. Chaya and Chaim first meet in a queue where they are inspected like livestock before entering Canada. Chaya is there with her entire

51 JAMIE WOOD, BEAFORD ARTS & OVALHOUSE PRESEN T

I Am A Tree CRITICS TOP PICK

GUARDIAN'S WHAT TO SEE & WHERE TO GO TIME OUT’S FIVE OF THE BEST EDFRINGE PREVIEWS ONE OF FESTMAG'S ONE’S TO WATCH

‘FRACTIOUS, HILARIOUS & PUNCTUATED BY UNDENIABLE BEAUTY, A THING OF MISCHIEF & MAGIC’ The Stage (review of O No!)

BTG

Borders by Henry Naylor HHH VENUE: TIME:

TICKETS:

Gilded Balloon Teviot 4:30pm – 5:30pm, 2–28 Aug, not 16 £11.50 – £12.50

Borders is the tale of two artists. Sebastian’s a photojournalist. He’s just out of uni and in Pakistan at parental expense, when he lands the gig of his life: shooting some crackpot billionaire terrorist – a bore named Bin Laden. By 9/11, he’s one of six westerners to have met him and every celeb wants a piece. Nameless is a Syrian graffiti artist,

Dr Carnesky’s Incredible Bleeding Woman HHH VENUE: TIME:

Theatre

TICKETS:

Pleasance Courtyard 2:00pm – 3:00pm, 2–28 Aug, not 9, 21 £8 – £10

Dr Carnesky first tells us she is a real doctor and that her show is genuine research. That out of the way, she launches into a performative lecture on the cultural history of menstruation. Focusing on ritual, synchronicity and how society regards menstruation, she then goes onto her practical research. On every dark moon for three months, a group of female-identifying performance artists heads to Southend-on-Sea to develop new menstrual rituals, performed here as variety acts. These are immensely personal, and as individual as the participants. Circus, physical

whose spray-by-night slogans stoke the anti-Assad revolutionaries on. Their stories criss-cross in monologue form: one abandons his integrity by choice, the other’s integrity forces her to flee. Naylor weaves borders—both physical and figurative—throughout their tales. They’re the walls that become canvases, and the photojournalist’s professional distance. They’re the line between truth and fiction, or journalism and art, and the turning points in history that split time in two: pre- and post-. Naylor’s superb on that last front. He draws a direct line from 9/11 to Syria, ISIS and boats in the Med – one that’s too rarely visible in rolling news close-ups. “He fucking won,”

theatre and performance art are some of the influences, and each act shows care and skill. They are the Menstruants, and they complete the sideshow/cabaret/celebration of womanhood that is Dr Carnesky’s Incredible Bleeding Woman. Though her research is academic, Dr Carnesky has created colloquial, engaging interludes between the acts. She particularly looks at myth and symbolism in classical art – death and rebirth, shedding of skin and sisterhood. Her tone is gentle and matter-of-fact; the content may be revolutionary but her delivery is warm and supportive. This is a show that has the potential to come across as angry or anti-men, but it is relaxed and inclusive. It is a divine honouring of feminine mystery and a reclamation of a bodily function that has often been declared as dirty, base and disgusting. This unashamed, radical showcase of some excellent artists and their experiences as women is thought-provoking and a privilege to watch. / Laura Kressly

shouts a bleary old hack. “The West is fucked.” Naylor’s had a few Fringe successes over the years, all examining the Middle East. The Collector went inside an Iraqi prison; Angel honoured the sniper of Kobane. He knows his subject inside out, but while the thinking is strong, the writing is self-conscious – a writer writing, not characters speaking. It slips into staccato, and stories that seem fresh-minted at first often drift into tales we’ve heard too many times – the pregnant refugee out at sea, the professional sell-out enticed by celebrity. You don’t notice the moment one crosses into the other, but once it has, there’s no going back. / Matt Trueman

VENUE: TIME:

TICKETS:

Underbelly, Cowgate 5:40pm – 6:50pm, 3–27 Aug, not 16 £10.50 – £11.50

Addiction is not an easy subject to tackle, but Fix by Worklight Theatre does so with real compassion and grace – through drama, audience interaction and comic songs about biochemicals. Working from two years of research, the three performers are careful to point out that the characters in the show are composites of a large number of people; are representative. There’s Zach, deftly played by Fin Cormack, who embodies the hope and humiliations of having a gambling addiction. Maggie (Fiona Whitelaw), whose husband has a sex addiction and who offers one of the most charged moments when she contacts the woman he has had over 30 hours

Tom and Bunny Save the World

Reviews

HHH

of online sex with in two weeks. And Robyn (Rianna Dearden), a therapist who gives a genuinely affecting description of watching someone’s resolution wobble at the end of a session, of not knowing whether they’ll have relapsed in the time takes her to drive home. These human dilemmas are explained with research and science – and some of the statistics are stark. There are 8,700 betting shops in the UK. The average age that people first watch porn is now 11. Over 2 million people suffer from addiction in Britain today. What Fix does compellingly is to disguise education as entertainment, but in doing so—and with only an hour to unfold—the storytelling is a little sidelined, and information dominates over insight. It’s this that stops Fix, though genuinely engaging, from becoming truly transcendent, transfixing – from being the kind of show that audience’s thoughts will be drawn back to, again and again.

festmag.co.uk

Fix

/ Polly Checkland Harding

a musical about vibrators, on down at PleasanceTwo—the company create a funny and energetic hour of well-plotted survival adventure. HHH In the tiny bunker-like Box venue, the vibrant performances VENUE: Assembly George Square are perfectly pitched. Writer Robyn Theatre TIME: 5:40pm – 6:40pm, 3–28 Aug, Grant takes the titular role of Bunny, a dyed-in-the-wool Yorkshire lass not 14 with a kicking libido and a penchant TICKETS: £9 – £11 for gravy. Her unlikely companion is overgrown cub scoutTom (Jamie If you ever find yourself thinking about writing a made-in-Britain zom- Mawson), appropriately wide-eyed bie apocalypse non-cishet-normative and sweetly naïve. Dialogue is spoken, and the catchy movie musical developed for the folk melodies are reserved for monstage...stop!There is little chance you could do it better than Fat Rascal tage scenes of time passing, plot Theatre. Returning to the Fringe for developing and friendships growing. a second year to supplement their Adult harmonies, unexpected established show Buzz—yes, that’s rhythms and fresh lyrics—composed

by Jonny Holbek and performed by the cast—add a shine of genuine human heart to the monster-fleeing madness. Holbek also plays the guitar onstage, underscoring the action between songs, as well as multi-roling in clearly defined supporting characters.The ensemble is completed with Gareth the vet (Luke Dunford), pregnant lesbian scientist Pearl (Allie Munro) and military tough woman Kai (Rosie Raven). The set is neat and witty, zombie movement is sharp, and director Cat Robey ensures the audience are drawn into the story through natural eye contact and smiles. While our lives might not be changed by the experience, our afternoon is definitely brightened. / Katharine Kavanagh

HH VENUE: TIME:

TICKETS:

Roundabout @ Summerhall 4:40pm – 5:40pm, 4–27 Aug, not 8, 15, 22 £11 – £13

Box Clever is a show of two frustratingly different, disparate halves. On one hand, new-writing theatre company Nabokov’s latest show, by associate playwright Monsay Whitney, is a funny, painful story of being chewed up and spat out by a social care system masked in the language of concern, but which is really only interested in protecting itself. Whitney plays a single mother who, after leaving her abusive boyfriend, ends up in a women’s refuge with her four-year-old daughter. Whitney has an ear for the telling details that make up a life. Her character is funny, skeptical and ringingly true. And her horror and

Hero HH VENUE:

TIME:

Theatre

TICKETS:

Upper Church @ Summerhall hosted by RBC 10:00am – 11:00am, 4–14 Aug £8

In a war-torn rural town in an unnamed country, a group of teenagers are being taught to fight for their country, to protect their land from the marauding forces known as ‘The Hounds’. Military service is mandatory – although only for men. Context is murky in Anna Iris Petursdottir’s play: attitudes towards protecting women and

anger when she discovers that this supposed place of safety has been anything but for her child burns off the Roundabout stage. But then there is the clown. Played by singer-songwriter Avi Simmons wearing a red nose, she shadows Whitney, stands in for other characters, lets toy mice roam, accompanies her on the guitar and occasionally air boxes. Her presence in director Stef O’Driscoll’s production is an act of self-sabotage. As an absurdist representation of Whitney’s battles, she’s superfluous at best, actively irritating at worst. It’s incredibly frustrating to watch two sides of a production working at such odds to each other – to see the power and eloquence of the story at Box Clever’s heart consistently being drowned out by the conceptual equivalent of a slowly deflating whoopee cushion. As a theatrical device, it kicks away the legs of the show. It’s no joke.

/ Tom Wicker

the need to marry seem deeply old-fashioned, as does the sending of letters instead of using mobile phones, but it’s not clear really where or when it is supposed to be set. The play is performed by a young company, Rokkur Friggjar Theatre Group, from Iceland, made up of amateur, professional and semi-professional actors between the ages of 14 and 26. Performing in a second language, their English is faultless, although the dialogue often has the stilted, jolting formality of translation rather than the zip of authentic teenage chat. Hero charts the youngsters— who initially seem much more

Credit: Cesare Di Giglio

Box Clever

babyish than the 14-year-olds they’re supposed to be playing—as they grow into adults. Dreams of leaving, making a better life, of doing things differently, are crushed; romances blossom, then whither. Violence begets violence. War is bad. It isn’t subtle. With melodramatic moments, a lot of earnest tears, and rather flat writing, the narrative never really springs to life, although there are some bright performances among a mixed cast. Halla Sigriour Ragnarsdottir especially stands out as the sassy, take-no-shit tough girl who is, of course, more soft-centred than she tries to appear.

/ Holly Williams

Doglife HH VENUE: TIME:

TICKETS:

Summerhall 7:25pm – 8:35pm, 4–27 Aug, not 14, 21 £10

As a piece of theatre, Doglife is easy to criticise. As a piece of honesty… it’s a more complicated exercise. Part two of a devised trilogy, the show centres around the experiences of a former gangland enforcer, Thomas McCrudden, who "plays himself". Focusing on his attempts to love and be loved, McCrudden begins with his childhood on a housing

estate where you were either a victim, a witness or a perpetrator of violence; he became the latter. What follows is a series of difficult, often horrifying interactions with people from his past— non-actors and mostly women—all of whom sit at the sides of the stage throughout. In fact, one of the most potent aspects of the drama—apart from some eviscerating performances— is that they must watch Thomas repeat his inability to respond to love, with other women. More than one describes the way his eyes go dark. This interaction becomes the refrain in Doglife, in a way that feels truthful, but also lacking in

further insight or progression. The piece ultimately feels like little more than an extended confession, without any real reflection or resolution, which is problematic for the way that violence is repeatedly played out through women’s bodies. One, for instance, experiences McCrudden’s attacks on other men as pain, screaming as she feels like she’s losing fingers. Disappointingly, a woman loosely playing the role of therapist says that women desire men like McCrudden “because they know that there’s never a dull moment”. To that, we say: there is little that’s dull about Doglife, but not much to make it appealing, either.

/ Polly Checkland Harding

festmag.co.uk

On Ice HH

TIME:

TICKETS:

Upper Church @ Summerhall hosted by RBC 2:00pm – 3:15pm, 4–27 Aug, not 7, 14, 21 £10

Suzanne Grotenhuis once won €2000 in a Belgian theatre competition. The money was supposed to be for another theatre piece, but it costs way more than that to put on a show. She bought an ice rink instead. On Ice casually meanders from ice skating health and safety, through missions to Mars, before landing in a desert on the other side of the world. It’s only here, in the last 10 minutes of the piece, that the fragmented scenes finally come together and make sense. While this is a satisfying climax, it takes too long to get to this point and then rushes the emotional vunerability. Grotenhuis exudes charm and warmth, though at points

Credit: Alexander Daems

VENUE:

Reviews

she takes on that newly-archetypal scatty, hipster girl persona that aims to be adorable, but doesn’t suit the piece. Is the disorganised start to the show a deliberate extension of this character, or is the show still finding its feet? It’s frustrating in its ambiguity. The set design is delightful. A thick sheet of plastic she intermittently sprays with something called Glice is her ice rink. She wears ice

skates the entire time and mostly stays upright—a commendable feat. The border of the rink is made of a removal company’s cardboard boxes, and a giant inflatable ball, which looks absurd, but have eventually revealed meaning. The show is charming and funny with some touching moments of truthful performance, but still very much comes across as a work-in-progress.

/ Laura Kressly

(FEAR) VENUE: TIME:

TICKETS:

ZOO times vary, 4–28 Aug, not 9, 15, 22 £10

We live in scary times – something Gareth Clark is all too aware of. This one-man show, partly performed in a crocodile mask, is essentially an hour-long monologue of everything he’s scared of. It could be brave— confronting the horrors of the world—but it’s lacking story or structure, analysis or insight, even if Clark gives an energetic, committed performance. We start in childhood, where everything is dangerous – pylons and sockets are deadly, sweets and puppies are traps, God and Father Christmas will punish you if you’re not good. Getting older, and fear keeps us stuck in miserable

My Name is Irrelevant H VENUE: TIME:

Theatre

TICKETS:

Assembly Hall 3:00pm – 4:00pm, 3–28 Aug, not 14, 21 £9 – £11

In My Name is Irrelevant, writer Matthew Leonard Hall gives us a deeply troubled—and troubling— persona. Performing as a man who tells us that his name is irrelevant, Leonard is accompanied by live music from Jim Harbourne as he begins to deliver a “lecture” on

Credit: Steve Tanner

jobs, worrying about overdrafts and mortgages and credit ratings. Drinks and drugs may provide some relief (cue overextended dance to ‘Blue Monday’, while Clark pretends to be high). But any thin narrative thread snaps here, and the rest of the show is just a catalogue of all the ominous stuff of modern life. Facebook is weird, isn’t it? Ooh, maybe social media makes us lonely. Terrorism: before Muslim fundamentalism, we had the IRA you know! We live in a

surveillance state! There are personal fears dredged over too – of not being good enough, wasting life, getting old. But we’re all kept awake by this stuff; we don’t need it parroted back at us by a 49-year-old white man with nothing to add. It isn’t cathartic; it’s barely even artistic – more like getting stuck in the pub with a bloke getting increasingly, impotently worked up. As in that situation, one eye is on the exit.

people he’s met. Scrolling through a slideshow of rather lovely faded photographs, we are introduced to Charlie, 43, who’ll eat rhubarb in a pie but not a tart and Tracy, 40, who washes her hands 23 times a day. Described in a nauseating tone of affection, the roster slowly begins to disintegrate, with discrepancies creeping in. It becomes clear that these people are purely in the imagination of a lonely and isolated mind. The incarnation of mental health problems Leonard has chosen to present is a man notably proprietorial over other people—he describes a homeless man as “my Oliver”—while at the same time treating them as though they were as irrelevant as he considers his

own name. One photograph is used repeatedly to illustrate a series of different women, towards whom there is a latent sense that he is owed an interaction (no men are described in the same way). Fantasising about his perfect woman, he thinks in exclusively physical terms, imagining sniffing her hair, seeing her bare; “squidgy arse”, “thin”. The form Leonard has decided to present the show in—a rhyme scheme to which the dialogue is awkwardly, archaically bent— constantly reminds us of the constructed nature of the piece, and his choices as a writer. And yet the show lacks any reflection on a psyche that, whilst sympathetic in its disturbance, is undeniably menacing too. / Polly Checkland Harding

/ Holly Williams

FROM THE AWARD WINNING CREATORS OF SMOTHER

“STAND-OUT DANCE OF SUMMER 2017” THE GUARDIAN

★★★★

“TAKING HIP-HOP INTO THRILLINGLY NEW TERRAIN”

THE GUARDIAN ON 201 DANCE COMPANY

★★★★★ ★★★★★ BROADWAY BABY

ED FEST MAGAZINE

8PM, 2 – 28 AUG 0131 556 6550 www.pleasance.co.uk

Dance, Physical Theatre & Circus

DANCE CRITIC

Lucy Ribchester

If throwing a dart at the Fringe programme is your preferred method of choosing shows, it’s probably a safer bet to do it with the circus section than the theatre one. Anyone may think they can have a go at writing or devising a play, but you’re not going to do backflips in front of an audience unless you’re confident of your capabilities. This baseline culture of proficiency has pushed the standard of circus up and up at the Fringe in recent years. But surely there has never been a set as brilliant as the Konjowoch Troupe’s opener, part of Circus Abyssinia: Ethiopian Dreams. The 14-strong company is helmed by Bibi and Bichu, two London-based jugglers originally from Ethiopia, who began sponsoring the Circus Wingate school in Addis Ababa in 2010. It was here they discovered the Konjowochs, who fling one another about as casually as juggling clubs and will land your heart in your throat within seconds. They are astounding. Contortionists Etsegenet Ashenafi and Semeret Getachew are coolly balletic as they coil like poised pythons; later a lineup of four women make cubist geometries, their boxed legs and arms zinging with the neon pink of their costumes. Bibi and Bichu’s juggling is another high. The pair create patterns that shift so subtly it’s hard to spot the changes. They throw in flourishes – a lick of green round the back, a high spin into the air. It’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it brilliance. Across the Circus Hub’s promenade, in the intimate Beauty spiegeltent, Cie Ea Eo from Belgium have taken a more contemplative approach to juggling. Their show All the Fun is quietly whimsical, with flickers of the Gandini piece Smashed in its curiosity about endurance and sense of play. “We are gathered here to pay tribute to uselessness,” Bram Dobbelaere tells us at the start. He lists amongst his favourite useless things earrings, funerals and scribbles not dedicated to anyone. But really this is an exercise in the awe of mastering useless skills just because we humans can, and the physics that make such things possible – or impossible. One member balances a club on his head for an extraordinarily long time while another teleports inside the club to tell us—via tin-can telephone—what it looks like. Why is one more plausible than the other? Later they cut up a club and reconstruct it on the same performer’s forehead, altering its balance points though not its mass.

Circus Abyssinia: Ethiopian Dreams «««« Underbelly’s Circus Hub on the Meadows, 3:00pm – 4:00pm, 5–26 Aug, not 14, 21, £13.50 – £15.50

All the Fun ««« Underbelly’s Circus Hub on the Meadows, 4:00pm – 5:00pm, 5–26 Aug, not 14, 21, £12.50 – £14.50

Cirkopolis «««« Pleasance at EICC, times vary, 4–28 Aug, not 9, 16, 23, £12.50 – £17.50

Acéléré by Circolombia ««««« Underbelly’s Circus Hub on the Meadows, 9:15pm – 10:15pm, 7–26 Aug, not 9, 14, 21, £17.50 – £19.50

Circus Abyssinia

festmag.co.uk

Credit: Valérie Remise

Reviews

Cirkopolis

Sometimes it feels as if you are watching their workshops rather than a show, and sometimes that’s okay. A malevolent game where opponents try to knock each other’s club to the ground without dislodging their own has us on the edge of our seats. But though the group are clearly fascinated with the physics of juggling, the tempo of the show always stays at the same level. It’s clear from the design of Cirque Éloize’s Cirkopolis that the EICC is a necessary space for technical reasons. But it also contributes to the polished, choreographed vibe that puts this show more in line with extravaganza or dance theatre than Fringe circus. Loosely inspired by Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, graphic backdrop projections lead us from dusty, paper-strewn clerks’ offices to the bowels of the factory and, in one inspired section, to the teetering heights of a city skyline where Selene Ballesteros-Minguer performs superhero feats on a rope in front of the clouds. Ensemble juggling on a moving table and the German wheel (like a double Cyr) amp up the stunt factor. Glossy and gutsy, Cirkopolis is also elegant and it’s a safe bet for a show that will delight almost anyone. But if you’re looking to kick off party night,

Circolombia’s Acéléré at the Circus Hub is the place to head. The troupe are graduates of Colombia’s Circo Para Todos school—which empowers vulnerable young people by teaching them circus—and their youthful energy rumbles through the cavernous big top. Live reggaeton and sensational singing from Diana Patricia Vargas Montoya and Julianna Valentina Toro Valasquez bring out a punky, wild atmosphere – it holds the show together like a renegade reinvention of the classic ringmaster. An aerial act sees a man and a woman gripped together by a mouth strap as they travel up into the heights of the Lafayette’s huge big top. It’s an intense exercise in physical empathy – you feel both the painful, fragile link between their bodies and the soulfulness of their dance. There are gut-lurching balances and tumbling acts on moving bars, a whip-fast cloud swing and macho teeterboard between two competing men. But really, the mood of Acéléré is what lifts and spins it round: the way the cast can’t help moving to the music when they’re on support duty, or the way they move around one another as an ensemble. They’ve caught the old world big top ethos and doused it in Colombian spirit.

HHHHH VENUE:

TIME: TICKETS:

Assembly George Square Theatre 6:00pm – 7:00pm, 2–27 Aug £12 – £14

A slapstick was once a device used to create sound and comedy simultaneously. Making good on their title’s promise, Wereldband never miss a beat in their multi-skilled, multi-instrumentral homage to past greats, delivering a tour-de-force musical extravaganza of classic physical comedy. The Dutch band have been directed by Stanley Burleson, who has created a dramaturgically complete universe of vintage hipster appeal, set in the backstage area of an old Hollywood lot. Projections of silent movie footage, exquisite costume design from Jan Aarntzen, and gorgeous colours shining on brass and warm wood—

Lady Macbeth: Unsex Me Here Dance, Physical Theatre & Circus

HHHH

VENUE: TIME:

TICKETS:

Dance Base 8:00pm – 8:55pm, 4–27 Aug, not 7, 14, 21 £12

Though it’s rare to see a gender-inverted production of Macbeth, in line with renaissance practice Lady Macbeth would originally have been played by a man. This fact sparked the imagination of Kally Lloyd-Jones, artistic director of Company Chordelia, who decided

an orchestral collection of every instrument you could imagine—set the scene for a series of clowned compositions based at a fictional fairground. New Jersey patter man Jon Bittman is extraordinary as he rustles up custom for half-time games between musical sketches. The choice of instruments played is as integral to the action as the five men’s impeccable comic timing, and offers some inventive suprises too. There is a ghost of hurdy-gurdy beneath all the mash-up compositions, but if this is not to your usual taste the song material offers enough variety to hold interest, spanning barbershop Beyoncé, television themes and old man crooning that also manages to strike a chord on the inside. This most stylish variety theatre leaves us asking only one thing. But should the question be: ‘How did these clowns become such accomplished musicians?’ Or: ‘How did these musicians become such accomplished clowns’?

Credit: Jaap Reedijk

Wereldband: Släpstick

/ Katharine Kavanagh

to cast three men in the title role of her exploration of one of Shakespeare’s most damned women. The piece delves into the character’s wider story, reaching beyond the text to expand on the hints we are given about the Macbeths’ absent child, and Lady Macbeth’s madness. The three all begin by donning makeup, a metamorphosis that invites our collusion in the make believe. A choreography rich in straight lines and hand symbols gives a hint to communication that goes beyond the verbal. Indeed this is also a collaboration with Solar Bear—a company who produce work which engages with D/deaf communication—and some of the

movement has its origins in British Sign Language. By subverting the idea that there is one way in which to speak, Lloyd-Jones suggests a misunderstood side to the character. There are other symbols of her turmoil, some of them brutal. We may know that the three bundled blankets the men cradle are not babies, but the shock of seeing rocks fall out is a stab of grief and guilt – a self-flagellating reminder of her murderous actions, or the cold pain of losing a baby? Motifs of blood, washing and white cloth recur and while the imagery isn’t always hooked into a linear story, the piece floats an atmosphere of despair. / Lucy Ribchester

HHH VENUE: TIME:

TICKETS:

ZOO 8:25pm – 9:20pm, 4–27 Aug, not 9, 15 £10 – £12

Losing It is a clown show, but a deceptive one. It’s consistently surprising, not least in the range of emotions the grotesque characters and absurd theatrical devices provoke. Boris and Ingrid are an elderly couple. Or they have been.The show explores the loss of minds, loves and lives that, almost inevitably, comes with age. Memories jangle with reality, inspiring hilarity one moment and pulling beyond poignancy the next. Clown duo Lana Biba andTxema Perez—2theatre—have been directed in this UK premiere by comedy theatre expert Cal McCrystal. It’s not just the nutty humour that lands

Creature HHH VENUE: TIME:

TICKETS:

C venues – C south 5:35pm – 6:25pm, 3–28 Aug, not 15 £10.50 – £12.50

Beginning and ending with intrigue and strong choreographic ideas, this five-person aerial and ground-based dance piece from Switzerland sags towards uninspiring in the middle. Choreographic fight duets—a common feature in much contemporary acrobatic work—present unspecific aggression, fleshing out the space between more innovative

well though, as we find ourselves crying over a cauliflower or sniffing over an empty deerstalker on the hat stand. The melange of puppetry, music, and exaggerated characters can best be likened to the combination of bizarre yet deep’n’meaningful in cult YouTube series Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared. In an odd way, the production also reveals a little of the lives of those in caring professions, as musician Bird Radio appears daily dressed in nurse’s whites, strangely—but deliberately—distanced from Boris

and Ingrid’s own cosy world of vodka tots, bananas and an ever-present promise of a visit fromThe Children. His kazoo playing and cabaret allow him to join in the delirious fun, at other times returning to more elegant melodies to underscore the action. The show goes on a scene or two beyond its natural climax point, but the eventual ending rounds things off with a lovely hopeful note. If you ever thought clowning was only red noses and facepaint, this show will put you right. / Katharine Kavanagh

concepts. The tantalising zorb-type sphere of the publicity material is disappointingly under-used, but a human counterweighting section of aerial harness work is given loving attention, transforming the rigging process from workmanlike practicality into slowly spun art. Choreographer Vanessa Cook is serenely graceful in the air and, amongst the whip-neck precision of more traditional dancer physiques, the heavier movements of Tobias Spori on the other end of her rope become especially watchable. Likewise, Spori draws the eye on the ground—and when forming a circuit between floor and aerial strap—with a natural roughness to his performance. Synchronised swings across the

stage in twos or threes are carefully worked out, the dancers brushing the floor with palms or toes before planting again into the ground, and Alessandra Ruggeri is vibrantly snappy in a floor solo. The strongest ideas though are diluted by surfeit, and at times even individual movements lack follow-through. A theme of separation and attraction is clarified by a recorded speech, including words from essayist John Berger, which closes Moritz Alfons’s soundscape. His compositions lend a touch of humour to the piece with jungle snarls and water drips, as well as providing energy spikes that shift the dynamic onstage, provoking new sections of ideas that don’t quite connect with one another conceptually. / Katharine Kavanagh

festmag.co.uk

Reviews

Losing It

Diane Chorley: Rhythm of Live HHH VENUE: TIME:

TICKETS:

Underbelly, Cowgate 8:40pm – 9:40pm, 3–27 Aug, not 14 £10 – £11

Diane Chorley personifies the ‘80s: Margaret Thatcher hair and pearls; a black blazer with shoulder pads; art deco flashes of colour. The stage is set for an autobiographical TV show—An Audience with Diane Chorley—to introduce us to her album, the eponymous Rhythm of

Live. It’s a well executed parody. Chorley smirks at every opportunity—a lip curl when she sings, a mischievous sparkle in her eyes— modelled, it seems, on Frank N. Furter. The whole show is kitsch, from the electronic original songs to the stylised dance moves. The references spoof the decade with a cutting wit: vol-au-vents slung at celebrities; an addiction to Calpol; a backing band called The Buffet who are paid in chicken kievs and half a shandy. Rhythm of Live is full of addictive disco beats and perfectly timed punchlines, but it all stays on the same level. Despite the fantas-

tically farcical story, there’s no gear change, with the exception of Chorley’s demonic song ‘The Witch’. Green strobes cast Chorley in an eerie light as she runs around in a dishevelled technicolour dreamcoat, attacking bongo drums with fervour. Avant garde, to say the least. In the end, Chorley returns to the limelight as the face of piccalilli and we are reminded to live in the Rhythm of Live. As the show culminates in a frenzy of organised chaos, we jump to our feet to dance along, caught up in the heady combination of dry ice and synthesised sound. / Daniel Perks

claim to be truly magical but simply an example of the extraordinary feats that humans are capable of. Audience members in trance-like states do more than guess cards; they pop balloons with their mind and bend four-inch steel nails. It’s a bit too much like a self-help lecture in parts, almost as if Paul McKenna is going to walk in and cure your fear of spiders or your smoking addiction. But Calvert introduces each section with the

background and theory, before doing the experiment and presenting the proof. We believe because we want to believe – we want to be the person with mind-reading, psychic superpowers, or a telekinetic ability. But we also believe because our rational brain comprehends the facts that we are presented with. If Awaken is nothing more than statistics at work, then we must be the audience that defies the odds. / Daniel Perks

Aaron Calvert: Awaken HHH

TIME:

La Belle Angèle 1:30pm – 2:30pm, 5–26 Aug, not 13

TICKETS:

FREE

Cabaret & Variety

VENUE:

Medically, the hypnotic state exists between being awake and asleep. Psychologically, jealousy and fear are two of the most volatile emotions. Aaron Calvert’s show of mind reading and hypnosis is all the more powerful because it is based on these scientific facts – Calvert is himself a doctor. Awaken does not pretend to be spiritual, or to connect on an alternate plane. Calvert uses medical intelligence to perform unexpected feats of trickery. Calvert is assertive and fosters an instantaneous connection, the motivational speaker of the hypnosis world. Awaken is a show with meticulous preparation and a logical structure, a show that doesn’t

63 Reviews

Triage! A Nursing Cabaret «««

TIME:

TICKETS:

Gilded Balloon at Rose Theatre 7:00pm – 8:00pm, 2–27 Aug, not 14 £12 – £13

A nurse is simultaneously the top roleplay sexual fantasy and a highly underpaid member of hospital staff. Zuleika Khan wears both outfits in Triage! – the former likely found in a costume shop, the latter a fashion statement courtesy of the house of Theresa May. Khan is a sexy, sultry sister and a no-nonsense, nutty narrator all in one. This is a cabaret that grabs you by the balls and tugs at your heartstrings. All of the women in the audience groan when Khan pulls out her first prop, the dreaded speculum. Some of the men put up their hands, absolutely no idea what this instrument of doom is for. To Khan’s childhood self, growing

Luke Closely: Mugician «« TIME:

Fingers Piano Bar 4:20pm – 5:10pm, 5–27 Aug, not 7, 14, 21

TICKETS:

FREE

VENUE:

Magic and music – they’re similarly spelt, so it’s only natural to combine them into a show. Except Luke Closely’s Mugician is a fragmented affair – an awkward magic trick followed by a jazz song, no connection between the two. The jazz is pleasant but it’s only included as

up in a surgery—father a doctor, mother a nurse—it’s a toy gun and a duck. It’s also the perfect example of Khan’s sharp wit as she weaves a song around the plethora of emotions felt upon seeing the device. This is just one original composition of many in Triage!, all of them intelligent, well-structured and emotionally complex. Being a nurse is more than a profession. It takes over Khan’s

life. As she delves into the emotional pain of watching her father grow ill and frail, she pours her guts into the song ‘Holding Out’. This singer-songwriter has a touch of Eva Cassidy in her lyrics – searing honesty and beautiful bravery to behold. Triage! is the culmination of blood, sweat and tears by Khan, a powerful performance with a voice to match.

filler, as if Closely cannot muster up enough tricks for a full show. The magic is mainly a variation around sleight of hand. Some routines masquerade in other guises —mind reading to guess a Beatles song—but they inadvertently reveal themselves to be otherwise. Bank notes become IOUs, one card is ripped apart only to transform into another. It’s nothing we haven’t seen many times before. We can often see it hiding in Closely’s back pocket. The biggest issue with the show is the lack of showmanship. Closely is not arrogant and brash, nor does he need to be. But he needs

more natural energy to get his audience on side with each trick. All too often, the end of a particular section is met with lukewarm applause because it hasn’t been built up enough. The few moments of genuine laughter are often as a result of Closely’s conversation with a volunteer, or some sporadic offscript remarks to Simon the bass player. It is here where he is able to bounce off another instead of being isolated on stage. Perhaps Closely would be more comfortable with a jazz set, rather than conjuring up half-hearted illusions.

/ Daniel Perks

festmag.co.uk

VENUE:

Buried: A New Musical HHHH VENUE: TIME: TICKETS:

C venues – C too 2:45pm – 3:45pm, 3–28 Aug £8.50 – £10.50

Asking your audience to sympathise and even identify with serial killers is generally considered a bold move, but perhaps less so during the Fringe, when the streets are thronged and the potential for sociopathic thoughts is high. The murderous protagonists of Buried

are humanised by their status as lonely outsiders who help each other realise a previously unacknowledged desire for companionship. As their relationship solidifies and they become something approaching a conventional couple, the pair struggle to put down the trappings of their lonely past. Buried is a comedy in essence, but one in which edgy capers give way to oddly moving moments of clarity. Its characters are overtly dysfunctional, but are nonetheless shown navigating a dispiriting dating scene in a highly relatable manner. More notable than their dark subject matter is the traditional

folk instrumentation to which Tom Williams and Cordelia O’Driscoll’s words have been set. It’s quite a feat for musicals to steer entirely clear of campy melodrama, and Sheffield’s Colla Voce team show immense promise having produced a work of haunting understatement for their Fringe debut. Each performer and musician shines in their own right, but always comes across as part of a cohesive unit, fully sympathetic to the piece’s overall aims. It’s hard to envisage the work having much of a life beyond the Fringe, but audiences are advised to take in this minor hit, if only to anticipate the greatness to come.

/ Lewis Porteous

Prom Kween HHH TIME:

Musicals & Opera

TICKETS:

Underbelly, Cowgate 8:35pm – 9:35pm, 3–27 Aug, not 14 £10 – £11

Rebecca Humphries and Joanna Cichonska create a touching tale which, despite some pacing issues and production hiccups, sparkles regardless of the levels of glitter in the room. Prom Kween follows Matthew, a non-binary kid who competes with popular girl Lexy for the coveted plastic crown. Humphries’ book has clear influences from the likes of Grease and Mean Girls, though her Lexy doesn’t have the vulnerability of Regina George. She’s a straightup bitch, reveling in her sexuality as she gyrates through an earworm of a chart hit parody. Nuance isn’t found in characters: Humphries’ lyrics pack a satirical punch in Cichonska’s score of doo-wop, R’n’B and pop.

Credit: Max Lacome

VENUE:

Odds are the audience will understand every Drag Race reference, although the uninitiated will find themselves in the dark. As narrator Mama Ru could tell you, background reading is fundamental. RuPaul could also critique the odd wardrobe malfunction. With minimal props and costume, any hiccups do stand out and unfortunately can cut through the teenage dream atmosphere that the company so lovingly

creates. With pumping pop hits and face glitter makeovers on entry, the company captures that world-shifting importance of being 16 again. The play has noticeable pacing problems, with the final act feeling like a rush to the finale, but it’s impossible not to find the show utterly endearing overall. Like Adore Delano in season 6, it’s undeniably likable but still in its formative stage. / Louise Jones

Winner

Fringe World 2017

Adelaide Fringe 2016

Adelaide Fringe 2017

Brighton Fringe 2014

20:00

2 - 20 AUG (not 9,15)

STUDIO ONE

PICK OF THE FRINGE! “Full-throttle, big on laughs. Go, go, go!”

CarlWoodward.com

www.tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/mary-queen-of-scots

PRIOR TO LONDON RUN

“An intoxicating blast of fun” The Daily Telegraph

“A must-see younger

brother to The Book of Mormon” The Daily Express

Pleasance One 10.30pm 2nd - 28th Aug (except 14th) www.pleasance.co.uk 0131 556 6550

Running Time 75mins

Doctor Faustus HHH VENUE: TIME:

TICKETS:

Paradise in Augustines 5:30pm – 6:45pm, 5–27 Aug, not 13, 20 £12

With its clinical, minimalist set design, icy synth soundscapes and central same-sex romance, this adaptation of the classic German legend is truly a musical of the future. Tiger House Theatre was recently formed by writers Sarah Wright and John Paul, both Oxford University

Atlantic: A Scottish Story HH VENUE: TIME:

Musicals & Opera

TICKETS:

Assembly Hall 3:00pm – 4:00pm, various dates between 3 Aug and 27 Aug £10 – £11

For anyone who’s ever wondered what it might be like to find themselves trapped inside a sweltering hot bothy with only a raving, emotionally incontinent crofter for company, this is surely the must-see show of the Fringe. American visitors with tenuous ancestral ties to Scotland may be equally enthralled by the biscuit tin mythology on display here. For the rest of us, this is a fairly run-ofthe-mill exercise in young hopefuls prancing about while exuding either maternal sass or unconvincing machismo. Set on a remote Scottish island, the musical revolves around Ula, a strong-willed but responsible

students. One of the duo’s aims is to promote social change and so we’re presented with a reasonably subversive love interest and some scathing attacks on the capitalist pharmaceutical industry. Here, Emma Faustus is a top medical researcher working around the clock in the hope of discovering a cure for the condition that took her partner, Beth. Throughout the work, the deceased manifests herself to flirt with the bereaved and suggest that she move on with her life, but Emma is resolute. When her employers pull the plug on her research and deprive her of access to key lab facilities, in steps

young woman who finds herself unable to accept an invitation to join her young love on a one-way voyage across the ocean. Longing not so much for a better life as a different one, the heroine stays behind and starts a family, bound by duty to her land and its people. All the while, she clings to a fantasy of what could have been, inadvertantly creating friction in her present. The flaw underpinning this piece is that an hour isn’t enough time in which to establish a sense of Ula’s yearning. The musical takes all the ingredients of an elegaic, generation-spanning epic and crams them into 60 brisk minutes. Clunky exposition signifies the passing of time, while the cast and musicians’ spirited performances are given little room to breathe. A collaboration between the prestigious American Music Theatre Project at Northwestern University in Chicago, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and Noisemaker, there’s an abundance of talent on stage, it just hasn’t been offered a suitable vehicle on this occasion. / Lewis Porteous

Mephistopheles to help achieve her goals and more besides. While most musicals tend to pad out their song and dance numbers with straight dialogue, this narrative is told entirely through song – an impressive if also exhausting feat which allows for little variation in tone. With the more heated points of the story achieving levels of deafening, Meatloaf-esque bombast, the audience is given too few opportunities to rest and recuperate. This is an utterly relentless 75 minutes of patience-testing brilliance, and audience mileage will almost certainly vary.

/ Lewis Porteous

HH VENUE: TIME:

TICKETS:

C venues – C 4:15pm – 5:15pm, 2–28 Aug, not 14, 21 £12.50 – £14.50

This Korean musical is about an explorer who goes into the jungle seeking special monkeys to be harvested for organ donations. But he’s embraced by the cheeky creatures, and soon goes native. In costumes that are urban streetwear meets tribal garb meets monkey-suit, performers scamper around the stage with a mix of acrobatic tumbling, breakdance and martial arts moves. All to a soundtrack of live a capella singing and beatboxing. Monkey Dance is absolutely as batshit as it sounds. When it works, it’s exhilarating. Their physical skills are impressive, especially in

answers. This original musical showcases a promising capability for composition but distracts from its central theme of grief and loss. There’s clear talent in the proHH duction. Ellen Timothy’s Julia is a rich-voiced aging actress who lives in her past to avoid ever confronting VENUE: C venues – C royale her son’s birth, let alone his untimeTIME: 6:00pm – 7:10pm, 2–28 Aug TICKETS: £8.50 – £10.50 ly death. Her character feels more developed than Alex’s fiancée Sally and lover Anna. Emilie Finch plays What is The Inevitable Quiet of the Crash, anyway? After Alex falls into the naïvety of Anna ably but her the path of an oncoming tube train, voice still has a school choir quality to it which unfortunately cannot three women in his life deal with hold its own against the band. his death at any volume but quiet: Musically, the show feels in conbelting and screaming, clawing at

The Inevitable Quiet Of The Crash

Reviews

super-energetic dance numbers, with the ‘monkeys’ spinning wildly in the air. The onstage voice orchestra of four, accompanied only by a bassist, create a lushly layered sound – but also boast sharp beatboxing skills. But too often, this bizarre musical is exhaustingly, annoyingly hyperactive. There’s a lot of shrill shrieking and scrappy capering, with the plot stretched very thin – one song about which monkey has bad breath seems to go on for an eternity. There may be a culture gap when it comes to the humour – particularly in the case of an OTT, irritating clowning figure. And something is definitely lost in translation when it comes to the lyrics of the occasional sappy, big-emotion songs; projected above the stage in English, they’re rendered gobbledegook (“Lovely dancing… with a bite of golden light.” Anyone?) If you’re looking to tick ‘wacky show you’d only see in Edinburgh!’ off your list, this will do the job. But beware: it may also send you bananas. / Holly Williams

festmag.co.uk

Monkey Dance: The Rockappella Musical!

flict with itself: contemporary piano melodies hark back to Lloyd Webber and Sondheim, making Chris Cottell’s drumming solo discordant. There are several repetitions of phrases throughout the score, meaning songs bleed into one another. It’s a shame after such a strong opener as ‘Yesterday’, which carries the narrative neatly – and only makes the spoken exposition feel the more heavy-handed. Katie Hale’s script is well paced but falls short of its poetic ambition. Overall, the parts never pull together into something which feels like true insight into the characters’ sadness.

/ Louise Jones

Jihan’s Smile What happens in the show? There was a girl called Jihan who woke up one morning to discover that she had lost her smile, and everything in the town turned grey as a result. To return colour to the town, her dad sent a bird around the world to find and pay some people to come to the girl and try and make her smile.

KID CRITICS

Alice & Eve

Alice McGuire, aged 10, was buoyed by this feel-good show about a girl who gets her smile back

Describe the show in five words Cultural, exciting, fun, moral, good-ending (hopefully the hyphen makes that count as one word!) Who was your favourite character and why? The bird was my favourite because he was funny and energetic and had a cool costume, and his physical comedy brought the show to life. Also, when we entered the room I was wondering if anyone would actually use the swing. Were there any characters you didn’t like? Not really, I thought all the characters were funny and unique in their own way. My dad didn’t like the Italian painter but he’s wrong! What did you like most about the show? I liked the ending best, the way it all built up towards the outcome I had hoped for. It’s tricky saying too much about the end as it would give away the plot, but it is good to leave a show so positive and upbeat.

understand what was going on at all times. Subtitles are meant to tell you exactly what was said in the language being spoken, but I don’t think that happened for everything. What did you think of the music? It was good to have someone in the room playing the music live. The man playing all the instruments was very skilled, made no mistakes, and was impressive how he changed instruments and style to match what was going on in each scene. What did your grown-up think of the show? My dad said, “It’s a sweet, simple and classic moral tale, but coming from an Arabic perspective gives it a cool spin for ‘Western’ audiences. I don’t think the show was as funny as they had hoped for, but then again there are things that were perhaps lost in translation. Perhaps a little bit more English or some periodic narration would help. It’s a show for young-ish kids, but I’m not sure if those that only speak English would know what’s going on.” Would you tell your friends to come and see the show? Yes, my slightly younger friend who speaks Arabic would really enjoy it. The show is best for people a little bit younger than me, but only if they’re children that would pay attention so they can follow what’s happening.

Kids

/ Alice McGuire (aged 10)

What didn’t you like about the show? Although it was cool for the show to be in Arabic, I think if they spoke a bit more English that would’ve helped as I didn’t fully

VENUE: TIME: TICKETS:

Summerhall 10:15am – 11:15am, 2–13 Aug, not 7 £12

A Strange New Space Eve Green, aged eight, finds humour amid the sadness in this tale of a girl who must leave her home behind her What happens in the show? A girl who is a refugee has to go to another country without her parents and she feels a bit sad and lonely. She dreams she is in space and she meets a little alien puppet to play with and she asks the alien if he knows where her house is and how to get back home. The alien shows her a picture of her house but says no, but they become friends at the end. Describe the show in five words Sad, excellent, funny, imaginative, creative Who was your favourite character and why? The girl because she was very imaginative. What did you like most about the show? I liked the start when she played with a bottle she pretended was a telescope.

What didn’t you like about the show? It was really sad but it was a good story. What did your grown-up think of the show? “The children enjoyed the funny bits but it was a bit difficult to follow the story. The actor worked extremely hard to tell a story without words using only mime and puppets. Sometimes the storytelling could have been clearer.” Would you tell your friends to come and see it? Yes, I would. / Eve Greene (aged 8)

VENUE: TIME: TICKETS:

Gilded Balloon Teviot 12:45pm – 1:45pm, 2–27 Aug, not 21, 22 £9 – £11

The Extraordinary Time-Travelling Adventures of Baron Munchausen HHHH VENUE: TIME:

TICKETS:

New Town Theatre 12:10pm – 1:10pm, 2–27 Aug, not 3, 15 £8

The improbably tall tales of the equally fictional Baron of Munchausen have been entertaining people since German writer Rudolf Erich Raspe created him in 1785, loosely inspired by a

real-life nobleman. From extracting sunshine from cucumbers to flying a rocket to the moon, Munchausen has ‘done’ everything. He’s also been put on the big screen by Terry Gilliam and given his name to a psychological disorder. This kids’ show has a brilliantly simple premise: use Munchausen’s talent for telling porkies as the basis for a comedy improv hour. With a copy of Raspe’s book in hand and a table of toybox props, Lord Lovell (Nigel Lovell) introduces a succession of colourful friends (other comedians at the Fringe) to a small stage in New Town Theatre’s basement. With cues from the audience as to which of the Baron’s adventures to use, they spin off

/ Tom Wicker

encrusted into their beards, and furiously digging moles. Cope was once part another semi-mythical world. In the 1990s he was in Oxford band, The Candyskins, and part of a local music scene that included Radiohead. Thankfully for the kids, he hasn’t followed Thom Yorke’s decades’ long detour into challenging noise art. Kindergarten A this is not. Rather, his jangly Britpop roots can be heard in the melodic twinkle that lives within most of his songs. Between tunes, Cope chats

to young and old with affectless ease. It is pitched perfectly for the kids. He creates a generous world where even the shiest wee one can happily offer their opinion. At one point, for example, proceedings halt while the audience and Cope have a lengthy chat about what they had for breakfast. Mix in throwing shade on rival troubadours for toddlers, obligatory songs about poo, and asides about Brexit, and Cope delivers on title of the show. This is very much one for all the family. / Edd McCracken

tales in every direction. With three comedians, there’s time for about six stories per show. A word of caution: if you’re a Munchausen purist, be prepared for the fact that not even the title of one of the original tales is likely to emerge unmangled. These are often just launchpads for journeys into the fantastic and the funny – improvisations dictated by suggestions from the audience. The whole thing is a blast, hosted with child-friendly irreverence by Lovell and buoyed along by the gameness, ingenuity and sometimes grinning haplessness of that day’s comedians. This show is a great pitstop for a laugh.

Nick Cope’s Family Song Book HHHH VENUE: TIME:

Kids

TICKETS:

Gilded Balloon Teviot 11:15am – 12:05pm, 2–20 Aug £7.50

With his red and white striped top, pipe cleaner frame, and chunky black glasses, Nick Cope is the physical response to that eternal question: "Where’s Wally?" The answer is: he’s currently in Edinburgh, is calling himself Nick, and is responsible for a delightful show full of charming songs and perfectly pitched pre-school banter. And like his picture book Doppelganger, Cope can be found amid a cast of fantastical characters, all conjured up via his trusty guitar and indie-folk sensibility. His songs are populated with the likes of dragons called Keith, pirates with nuggets of breakfast

71 Reviews

The Topsy-Turvy Hotel HHH

TIME:

TICKETS:

Sweet Grassmarket 12:25pm – 1:20pm, 3–20 Aug, not 9 £7

An anti-capitalist kids’ show? There’s certainly a strong theme about valuing your local businesses in this slapstick hour from comedians Jody Kamali and Jo Neary, as well as a definite dash of Fawlty Towers. Fernando (Kamali) is manager of the family-owned Topsy-Turvy Hotel, welcoming an audience of parents and kids into a TARDIS-sized room 8. Together with cleaning-obsessed Peggy (Neary), he brings his own unique brand of housekeeping to bear

on his guests, while evil property tycoon Roger Bungalow tries to nab the business with the help of fake inspector, Bagshot. The timing could be snappier in a few places and the references of some of the jokes are more ‘80s than today. But there’s a lot of fun audience participation to be had, as Fernando and Peggy contrive to wrap up various hapless parent volunteers in bed sheets and encourage clearly overjoyed kids to throw rubber balls at them in slow motion. A gregarious Kamali brings a lot of energy to his multiple roles (which

‘SPECTACULAR & JAW-DROPPING!’ Top 25 Shows – The List

include the baddie, Bungalow, and Topsy-Turvy’s dimwitted Jeff the Chef), while Neary’s comic timing and gleefully eccentric ad-libbing with the audience contribute many of the show’s biggest laughs. There are props-a-plenty and some reliable "He’s behind you!" along the way. Some ‘funny foreigner’ misspelt hotel signs in the background hit a slightly off-key note, but generally this is a boisterously entertaining show. If you have young kids, you could do worse than checking into The Topsy-Turvy Hotel.

/ Tom Wicker

IT’S WONDERFUL THE SONGS OF PAOLO CONTE ESPRESSO MANIFESTO Scottish Arts Club 24 Rutland Square

August 14 – 19 / 21 – 26

‘HIGHLY ENTERTAINING!’ Shanghai Daily

festmag.co.uk

VENUE:

HHH VENUE: TIME:

TICKETS:

Dance Base times vary, various dates between 4 Aug and 27 Aug £9

Atmosphere is everything when it comes to theatre for babies, and Caroline Bowditch and Company hit all the right notes with Snigel and Friends. Upon arrival, the babies are immediately calmed by Zac Scott’s gentle nature-themed sound design, while co-creator and designer Laura Hook’s beautiful setting, all soft light and brightly coloured fabrics, provides stimulation for wide eyes and curious fingers. Snigel the snail (Bowditch), is already in the space as we enter, quietly munching lettuce leaves off a washing line. It’s one of a host of sweet and subtle moments we’re treated to over the course

Roses in the Salad HHH VENUE: TIME:

Kids

TICKETS:

C venues – C royale 4:50pm – 5:40pm, 2–12 Aug £8.50 – £9.50

“Hey kids, let’s go see a show about vegetables based on a book by influential 20th Century Italian artist and designer Bruno Munari,” said no one, ever. Until now. Yes, Italian company Schedia Teatro has used shadow theatre, live action, and projections to make that dizzying combination of ideas incarnate in their intermittently fun new show.

of this 40-minute show, in which Snigel is joined by pals Cecil the cicada (Scott) and Alex McCabe’s Hachi the bee, all three of them resplendent in Jenny Lööf’s inventive costumes. All this invention and subtlety is wonderful, but much of it is wasted on this audience of under-ones, alas. Set in the round, most of the action of the first half takes place at too great a distance for it to have much of an impact. When a couple of them go crawling in for a closer look, the ushers ask parents to keep the babies out of the space – frustrating for all concerned, particularly given that they’re then actively invited to play there for the final 10 minutes of the show. This is their first work for children, and their inexperience shows. It’s a minor criticism though, and one that’s forgotten as the show goes on, with Snigel and co. moving closer to engage directly with babies, delighting with bubbles, floating material, jingling bells and more. When it’s time to go, no one wants to leave. / Jo Caird

Based on Munari’s book of the same name, Roses in the Salad’s basic premise is that, if you know where to look, beauty is everywhere. Even in your composting bin. Excitable junior chef Romilda— played with bright-eyed gusto by Irina Lorandi—lives a frustrated, Cinderella life in the kitchen. Her duties are limited to washing the dishes or throwing out food. But within these restrictions, she discovers that dipping food scraps in paint and printing them on a page unveils a whole new world. Cauliflowers create trees and heads of lettuce birth roses. Magically, they appear on a large screen behind her, creating a universe that she

Credit: Eoin Carey

Snigel and Friends

can jump into and explore. It’s a lovely idea, and one executed with technical panache. However, it takes a while for the show to get to this point of wonderment. The first half of the show is just Romilda and the irascible head chef indulging in some mildly distracting slapstick banter. It’s like having to work through a perfectly serviceable starter and main course to get to a stellar dessert. But when the shadow play and projections arrive, any fidgety kids are soon won over. The inventiveness with vegetables is a lot of fun, but the rest of the show, however, could do with more meat.

/ Edd McCracken

Arr We There Yet? HHH VENUE:

TIME:

TICKETS:

Underbelly’s Circus Hub on the Meadows 2:00pm – 2:45pm, 5–26 Aug, not 14, 21 £10 – £12.50

If the title of this swashbuckling circus show has you groaning at its shamelessness, get used to it: there are more pirate puns ahead, me hearties. You’ll be a wreck by the end of it. Melbourne-based circus troupe Head First Acrobats’ debut show

for kids is fronted by new recruits Fabian Galouye, Ronan Jenkinson and Sam Letch in Beauty, the smaller of Circus Hub’s big-tops. They’re haplessly chaotic pirates in search of treasure on the ocean waves, battling their own stupidity while dodging ghosts and sharks. Everything moves at a brisk, fun pace, as the trio of performers adlib to a delighted audience of tots and toddlers, squabble over who’s captain, and mix acrobatics with pratfalls. There’s juggling and and a lot of chasing each other around the stage. Galouye, Jenkinson and Letch are good at the slapstick, even if they’re not the most natural

actors. But Letch banters with the best of them and his exuberance powers the show through the scrappier moments. A rock-y soundtrack keeps the volume up. The treasure-quest storyline is as baggy as a sail on windless day and easily forgotten. There’s also a fair bit of treading water as some of the acts run on. If you’re a grownup circus aficionado, you probably won’t be blown away by the Cyr wheel and seesaw set-pieces. Then again, the sight of three grown men in pirate hats fighting with balloon swords is likely to crack the most barnacled heart.

/ Tom Wicker

festmag.co.uk

The Wonderful World of Lapin HH TIME:

TICKETS:

Scottish Storytelling Centre 10:30am – 11:20am, various dates between 3 Aug and 27 Aug £8

From Paris to Edinburgh, performer Tania Czajka brings a menagerie of animal friends with her on a mission to win the World’s Tastiest Carrot Competition. The Wonderful World of Lapin has all the foundations of a fantastic show, alongside a charming conceit of introducing children to French. However, in execution the performance fades into a sea of indistinguishable but not wholly charming family theatre. Iain Halket’s set design is innovative – a grassy knoll with secret features that create a colourful and vibrant finale. It’s clear that the show flourishes at a number of simple but effective set pieces. But these are moments and, too often, the devised quality of the piece

Credit: Colin Morris

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Reviews

means that dialogue feels repetitive and conflicts feel flat. Nik Paget-Tomlinson and Niroshini Thambar create a diverse and distinct set of themes per character, breathed into life by Czajka’s enthusiastic puppetry. When it comes to the show’s bilingual aspect, however, there’s again this lack of engagement between

the script and the audience. Czajka encourages children to join her in a dance and a recap of the plot at the show’s conclusion: several prompts betray the fact that this French hasn’t been easily retained. It’s a noble pursuit and there’s charm to Lapin et al, but the show has a way to go before its mark is indelibly made. / Louise Jones

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Rob Kemp: The Elvis Dead Heroes @ Monkey Barrel, 4–28 Aug, not 16, 17, 23, 24, £5

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Rahul Kohli’s Late Night Comedy Compilation Show: Kohl and the Gang Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 5–28 Aug, not 15, £free The Love of Stationery Just the Tonic at The Caves, 4–28 Aug, not 15, £3—£5

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