Author Archives: robmarrs

‘Tweedy’s Massive Circus’ (Venue 360, until Aug 21)

Posted in 5*, Rated: Outstanding, Theatre by

“A riot of perfectly pitched clowning.”

Editorial Rating:  5 Stars (Outstanding)

Our latest Fringe adventure was off to the smaller of the two big top in the Meadows. Tweedy is a well-kent face. Giffords, the famous circus, has been Tweedy’s home for well over a decade but now he has struck out on his own with Tweedy’s Massive Circus.

Massive is the right word because for Tweedy really is a giant of this world. He’s created is own circus – which the audience gleefully taunts him it being tiny with whenever he says it is massive. His massive/tiny circus (delete as appropriate) has landed at the Fringe.

Tweedy is the sun around which everything revolves but the rest of the cast are a talented bunch. Sam, Reuben and Lulu (who is constantly teased for being a terrible actress) and Tweedy’s nemesis, and funder, Madame La Reine (latterly Madame Latrine and Madame Lasgna). Sam, in particular, manages to steal some of the scenes but this is the Tweedy show. He really is a clown at the top of his game. It takes years of practice to look this shambolic.

My youngest, 8, loved every minute it of it; hooting with delight and at points doubled over with laughter. From the moment Tweedy came out in a tiny car, through tight-rope walking, vegan vampires, plate spinning, toilet humour, ladder play, dinosaur aerialists, and juggling.A riot of perfectly pitched clowning. He has the audience in the palm of his hand and as well as the ”tiny” teasing he has numerous lines that the crowd get behind as if a pantomime as popped into the summer sun. Oh no it hasn’t!

The story is simple: Tweedy has convinced Madame La Reine (latterly Latrine and Lasagna) to finance his massive circus and, whenever she appears, he manages to make some catastrophic error. She wants a world-class circus of the golden age. Tweedy has delivered something different. Of course, each failure is funnier than the last.

Tweedy is so good you never know if he is vibing or if it is scripted. It is an odd mix of high-level clowning and outright anarchy. The cast are forever trying to make the others laugh with adlibs or outright corpsing. There was one moment when Tweedy manages to suspend himself by the groin and he yelped in what seemed like genuine pain… I’ll never known if it was planned or not.

Many of these kids shows appeal to 5 year olds and – honestly – parents are checking the football scores. This is good, old-fashioned family fun. Everyone is laughing. Yes. It is silly. Yes. It is rude. Yes. It is puerile. Yes. It is slapstick. Which is, as they say in France, le sodding point.

As every great clown knows: no one – literally no one – wants plates spinning to stay up. We all want the Emma Bridgewater stuff smashed. An raucous, hour of bonkers delight. This is what clowning should be… which brings me to my slight negative was there was (on the day I went) no custard pies.

Go for the clowns, stay for the support cast. Get your coats on and see this.

‘The Kids Always Win’ (Venue 24, until AUG 25th)

Posted in 4*, EdFestivals 2024, Gilded Balloon, Rated: Nae Bad, Theatre by

“Strong stage presences, very funny and excellent with kids”

Editorial Rating: 4 Stars (Nae Bad)

We arrived at The Patter House early and I had time to witness a crime against humanity. £6.80 of His Majesty’s Pounds for one of the worst pints of Guinness I’ve ever had in my life served in a plastic cup. This was not the fault of the lads behind ‘The Kids Always Win’. I had to suffer that pint. It is only fair readers understand the things I suffer for my art.

But what of the show? The concept is simple. A game show – spinning around deep audience participation – where, you’ve guessed it, the kids always win.

Tom and Max are strong stage presences, very funny and excellent with kids. Numerous kids get up on stage and they are all made to feel at home.

The games are gleefully funny (I was thrashed by my eight-year old). There are switcheroos, goalposts are shifted and adults are thrown curveball after curveball. There are a nice few running gags throughout. My two are experienced Fringe goers now and they enjoyed this show both commenting on how fun it was and how much they laughed. The show was also about 50 minutes long rather than an hour. This is not a criticism. For kids from 4-8 this is probably the ideal length – other performers who aim their work at children really should know this.

The kids loved the result and I won’t spoil a small surprise every kid will love towards the end. Admittedly, there were a couple of moments that didn’t quite land as well but that is to be expected in any show that relies entirely on audience participation. Overall this was a grand wee show that deserved the full house and deserved to be at a bigger audience. Just the sort of silly, puerile, crackers show that the Fringe needs for kids. No, it isn’t massively deep. No, it doesn’t really have a core message to connect with our core. It was a good old fashioned kids show that had them laughing throughout. And there is nothing wrong with that. Quite the opposite.

Come for the gameshow. Stay for the raucous interaction. Get your coats on and go see this.

 

Monkeys Everywhere (Venue 33, Aug 11-13, 15-20, 22-25)

Posted in Theatre by

“Riotous, clever, sensitive, hilarious – a genuine pick of the Fringe”

Editorial Rating:  5 Stars (Outstanding)

My youngest is a fan of monkeys. Monkey daft. If it is simian, she is agog. If it not, she generally is, well, erm not agog. It was inevitable then when I threw the the Fringe Guide at the Young Team that Monkeys Everywhere would come back circled. A delayed start to the Fringe for us but we trooped off to the Pleasance and were jolly pleased we did.

Garry Elizabeth Starr swings onto stage through his makeshift bedroom of scaffolding (hardcore IKEA work this). A grown man swinging and rolling around scaffolding like an Olympic gymnast (narrowly missing his bonce a few times) wasn’t what I expected but it was an explosion onto the stage which continued for the full hour. It wasn’t immediately clear to me why he was dressed as an extra from Blackadder II but it all added to the bonkers charm of it all. More men should wear ruffs.

Starr is a master of his art. Children heckle, run onto the stage, cause mayhem and this involvement seems only to add to Starr’s humour. One begins to suspect the little terrors are actually on the payroll in some way or other. It takes huge skill to ad lib as much as Starr did in the show I went to whilst sticking to the thrust of the show and hanging it all together.

My children, and and the vast ranks behind me, were howling and hooting. Adults were too. The running theme throughout the show is Starr’s mental health and he uses the idea of controlling the myriad monkeys as a metaphor. This leads to a few moments when all of the audience – big or small – are forced to think deeply. Then, just as you are pondering, something hilarious happens or Starr gets a phone call from the Prime Minister of Theatre.

This show is what children’s shows should be about. Showing them the utter joy of theatre. Taking them away from the day-to-day. Making them bellylaugh but also making them feel and think about big things. There is a lot of laughter – how could there not be? After all there is magic, physical comedy, magic, toilet humour, poo flinging and clever, constant audience participation that smashes any pretence at a fourth wall. There is though a serious edge. This is difficult terrain in an adult’s show. It is harder again for children’s shows. Starr skips along that tightrope.

If a good kids show includes jokes that sail over the heads of the little darlings, a great kids show makes adults and kids think alike. Some of the younger ones won’t get the metaphors and that is fine… they’ll giggle away. Others will and that’s good too. After all, the only thing more exhausting than having monkeys everywhere, is trying to pretend they’re not.

Riotous, clever, sensitive, hilarious – a genuine pick of the Fringe.

Go for the monkeys. Stay for the bananas. Get your coats on and see this.

‘Shamilton! The Improvised Hip Hop Musical’ (Venue 17, until AUG 27th)

Posted in 5*, EdFestivals, EdFestivals 2023, Musical Theatre, Rated: Outstanding, Venues by

“A force of nature that you think about for days”

Editorial Rating:  5 Stars (Outstanding)

Where to begin? As the show is improvised every night will be totally different. Unique. That is its genius. Whatever you see will be something for you and your audience to savour.

One of the cast leads and asks the audience to pick the theme of the show. It could be a politician. A historical figure. A cartoon. On the evening I went, the suggestions were Typhoid Mary, Squidworth from Spongebob Squarepants, the Tiger King, and Bruce Willis. Squidworth won out. We then discussed the world Squidworth lived in – he lives in Bikini Bottom, what he looks like, his enemy (Squilliam), other key people in the act (Patrick, Spongebob, Plankton, Sandy Cheeks).

And then it happens. Shamilton happens. A force of nature that you think about for days. Squidworth leaves home, goes to college and meets his arch nemesis Squilliam. Squilliam is a more talented jazz musician than Squidworth but is powered by drugs that he begins to sell. It becomes Squidworth’s mission to beat Squilliam in a battle of the bands. Along the way he has an affair with Sandy Cheeks, meets a killer plastic bag, comes across Typhoid which Plankton thinks he can avoid before MC Hammersmith (a guest for the evening) reminds everyone that typhoid is ‘famously a water-borne disease”. Chris Grace has a star turn as Bruce Willis who, in turn, ends up killing Squilliam in the end of show duel.

It sounds bonkers. It was bonkers. The talent of the cast was off the charts. Their ability to freestyle was jawdropping. Their rhymes, at points, hysterical (One squid noted: Let’s go on safari, if i was any hotter I’d be calamari’; another where ”God” ended up being rhymed with cephalapod).

There are many things to see at the Fringe. There are many improv acts. This, largely set to the theme of Hamilton and incorporating a few of the musical tracks, was a different gravy, a cut above. The cast oozes talent (and not just the cast – the Shamiltoons who support were a huge part of the show), trying to corpse each other but somehow they know where they might go next (although I think the drug storyline almost threw Squilliam’). It truly is one of the best things I have ever seen at the Fringe.

Go for the Hamilton. Stay for the best improv you’ll see this year. Get your coats on and see this.

‘Alice in Wonderland Musical’ (Greenside @ Riddle’s Court)

Posted in 5*, EdFestivals, EdFestivals 2023, Musical Theatre, Other, Rated: Outstanding by

“SOME REAL STARS HERE AND SOME REAL STAR TURNS”

Editorial Rating: 5 Stars (Outstanding)

It would be fair to say my youngest daughter is an Alice in Wonderland aficionado. She has various copies of the bookd. She knows every word of the Disney film. Burton’s work is on her radar. Her World Book Day get-up is normally Carroll-esque.

It was pretty clear  as soon as spotted an Alice-based show in Fringe we would be off to Riddle’s Court – a suitably Carroll-esque venue for the show – and down the rabbit hole of corridors to watch.

The show was packed and we were told that the show was a sell-out. My daughter sat next to me in full Cheshire Cat costume holding a Cheshire Cat stuffed toy. Breath, as they say, was baited. Few Fringe goers are as dedicated as this.

Over the next 45 minutes the young cast sing, dance, and dazzle their way through a range of songs whilst sticking to the well-known story of Alice. All of the famous characters join us as we build up to the famous croquet scene. (NB: there was post-show debate as to whether Tweedledum and Tweedledee are considered ‘canon’ as they appear in Through the Looking Glass but they appear in the Disney and Burton films. On balance their omission was considered acceptable).

There are some real stars and some real star turns. Charity Bielicki as Alice has a stunning voicewhilst Avi Walton is a wicked Queen of Hearts: she played the audience extremely well and her back and forth with the Playing Cards was very funny.

The songs though are strong throughout. The first song Let’s all go to the fair was a good, strong show tune starter although I’ll confess I wasn’t sure how it related to the story. Things picked up from there though The Song of M was clever and became suitably madcap when all the characters sing different songs at once. Everyone is Mad was fun as was the White Rabbit’s ‘Backwards Song’.

The director, Tim Nelson, treats us to some swing, some blues and some barbershop throughout and almost everything comes off. Ultimately it really whistles along with humour and brio.

I asked my Alice addict what I should give it out of 5. She said a hundred. This may seem like special pleading: she loves Alice and therefore would always give it a strong score. That is to misunderstand a true expert in her field: she went in a little worried that they would do it wrong; concerned that it wouldn’t be good enough. That she sat utterly rapt, no demands for snacks, whooping and cheering throughout suggests it really was a good show. I thought it was just lovely.

At the end of the show Alice went outside to have pictures with any children that wanted one. Mine, of course, went hunting out Cheshire Cat. The entire cast seemed utterly delighted the show was sold out and couldn’t have been friendlier or kinder to the children who went to speak to them at the end.

 

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‘Sh!t-faced Shakespeare®: Romeo and Juliet’ (Venue 150, until AUG 27th)

Posted in 4*, Comedy, EdFestivals, EdFestivals 2023, Pleasance, Pleasance, Potterrow & Teviot, Rated: Outstanding by

“A Fringe Institution”

Editorial Rating: 4 (Outstanding)

Gone are the days where you can have a glass of lunch and return to work. It is hard enough to get a way with a couple of snifters let alone get full-blown trollied. So as one of those who hanker for the good, old days it was pleasing to see the old ways continuing at Sh!t-faced Shakespeare.

The premise is simple. A cast of classically trained actors perform a whistle-stop Shakespearean play (this year: Romeo and Juliet). The twist being that one of the cast is, well, shit-faced.

And boy was she shit-faced.

The compere got the audience going outlining exactly how much the actor had put away. She explained how some audience members could get involved. There was a genuine buzz (NB: not easy in the EICC! A venue that is generally reserved for dreary conferences about tax).

How much had she drunk? A bottle of lager and half a bottle of voddie. That’s a decent knock. A cider was also mentioned.

The compere was involved throughout to intervene throughout as an ad hoc health and safety consultant: running on to ensure the drunk actor doesn’t actually play with a sword; ensuring the drunk cast member didn’t fall into the crowd; reminding the cast to do some Shakespeare etc.

The show started with a small dance scene. It was very obvious, very quickly which one of the cast was drunk. The evening I went along it was Benvolio (Maryam Grace) although I believe the night before it had been Juliet.

She, of course, absolutely steals the show whilst the rest of the cast desperately try to keep up as she does everything in her power to knock them off track. If there was any semblance of a fourth wall Grace rampages through it at every turn.

There was one hilarious moment of audience dialogue where Grace drops the ‘C bomb’, the compere runs on to tell her off and Grace  gets the audience to agree that in Scotland the word really is a friendly greeting. At another point she whipped the audience into a frenzy by shouting ”Fuck the patriarchy”. Throughout she is gold-dust and the audience absolutely love her.

Admittedly, at points some actual high-quality Shakespeare breaks out but never for too long as Grace tramples in.  The other actors just about manage not to be put off entirely and adeptly manage the mayhem that is ensuing around them and improvising their own gags.

Somehow, despite all this, the show just about runs to time and the feels incredibly slick. I’d be keen to see it again to see Grace sober and one of the others drunk (Romeo leathered would, I think, be quite something).

It is easy to see why this is a Fringe institution. The venue was full and the crowd cackled away throughout. It was clear that many have seen the show, or at least the concept, before and return for more… but isn’t that quite something when there is so much competition here in August?

I was as sober as the rest of the cast and, I suspect, that had I sunk a few beforehand the show would have been an entirely different beast.

Come for the concept. Stay for the Shakespeare. Get some beers in and go and see this.

 

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‘Mr Sleepybum’ (Venue 8, until AUG 27th)

Posted in *Ratings, 4*, Assembly Hall, Comedy, EdFestivals, EdFestivals 2023, Rated: Nae Bad by

“Just the sort of silly, puerile, crackers show that the Fringe needs for kids!”

Editorial Rating: 4 Stars (Nae Bad)

When you think about an act designed for children and their parents based around an adult who sleeps a lot is a truly brave move. People think the Fringe needs to be radical, brave, and boundary pushing. What could be braver than talking about sleep to a mother of a four-year-old? Parents know better than anyone why sleep deprivation was used at Guantanamo Bay.

I didn’t attend for the bravery. My girls picked. They are seasoned Fringe goers and they know there are three only three sure fire ways to pick a decent show: (a) by reading Get Your Coats On (b) by getting drunk in Abattoir and asking Clive Anderson (c) picking a show with a funny name.

Using the tried and tested (C) method we found ourselves queueing outside Assembly Box. To the surprise of no one I found they had also rechristened me as Mr Sleepybum.

And we were all glad we went along.

Assembly Box is one of the smaller venues in the area (it is a shipping container, after all) but we were all heartened to see a decent queue of kids and adults. Shows in wee venues really do need a crowd otherwise things can get awkward. This is doubly true if there is the possibility of audience participation. I still wake in cold sweats about last year’s three person audience where the act insisted on team-based audience participation.

Happily the Box was full.

We entered to see someone asleep under a duvet. Oddly none of the children poked at it. Or jumped on his head.

Over the course of the next 45 minutes (note to all every other performance aimed at 3-10 year olds: this is the perfect length of show. I think ten would be the upper limit) we were taken through a series of Mr Sleepybum’s dreams. Jody Kamali knows how to hold a crowd and knows how to make children and adults laugh. A rare skill and he mixed wit, physical comedy, wackiness and the odd adult allusion to great effect. It all came together rather nicely and my kids laughed throughout.  Sometimes little chuckles. Sometimes proper belly laughs.  My 6-year-old in particular loved it.

Each dream was unique, each funny in their own way, each with significant ad libbing and audience participation. The audience in the show I went to were marvellous and got into the manic, maniac bonkers nature of it. I suspect every show is different and depends on how wild the audience wishes to get.

There were bits I have no idea if they were scripted or not. Mr Sleepybum dressing up as a police inspector and putting his jacket on only one arm added to the relentless bonkersness of the show whilst the sound engineer seemingly getting the wrong song for the shark dream was either unintentional genius or astonishingly good acting. There was one moment that got every single child off their feet and rampaging round the stage was glorious… but I shan’t spoil the surprise. Admittedly, there were a couple of moments that didn’t quite land as well as others but overall this was a grand wee show that deserved the full house and deserved to be at a bigger audience. Just the sort of silly, puerile, crackers show that the Fringe needs for kids.

One thing I would say: it does get raucous (which my kids loved – they were shouting and running about etc) but some children particularly neurodivergent ones may get a fright with the noise or things being thrown to them.

Come for the rubber masks. Stay for the raucous interaction. Get your pyjamas on and join for a kip.

 

‘Al Murray: Gig For Victory’ (Assembly Square Gardens – Palais du Variete, until AUG 29)

Posted in 5*, Assembly Hall, Comedy, EdFestivals, EdFestivals 2022, Rated: Outstanding, Stand-Up, Theatre by

“It is a joy to watch and is even better in the flesh. Go if you have the chance”

Editorial Rating:  5 Stars (Outstanding)

Earlier in the week I’d attended a Fringe show. There were three of us in the audience. Two on stage. I felt for them. I’d guess they felt for me. Audience participation with three audience members his hard yakka for all concerned.

It did seem odd then that my next show was Al Murray, arguably the biggest name at this year’s Fringe. I got there half an hour early and the already the queue for the landlord snaked out of Assembly Gardens and down the roads towards Underbelly. That is the Fringe for you – in all its ridiculous sublimity. If you come to Edinburgh genuinely do try to see as much as you can – from the big names to the small, from the old to the new.

But to our tale… how do you review Al Murray? In a way it is pointless. You don’t analyse our national treasures. You bask. You understand that he is a very British sort of genius – he couldn’t have come into existence anywhere else – and you enjoy.

The crowd was large and boisterous. The circus tent in the gardens crackling in anticipation. And then it began. He ambles in from the back of the venue, gently caressing the bald heads he passes by and bounds on stage. Beer covers the first few rows. Some are surprised. Really?

And there he is before us resplendent in that burgundy blazer, swinging a pint pot, gleaming, celebrating us those that bested Covid, happily throwing crisps at an overweight man that he admits he is surprised made it through the pandemic. The yeoman of all he surveys. A man sure of his opinions but confused with how the world is going: the character is eternal.

The pandemic has been good for the landlord. He has waited all his life for this moment. Covid was as he says ‘’our blitz’’. The moment we stood as one and did our bit for Queen and Country. For the first time we join the ranks of British heroes. We, he tells us, are the survivors and he wants to learn who is in the lifeboat with him: who made it through? So much of Murray’s show is unique to the night itself.

There’s little point telling you what happened or highlight particular gags because there’s just so much audience work. There’s no one better at it. Many try. Many manage for five minutes or so… but for the majority of the show. That isn’t high-wire stuff. How anyone can elicit so many laughs from two questions: ‘’what’s your name? What do you do?’’ I’ll never know. Flitting back and forward, weaving their lives together, Ollie in the corner must know Evelyn the gynaecologist and the jaeger bomb Durham boys. The strokers who go for a wee within ten minutes. None of these people will be there tonight. They won’t happen tonight. Something though will.

Throughout the course of the evening we meet Rod in finance, Dim Dave who ‘works for a solicitor’, a sheep farmer, a slow brick maker, a family lawyer (‘and a cold wind whips through the hall”) and many more. At one point he speaks to Deborah who has a play on at the fringe about WWII. The landlord lets loose a stunning two minute summary of the relatively obscure war story the play is about and then back to the important things of talking to the audience.

Of course, the badinage ends up back to the themes of the pandemic, our leaders, our survival against the odds of Covid and in the end he moves from the audience to the central theme that the last the two years we have had to endure.

Al’s theory of how each generation is perfect for the challenges the world throws at it. Our grandparents fought Nazism singlehandedly without help whilst we rose to the challenge we faced, a challenge only our generation could face: staying in the house watching TV for four months.

Twice.

Whilst being paid by the government.

Tonight’s show will be similar yet entirely different. Where he goes is entirely dependent on who shows up. Only a handful of comics could pull this sort of show off and fewer still relentlessly hit such heights.

There’s little point dwelling on the technicalities. Murray is one of the cleverest, quickest-witted comics out there. You know that. Everyone knows that. It is like explaining Monty Python or David Attenborough or David Gower’s cover drive. His character allows him to explore areas of life that others shy away from or – if they do – tend to veer to shock or righteousness.

One minor point: for an act so on the button of current affairs and with such an intuitive understanding of what the British public thinks… I was a little surprised that there was no mention (in the show I attended) of that other comedian who plays a character that happens to use the actor’s real name: Jerry Sadowitz. I’d have thought that was ripe material for the landlord particularly given some of the gags early on about the various genders of grandchildren that we might boast about our Covid heroism too.

But let’s not dwell too much on this. That is a throwaway thought rather than a criticism.

His character is timeless and needs no introduction: the garrulous British blowhard who almost knows what he is talking about and has a view about everything. It is a joy to watch and is even better in the flesh. Go if you have the chance. Just make sure you know your job and don’t try to claim you are an acrobat.

Come for the crisps being flung at you. Stay for the white wine for the lady. Get your red blazers on and join him in his lifeboat.

 

‘Bee Story’ (Underbelly Bristo Square Cowbarn, until AUG 28)

Posted in 5*, Comedy, EdFestivals 2022, Rated: Outstanding, Theatre, Underbelly by

“Bee Story is everything you would want in a children’s show. It is charming. It is lovely. It is magical”.

Editorial Rating: 5 Stars (Outstanding)

All good things come to an end and my Edinburgh Fringe 2022 finished with Bee Story. This is an Australian non-verbal circus show… there seems to be a lot of them about this year. Have they given up on beating us at sport? Is there something different in the Vegemite? Who knows? This trend is very welcome.

So yes, I have seen a few similar shows this year. I haven’t though seen a better one. Bee Story is everything you would want in a children’s show. It is charming. It is lovely. It is magical.

I doubt there is a better opening to any Fringe show than that of Bee Story. They may return – or you may see it elsewhere – so mum is the word but the first time you see Queen Bee was a moment of stunned delight. Neither I nor my youngest could believe it nor did we guess immediately how they did it.

It doesn’t stop from there. Over the course of the next hour there are unicycles, clowning (the facial expressions are simply wonderful), juggling, juggling with knives, some astonishing floor work, ballet, physical comedy (there’s a great scene with a snake and another with a net), acrobatics, gymnastic, and buckets of fun. Neither I nor the youngster could take our eyes off it. It was as if a mini-Cirque du Soleil had landed in Bristo Square. We were far from alone: there were spontaneous rounds of applause and whooping and hollering throughout.

The team at Arc Circus – Robbie Curtis and Lizzie McRae are seriously talented. Where else will you see a woman dressed as a Queen Bee being held in a series of bizarre positions whilst playing pop songs on a flute? You know, and I know, the answer is nowhere.

We meet Queen Bee and Worker Bee. Her Royal Highness – usually accompanied by God Save The Queen – wants more honey and poor old Worker Bee is doing his darnedest to get it but can’t quite. Then, from nowhere, the hive is hit by a bushfire.

Queen Bee has to lose her heirs and graces whilst Worker Bee enjoys a new friend as they work together to build a new hive. Of course, that is harder than it looks.

A magical hour with important messages. Teamwork and collaboration matters, friendship is key, that we need to care for our environment and that bees really do matter.

There’s probably some important British-Australian analysis on overcoming class divisions too but leave that to the grown-up reviewers.

The important part was my daughter and I loved this show and she said it was her favourite of the Fringe. She particularly loved it when Queen Bee poked her toy bee with her flute. I mean, that’s the sort of wonder you only get at the Fringe… and the sort of thing that makes children fall in love with theatre. A genuinely lovely little thing that I’d recommend to anyone.

Come for the buzz. Stay for the seizing of the means of production. Get your yellow/black coats on and go see this.

‘Chores’ (Assembly Piccolo, until AUG 28)

Posted in *Ratings, 4*, Assembly Hall, Circus, Comedy, EdFestivals, EdFestivals 2022, Rated: Outstanding by

“How many comics can make a few hundred people of all ages laugh consistently barely uttering a word.”

Editorial Rating: 4 Stars (Outstanding)

For all the flyering and social media that happens at the Edinburgh Fringe, it really is word of mouth that matters: the talk of the steamie in Edinburgh can make or break a show. Walk around George Square, you’ll get twenty leaflets. All the shows sound good. The posters make every show look must see. So how do you decide? Of course, you should read GetYourCoatsOn but many recommendations are over a pint and that’s who we grownups listen to – a person who has seen it, not a person who is in it.

Turns out though that it isn’t just the steamie* or the pub. The primary school playground is vital. My kids had been talking about ‘Chores’ for days, just as last week all the talk was about ‘Fashion Spies’. By the looks of sold-out Piccolo theatre, every kid in Edinburgh has heard the news of ‘Chores’. What did we learn today kids? Word of mouth matters.

[*noun. Scottish slang. a public wash house. I hope that helps any Aussies reading this.]

‘Chores’ is a simple concept. Our stars play the roles of two children. Their parents who we never see but do hear from want the kids to tidy their room. Every parent in the place realises the battle the poor saps are having. I’ll confess. I wondered how they could spin this out for an hour?

As many an English batsmen has discovered over the years it is better just to stop questioning Australian decision making and let the inevitable happen to you. Shannon Vitali and Christian Nimri own the stage and wow the audience consistently. The kids are rapt. After all which kid here hasn’t been in this situation? Which kid hasn’t said ‘I’ll tidy my room now’ only somehow moments later for the room to have become a toy explosion they cannot explain with an exasperated parent mouthing ”HOW?!’ at them.

The adults are rapt too. The show has it all and the actors keep us in the palm of their hand barely saying a word. The children loved the toilet paper guns and water sprays but they were all screaming ‘’it’s behind you!’’: a lack of Pantomimes these last two years hasn’t killed this British tradition.

There are some stunning set pieces: the box trick in particular was genuinely brilliant. There aren’t too many shows that involve roller skating, bed sheets, mime, mini bikes, physical comedy and good ol’ fashioned clowning. My youngest enjoyed the bit where they sneezed into the pants. I won’t spoil it any more than that.

Both of these performers are talented. First and foremost this duo are funny. How many comics can make a few hundred people of all ages laugh consistently barely uttering a word? Physical comedy, funny faces, and props are a lot harder than a rude gag that can be the go to for many a kids’ entertainer. Yes, of course there are a couple of fart gags but this is old school Chaplin style comedy. It isn’t easy. It is hard, hard yakka.

But more than funny there is real, deft skill. Acrobatics, strength, gymnastics, clowning, strength.  All I could think about as I grinned was the hours of practice, the mistakes and the – one assumes – drops and injuries. This show looks effortless but is based on trust and commitment. It shines through. Whether the kids are chatting about it in the steamie, the pub, or the primary school playground they are right. This is a proper, tight, quality show.

Could they do more? Well in terms of activity no. I wonder if the show would have been even better if the characters had slightly more interplay: one being the goody two shoes trying to tidy up whilst the other consistently undermining them? I suppose there approach is more realistic – both trying to tidy at points, the other accidentally undermining their effort or, on occasion, the room getting messier despite both of their intentions. There were moments of repetition, I think, that perhaps could have been cut down to make the show slightly shorter. That is to quibble though unduly. I doubt any of the kids who after all are the primary audience give the slightest of hoots about this.

Come for toilet paper guns. Stay in the hope your kids might tidy their room. Get your coats coats on and see this, you can tidy your rooms later.