Category Archives: *Ratings

‘OH OH’ (Venue 300, until AUG 25th)

Posted in 5*, EdFestivals 2024, Rated: Outstanding by

“What this duo deliver is a compelling blend of slapstick humour and impressive, effortlessly-executed acrobatics as the duo play games, skip rope and dance.”

Editorial Rating: 5 Stars (Outstanding)

Edinburgh’s Festival Fringe is not a quiet place. It’s loud, brash and in your face. Circus shows, in particular, often arrive in town in an explosion of sequins, feathers and graphic content warnings. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. I love the pizzazz of it all. And I like to be a little shocked on occasion, it keeps me on my toes.

Compagnia Baccalà’s OH OH takes a different tack. This show is billed as a ‘joyful combination of acrobatics and slapstick’ that harks back to the silent movie era. There are no content warnings here.

I was pleased to spot it in the listings. Some years ago, I saw Baccalà’s Chaplinesque PSS PSS in a small-ish venue at the Fringe. It was an absolute delight of a show and one I often think of when asked about my Fringe favourites over the years.

I was far from alone in loving PSS PSS, so it came as no surprise that they’re now in a bigger venue than when I last saw them – the iconic Udderbelly in George Square Gardens (for the uninitiated; a giant purple tent in the shape of an upside-down cow.) OH OH begins with a spotlight on a sleeping clown, Simone Fassari, the stage otherwise dark and empty. A rope ladder appears from above, and his companion, Camille Pessi, descends to wake him.

These are not modern, red-nosed clown stereotypes. Simone is in relatively subdued attire of shirt, trousers, braces – a shabby chic, Buster Keaton sort of a look. Camille is more vivacious, pixie-like in striped top and tights, flouncing red velvet skirt and shorts, and gravity-defying curly pigtails. While he is hangdog, bemused and (at least initially) slightly downbeat, she is wide-eyed and sparky, her highly expressive face cycling rapidly through curiosity, amusement and pure mischief.

OH OH is a wordless performance, with occasional music effectively used to set the tone as it shifts from exuberant play to fleeting melancholy and back again. There’s little peril in their antics – don’t expect the ‘death-defying’ tricks you might see elsewhere at the Fringe – what this duo deliver is a compelling blend of slapstick humour and impressive, effortlessly-executed acrobatics as the duo play games, skip rope and dance.

Camille is often the scene-stealer, whether clambering through the audience to catch a ball or navigating the rope ladder while playing an accordion – without missing a note. Simone, however, gets some of the biggest laughs as he pivots between irritation and amusement at his show-off companion. They have a competitive, occasionally antagonistic relationship – but there is no heat in their squabbling. Where conflicts bubble up they are quickly resolved and the games begin again.

If I had any concerns that OH OH couldn’t live up to PSS PSS they were quickly dispelled. There’s no radical departure here, the two shows are similar in their timeless look and feel, but that familiarity is very welcome in this case. OH OH is warm, engaging and utterly charming. The audience, of all ages, loved it and the majority gave the duo a standing ovation; a prize not always easily won at the Fringe.

Get your coats on and go see this!

 

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‘At Home With Will Shakespeare’ (Venue 33, until AUG 26th)

Posted in 5*, EdFestivals 2024, Rated: Outstanding by

“Not since the age of Allan Ramsay has Edinburgh enjoyed portraiture of such soaring humility and intimate majesty.”

Editorial Rating: 5 Stars (Outstanding)

I’m standing in the queue for the lavies after the show. It’s a long and slow-moving wait. Behind me another Pip Utton mega fan is waxing lyrical on the master’s stage presence, his timing, his audience work, his gift for telling big stories with little touches. It was a much better review than the one you’re about to read.

We enter to find Mr Shakespeare is recovering from the night before. This is not a specific moment in the Bard’s life. It’s one of those out of time and space encounters which are the signature of the Utton canon. Over the coming hour we will explore Shakespeare’s triumphs, examine his tragedies, extirpate some myths, and excite the green-eyed monster jealousies which (still) pettily peep out from the shadow cast by this huge-legged colossus not of an age but for all time.

Plays about Shakespeare are ten a penny. In fact, there are probably more of them staged at any given EdFringe than actual revivals of the words what he wrote. Who was this man of inky glory? What powered his genius? There are more potential questions with more possible answers than there are moves on a chessboard. It takes a grounded hubris to attempt to scale the towering heights of Shakespeare. It takes the eye of an Olympian climber to identify the swiftest, but surest route up in the time allowed. It takes nimbleness, subtly, and strength to arrive with time enough to spare so as to enjoy the view.

Utton gets Shakespeare the grafter because no other actor grafts like Utton. Utton comprehends Shakespeare the crafter because no other theatrical producer is so reliable in the quality of their craft as Utton. Utton lauds Shakespeare with the gentle, self-mocking laughter of one who has similarly reached the top and managed to stay there.

Nicola Fleming’s direction is fluid, lucid, and candid. Here is the show which comes closest to recovering what was lost when the late, great Rodney Bewes took his final curtain call. Bewes was the gourmet master of the EdFringe potboiler solo show. His genius was to make each performance come alive with an offhand delivery that sent the ball wheezing over the boundary line for six time and again. Utton is similarly loved by his audience and, as I am reminded in the queue for the loos, that relationship is deepening with each successive success.

Not since the age of Allan Ramsay has Edinburgh enjoyed portraiture of such soaring humility and intimate majesty. Not having Pip Utton at an EdFringe is like not having whisky cream sauce on your haggis – it is possible, but the best festival there is or ever was is just better with the work of Pip Utton featuring in the line-up.

Get your doublets on and go see this!

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‘In This Body of Flame’ (Venue 29, until AUG 25th)

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

“Charlie Grant as Pepys reflects the hubris and nemesis of a superbly talented man going places but treading on important toes as he rises. Grant is a Pepysian’s Pepys.”

Editorial Rating: 4 Stars (Nae Bad)

Student drama is special. Student drama is important. The first appearance of a Stirling University Drama Society (SUDS) production at EdFringe is both special and important, an opportunity to plant a flag and sow a seed. The artistic choices made matter and SUDS’ first choice, to stage a drama centred on the diarist Samuel Pepys is, in my (not especially humble) opinion, an excellent one.

Hands up, cards on the table, I’m a massive card-carrying, club-tie-wearing Pepysian. And why not? Pepys was the confidant of Royalty, a correspondent with Newton, and the saviour of the navy. Pepys was a lover of music, a book collector, and a very regular theatre-goer. Oh, and he also kept a diary – a meticulous record of people and place in his time, a vital record of earth-shattering events, a most honest catalogue of marital infidelity and human weakness.

Sofia Sculati was introduced to the life, work, and world of Samuel Pepys on a recent tour of London. After researching the diarist more, Sculati was inspired to undertake a historical retelling of his adult life. Together with Madelynne Kestner, Sculati wrote and directed an experimental historical drama about Pepys, his diary and the people from his life. Their script is sound, pacy, and absolutely captures the big and little dramas that make The Diary such a compelling read and re-read.

45 minutes is a very narrow time frame in which to fit so much quality source material and there are several moments when less might have been more. The production design is dark, brooding, and bloody – who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him? It’s not always an easy fit but provides a springboard for some strong character work. Charlie Grant as Pepys reflects the hubris and nemesis of a superbly talented man going places but treading on important toes as he rises. Grant is a Pepysian’s Pepys. Oliver O’Hare as The General and Callum Edwards as The Monarchy are the commandant Ying and campy Yang buttressing the narrative.

Ailsa Tully and Freya Stevenson are the women in Pepys’ life. Ours is an age with such divergent morality from Pepys’ own, which cannot be a bad thing. So it’s strange that the writers treat his infidelities with such a scolding traditionality. Emilia Finucane as The Plague stole the show, either breaking out of the design or realising its true potential.

Student drama is never dull. The choices are big, bold, rarely precise, occasionally in harmony, often brilliant, occasionally dazzling. Here is a show that needs a few more trips to the tailors. What matters is that SUDS’ collective instincts are demonstrably pointed in the right direction. I’m not the only auld hack in Auld Reekie who will be looking out for SUDS productions in Fringes yet to come.

Here’s hoping that what has been planted will grow into a regular return. For in the maelstrom of the world’s largest arts festival, it is grand to see a fearlessly Fringey production featuring so much local(ish) talent bringing life to new writing. If EdFringe is to survive as the world capital of Fringe Theatre it needs producers like SUDS who can be relied on to deliver something completely different. Get your frock coats on and go see this!

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‘Don Quixote’ at Venue 20 until 25th AUG (not 19th)

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

“Knockabout slapstick; quick changes of scene, costume, and prop; melodramatic mime; abrupt changes of mood, from absurd whimsicality to reflective melancholy to quickfire gags; all accompanied by live music and song.”

Editorial Rating: 4 Stars (Nae Bad)

The Finland-based Red Nose Company has been entertaining international audiences since 2008, garlanded with many awards for the quality of their productions along the way. This is their second visit to the Edinburgh Fringe with Don Quixote, the evergreen tale of the deluded would-be knight of the title and his faithful servant Sancho Panza.

The story is a four hundred year-old literary classic, exploring the human mind’s capacity for folly. Quixote is a minor aristocrat, driven by too much reading of chivalric romances to believe himself a knight errant. Recruiting a lowly farm labourer as his “squire”, he sets off on a journey, seeking adventure, romance, and a heroic reputation. This framework of soaring delusion being undermined by grim reality is a perfect set-up for what is essentially an extended Renaissance sitcom. Misunderstandings abound, with innkeepers’ daughters being mistaken for princesses; country pubs being mistaken for castles; and most famously, distant windmills being taken for fairytale giants. At every turn in the dialogue, Quixote’s lofty rhetoric is brought crashing down by the earthy, cynical realism of Panza’s wry observations and mockery of his deluded master.

As their name suggests, the Red Nose Theatre perform as clowns – but not the largely silent mime artists one might see in a circus. These clowns speak and there is much interaction with the audience. Timo and Tuukka play all parts, including the two adventurers. As might be expected, there is much physicality in their humour: knockabout slapstick; quick changes of scene, costume, and prop; melodramatic mime; abrupt changes of mood, from absurd whimsicality to reflective melancholy to quickfire gags; all accompanied by live music and song.

A simple set consisting of a pair of red curtains upstage is all that’s needed for a setting; everything else is created by the actions of the two-man cast and the imagination of the audience. One slight drawback with this production is the choice of venue. The Bijou Theatre at Assembly on George Street is situated in The Spiegeltent, that well- known “big top” marquee with a 1920s cabaret-style interior that’s been a feature of the Fringe for years in various locations. Whilst suitably reminiscent of a circus tent, the wooden framework requires numerous fairly wide columns to hold it up, two of which are immediately either side of the forestage. These can cause a few sightline problems from certain seats, so maybe get there early to ensure you get a good view?

The performance I saw was their opening afternoon of a run that will see them here for the full Fringe season. The pace was very slightly on the slow side, but I have no doubt that the show will gather momentum as word gets around. Well worth a visit.

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‘Sh!t-faced Shakespeare®: Much Ado About Nothing’ (Venue 150, until AUG 25th)

Posted in 5*, EdFestivals 2024, Rated: Outstanding by

“There’s nothing highbrow about this production. The premise is simple, and (literally) intoxicating.”

Editorial Rating:5 Stars (Outstanding)

I want to like Shakespeare. He can spin a good yarn, no argument from me there. And I’m Scottish, so having a vague fondness for MacBeth is hardwired. I like a bit of Romeo and Juliet too – but I prefer West Side Story. I like it all dumbed down a little, I suppose. The language barrier is the main issue for me. I get lost in the wherefores and the hithertos, and not in a good way. Pure, undiluted Shakespeare just feels like school to me. I expect to be quizzed on my understanding of it later, and I expect to fail.

So, Shakespeare is rarely on my theatrical hitlist, if I’m honest. But Sh!t-faced Shakespeare is a bit different. There’s nothing highbrow about this production. The premise is simple, and (literally) intoxicating. Each night, one member of a classically-trained cast gets somewhat inebriated before taking the stage. Chaos ensues.

Edinburgh regulars may well be familiar with the concept. Sh!t-faced Shakespeare has been a Fringe stalwart for some years now, and is proudly billed as a “five-star, multi sell-out Fringe phenomenon”. This year, the team have brought Much Ado About Nothing to town, and on the night I attended it was Benedick who’d had a few. Compère Jess, in top hat and sequins, steered the show along, on occasion halting the proceedings with the blast of an air horn to remind the errant thespian of the second rule of Sh!tfaced Shakespeare – don’t mess with the set – and indeed on one occasion to disentangle him from a trellis. She also issued audience members with a tambourine and a gong, with instructions to deploy them to signal that Benedick’s drink might need topped up. Which they gleefully did.

If all of this sounds a bit like an adult pantomime to you, you’re not far wrong. The overblown humour, the posturing, the knowing nods to the audience – many of whom are clearly regular attendees – all set quite a familiar tone. (To British audiences at least – I’m not sure that panto is really much of a thing elsewhere.) The set, too, is reminiscent of the local pantos of my youth. Much less minimalist than your average Fringe show, the scenery looks hand-painted, a cheery, cartoonish backdrop to the tale’s Messina setting. The costume design is traditional, to a point. While the classic period costumes would likely not look out of place on an RSC stage, the exaggerated cod-pieces might.

The sober cast members’ traditional acting skills were also apparent, though quickly overshadowed by adept improv as they reacted to the antics of an increasingly lairy Benedick. The play moved along at pace, if not in the direction its author intended. The plot, after all, is all but incidental and no two performances will be the same. Did it wholly live up to its ‘Fringe phenomenon’ promise on the night? Probably not – some of the more puerile gags elicited more of an eye-roll than a genuine laugh – but it was anarchic, sweary fun. And the audience was along for the ride, the front rows whooping as Benedick kicked his (plastic) empties in their direction.

True Shakespeare purists will hate this show. Please stay away. Shield your eyes, it’s not for you. The rest of you will probably have a grand old time – if you’re in the mood for something unabashedly silly. Get your doublets on and go see this!

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‘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.

‘Window Seat’ (Venue 29, until AUG 24th)

Posted in 5*, EdFestivals 2024, Rated: Outstanding by

“As Trix, Helen Rose Hampton puts the slightest of American spins on this very English two-handeer.”

Editorial Rating: 5 Stars (Outstanding)

“It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on Earth has ever produced the phrase, ‘as pretty as an airport. ‘ Airports are ugly. Some are very ugly. Some attain a degree of ugliness that can only be the result of a special effort.” Air travel is neither glamorous nor relaxing. It’s an endurance test – travelling with family doubly so.

Cleopatra Coleman’s script features a mother and daughter grounded on a flight to Florence. The contrast between the romance of the intended destination and the utilitarian claustrophobia of the present is the first of several carefully choreographed juxtapositions which keep this thoughtful and elegant script briskly moving even as not a lot of anything actually happens. Trix, the mother, has a past she wants to share. Like the Via di Francesco that she once traversed, this journey into her past will open up new vistas and perspectives of understanding for her daughter, Lois, who is struggling with the inertia of life post-graduation.

As Trix, Helen Rose Hampton puts the slightest of American spins on this very English two-handeer. Rose Hampton inhabits the part honestly and sincerely. Her authenticity is the confident choice of a classical dab hand and the key that unlocks the depths of this smart funny drama. Coleman’s direction is to still but not to silence Trix’s Eddie and Patsy incline. Instead, the focus is kept on the character’s abiding maternal bond rather than milking her bold and brassy personality for easy laughs.

As Lois, Maud May is an ideal counterweight. She’s equally poised and self-possessed. It’s the carefully curated contrasts which make Trix and Lois’ similarities shine through with the crystal clarity of dawn’s first light caressing the Arno. Louis could have been presented as a brattish nag. May does something smarter, picking up and picking out her character’s qualities, many of which (we can assume) have been natured or nurtured from Trix.

There is conflict. There is tension. There is uncertainty. There are geese on the runway. Here is a cracking script crackling with craic. It’s storytelling done right. An auld skool kitchen sink drama cross-checked by a one plus one equals five performance by two assured and assuredly most talented actors. Cleopatra Coleman is cleared for take off as a writer to watch out for.

Get your raincoats on (there’s a thunderstorm predicted for Tuscany today) and go see this!

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‘Doktor Kaboom: Man of Science!’ (Venue 33, until AUG 26th)

Posted in 5*, EdFestivals 2024, Rated: Outstanding by

“It is hilarious!!! I hope that I will be able to go every singe fringe.”

Editorial Rating: 7 out of 5 Stars (Outstanding)

A year ago, and for only the second time in our history, GetYourCoatsOn crowned ‘Doktor Kaboom: Man of Science!’ with a 7 (out of 5) star rating. I wrote that, “Doktor Kaboom is enlightening Scotland’s capital with a show that promotes learning for learning’s sake and which demonstrates that science done proper is really, really fun. To the mix he’s added an essential and urgent parabasis about how vulnerable our kids’ mental health is and what can be done to strengthen it.”

So is this latest instalment equally groundbreaking, breathtaking, and memory-making? SPOILER ALERT! Yes, this is an act that is getting better, but no less bonkers, with age. If anything the opportunity to encounter so many young minds on tour across the US and further afield has underscored Herr Doktor’s sense of urgency about his mission.

Lockdown hurt. It hurt our pockets, it hurt our sociability, it hurt our kids. In the buildings around George Square and elsewhere, historians will debate the rights and wrongs, the pluses and the minuses of Lockdown. The future, as Prof. Tom Devine likes to quip, is not my area of expertise. What matters now is the present, and there is a clear and present danger that the impact of Lockdown on our kids is being globally underestimated. Their confidence in themselves is not what is was or what it could be. Enter Doktor Kaboom the greatest comic creation since Professor Proton.

Some of the demonstrations are familiar – the makeshift hovercraft made out of an auld poker table ridden by a kid holding the most powerful electric leafblower money can buy remains the absolute crowd-pleasing favourite. It’s the pickle light bulb that reduces Granny to a helpless heap, she hasn’t laughed so hard since the ‘Wonkey Donkey’ viral incident of ‘14. On the cab ride home she keeps muttering, “Want more light? Add more pickles!” and she’s off again.

In her EdFringe24 notebook, the one with an etching of David Hume and Benjamin Franklin walking up Arthur’s Seat on the cover, Daughter 1.0 (9yrs) wrote: “I went to Doktor Kaboom at eh edfringe we went there last time and had soooo mutch fun and this time it was even better!! I loved seeing the hover craft zooom across the stage and seeing a pickle-powered Light-bulb and failed-pie-tin-alien-invashion! But one of my favourite bits was seeing his head getting bigger and smaller when our brains play a trick on us. It is hilarious!!! I hope that I will be able to go every singe fringe.”

There is (still) no escaping the boorish charm, the refined mayhem, the high nutritional value of this brain-smart and heart-healthy show. If this production were a number it would be 73 “The Chuck Norris of Numbers?” “Ha! Chuck Norris wishes.” Do I miss the Wheel of Even More Science? Yes. Is one essential prop not set? Sure. Are there fewer demonstrations and is one slightly dampened by braided hair? A little. However, this to the gunnels packed hour remains the gold-pressed latinum standard before all which other kids shows must bow, tremble, and scrape. Ya? Ya!

Get your white tie and tailcoats on and go see this show deserving of a Nobel Prize in science education.

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‘Napoleon’s 100 Days’ (Venue 29, until AUG 17th)

Posted in 4*, EdFestivals 2024, Rated: Outstanding by

“Andy is paced and pacey bringing us fresh and battle-ready for each new stage of the drama but at no point do I feel frogmarched.”

Editorial Rating: 4 Stars (Outstanding)

Andy D has a deservedly growing reputation as an out-of-left-field comic with a knack for telling tall tales that really happened. The 100 days in which Napoleon (almost) restored his former glory after his disastrous withdrawal from Russia are a gloriously tragic chapter which ended on the field of Waterloo. In the comet’s tail of one man’s superhuman ego was left a trail of death and destruction that boggles the mind and scarred Europe forever and a generation. The obvious stuff of comedy it is not. This is where Andy D’s drier than a glass of Bordeaux Blanc poured on the sand during a Sahara heatwave style comes in.

Andy is Little Boney’s unaccountably Mancunian but understandably laconic friend, telling us the story of how he survived the retreat from Moscow and how, along with Fido the dog, he was an up close and personal witness to the events of 1815. It is a feat of genuine historical insight to present one of the most colourful personalities of modern history in such a straightforward and unadorned manner. It is a feat of expert theatricality to bring such momentous events to life with nothing more than a Napoleonesque hat. There’s a lot of ground to cover and not a lot of time to cover it in. Andy is paced and pacey bringing us fresh and battle-ready for each new stage of the drama but at no point do I feel frogmarched.

The history on offer is properly researched and credentialled, although there are no known 19th-century recipes for the dish of beef first recorded in 1903 (in the L.A. Times) as ‘fillet of beef, à la Wellington’ which might be jarring if you are a ‘Sharpe’ mega-fan with a penchant for pastry wrapped tenderloin – which I am.

This is an exactingly minimalist production in need of a better frame. A more developed lighting design, one that could convey the sheer distances travelled by Napoleon and his armies in this short space of time, might be appropriate. Antoine-Henri, Baron Jomini, one of the earliest leading military writers on the Napoleonic art of war, cites epically bad weather as a major factor in Napoleon’s ultimate defeat on 18 June 1815. Would a change in the lights not help underscore that point? What really does work are the onscreen quotations attributed to Napoleon which add a perilous sense of vertigo to this tightly delivered tightrope act. “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.” “If you wish to be a success in the world, promise everything, deliver nothing.”

Come for the solid history. Stay for the as solid performance. Get your redcoats on and go see this!

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‘Sent’ (Venue 29, until AUG 19th)

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

“As the wronged party, Áine Collier pitch perfectly plays the Faustian Hamlet of the piece.”

Editorial Rating: 4 Stars (Nae Bad)

This is a cracking show full of craic, sass, fizz, and pop. Four teenagers, besties for life (or this week at least), navigate the darker side of sociability in the age of instant social media takedowns. When a night on the tiles leaves one of our quartet publicly shamed the gang plot their cold and anonymous revenge – hell hath no fury and all that.

As the wronged party, Áine Collier pitch perfectly plays the Faustian Hamlet of the piece, a go-along-to-get-along type quickly out of her depth, possessed of a failing moral compass, and with a hurricane about to blow. Shauna Brady, Caroline McAuley, and Anna McLoughlin as the bitchy brattish buddies are the devils on her shoulder – goading, persuading, convincing and conniving. It takes real cajones to present such toxicity so unflinchingly. The honesty of this piece is as brutal as being sucker-punched by an iron-fisted gang of sea otters. Who would have thought that beneath such sweet and innocent exteriors lurked so much malice?

The performances are a highlight. The plot twist and reveal at the final curtain is genius. What is less successful is that this is still a production trying too much to be like something else comfortingly familiar. I would like to see this troupe searching harder for their own distinct voice. When they find it, sparks will fly, and a sparkling new set of talents will step into the limelight as EdFringe favourites. Still, you’re going to want to see this so as how you can boast that you were there in the beginning.

Get your coats on and go see this!

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