Category Archives: Rated: Nae Bad

The Gold standard. Work worth seeing.

‘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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‘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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‘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.

 

‘I’d Like a Job Please’ (Venue 45, until Aug 10)

Posted in 3*, EdFestivals 2024, Rated: Nae Bad by

“Satire so biting it’s like dipping your toes in a paddling pool of cartoon piranhas.”

Editorial Rating: 3 (Outstanding)

Is it me or is there a dearth of jobs suitable for the graduates we produce? Clearly, it’s not just me since there is a show on this EdFringe that hits the nail squarely on the head. Here is a script that skewers the contemporary employment market with a satire so biting it’s like dipping your toes in a paddling pool of cartoon piranhas.

Sarah is a recent graduate, living at home, looking for a job. There isn’t much out there as the void said to the encompassing empty space an hour or two before the big bang. ‘Vacuous’ that is the word which springs to mind about the work available at the fuzzy end of the employment lollipop. BUT! Joy of joys, there’s an opening in an office (or is it a cult) pushing crappy products. There are downsides like terrible pay, life-sucking hours, and the nagging certainty that all you are doing is enriching crappy people sitting at the top of a broken pyramid. It’s a job doing zero social good and much societal harm.

Sarah hasn’t got much ambition beyond amassing a scintilla of self-respect. She shares existence with a cast of well-dodgy characters including toxic macho-hustler podcasters, carbon-copy women sapping the joy out of life with their singsong voices, and colleagues with less personality than the inside of a wet cardboard box. The only bright spot is Sarah’s mum whose sunny disposition is either totally naive or a lesson to us all.

Serious Billy Productions was founded three years ago by a group of University of Warwick students. Following sold-out productions at Warwick they have teamed up with Oxford Revue Alumni to develop ‘I’d Like A Job Please’. It’s obvious from the getgo that there is some serious talent under the hood of this Caterham Roadsport which, like its road-going automotive counterpart, is light, fast and occasionally furious.

There are some real highlights including the bizarre company away day as well as Sarah’s posh-adjacent friend’s horrible relationship with her horrible mother. This young company does grotesqueness like Gilray although not always with his joie de vivre. Fine satire admits the truth while seeing the possibilities however dim and uncertain. This is a generation with every reason to be angry that the economy is not simply a mess, it’s a beached, very dead whale carcass riddled with self-important wormish bloviators left high and dry by the tides of analogue, digital, and now AI-enhanced rushing up and down a polluted foreshore.

This is why there’s every reason to be positive, especially if you’re a supermart, superbright Russell Group graduate with a collective flair for real-world fantasy. Knowing that the rat race is a con is the first step on the road to a happy life. This is a cast-heavy production with a surprising lack of off-stage production going on. Where is the website? Where is the front of house work before curtain up? Where are the nuts and bolts a well-scaffolded production cannot do without? What’s on stage shows so much promise, but this unstretched canvas needs a frame and a focus so as to stand out from another very crowded market. It will be interesting to read their #EdFringeTalk25 10 months from now.

I hope that Serious Billy Productions will be returning and reflecting after this short run. They are ones to watch and they have something to say. Get your off-the-peg Next Sale work coats on and go see this!

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‘Aaaand Now for Something Completely Improvised’ (Venue 17, Aug 9-11)

Posted in 3*, EdFestivals 2024, Rated: Nae Bad by

“This is a fun show by fun people for folks who aren’t minded to splash all their Fringe cash on dead parent, my house was bombed by moomins, what’s the point of existence? serious and sombre stuff.”

Editorial Rating: 3 Stars (Nae Bad)

We enter to find the troupe dishing out Opal Fruits, interacting with the audience, and getting the energy levels up. It’s a very welcoming space. You can feel the energy crackling. It’s obvious that the chaps on stage really enjoy working together and we’re all invited to share the bromance. An absent-minded grandparent is about to tell a story to his grandlings, but what story? Any suggestions?

What follows is an entirely unpredictable series of vignettes, sidebars, and recurring characters. When the chaps ask if anyone has ever heard of Sunderland Footballer Len Shackleton, not actually the brother of Earnest, it’s all I can do to stop my Geordie GetYourCoatsOn colleague, the one with a still unwritten play about Colin Veitch, from launching into his favourite before, during, and after dinner lecture – luckily he’s busy chewing on an Opal Fruit.

Over the course of the hour we’re in the sea. We’re on an island. We’re on a rollercoaster of madcappery and bonkersosity that provides much merriment. This is a fun show by fun people for folks who aren’t minded to splash all their Fringe cash on dead parent, my house was bombed by moomins, what’s the point of existence? serious and sombre stuff.

I have to admit I raised an eyebrow when I read the show’s listing at EdFringe.com – “Improv Legends” is a strong sell. It’s also an admission that the show is not new. So is it still fresh? Is it still quick-witted? Certainly, these Oxford Imps almuns have appeared (and are appearing) in some of the best-known improv shows at the festival including ‘Austentatious’ and ‘Adventures of the Improvised Sherlock Holmes’. Definitely, they are good at what they do. However, undeniably, there is a flatness and a whiff of complacency. Like an undergased, overpriced pint in a plastic glass from a popup bar there’s something there that’s missing. At several points, when the ball slips into dead air, I find myself wishing Len Shackleton would give the boys a talking-to in the dressing room about the importance of possession and positioning.

I would like to see this show getting back to basics and resting on a few fewer laurels. The best thing about improv is that it exists only in the moment, so the moment matters more than anything before or after. There’s plenty more Fringe in the sea lads, so stop treading water. This improv needs improving if the best days are still ahead.

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‘A Montage of Monet’ (Venue 236, Aug 9-10, 12-17)

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

“An aged-up Stephen Smith plays the eponymous artist with all the power and emphasis that can be mustered by a younger actor playing an old man.”

Editorial Rating: 4 Stars (Nae Bad)

This is a very engaging and thoughtful show presenting the life, loves, and art of the legendary French impressionist painter, Claude Monet. As we are shown, the great artist’s private life was certainly full enough of drama, crisis, and angst to justify a play. This production, a piece of well-crafted new writing by Joan Greening, takes us on a journey to Belle Epoque Paris and beyond, offering much entertaining insight into the bohemian world of these creative types whilst shattering a few myths about what drives their urge to paint.

The small, black box Mint Studio of Greenside @ George Street is simply transformed into the artist’s world by means of a few props and we see Monet’s instantly recognisable works projected onto a blank canvas standing on an easel. An aged-up Stephen Smith plays the eponymous artist with all the power and emphasis that can be mustered by a younger actor playing an old man. Two characteristics of this production give it a very intimate feel. The lighting is deliberately kept fairly low – much at odds with the bursting colour of Monet’s canvases, but subtly encouraging introspective focus on the man himself. Secondly, the monologue is quietly underscored by original piano music by Joseph Furey playing in the background. I’m not usually a fan of incidental music in theatre, but this gently melodic accompaniment adds a wistful backdrop to Monet’s tale.

The human story behind the legendary paintings is often fascinating and revealing. Monet was no saint: an aesthete, but no angel. The roller coaster of his love life often belies the tranquillity evoked by his art. His relationships with fellow artists were often complex, whilst catastrophic events in his own life often threatened his very ability to create his works. Spiced with moments of humour and wit, there are also many surprising revelations concerning the stories behind some of his most celebrated images. No spoilers here, but I’ll never look at his famous Water Lilies paintings in the same way again, having been told how the subject matter in his garden pond at Giverny was so beautifully arranged. There was even a word of warning for us critics in learning how the name of the genre Impressionism arose from some laboured mockery by an infamous and now largely forgotten journalist.

Of the many solo shows on offer at the Fringe, a number are always biographical dramatisations of some historical person’s life: often a literary or show business figure, or more rarely, an artist. The problems inherent in representing an artist’s life on stage include: the sedentary nature of their work; talented individuals leading often dull and uneventful private lives; and the difficulty of making drama from the creation of still-life in the shape of a canvas or sculpture. In a different show I saw earlier this week, we watched an actor physically recreate a painting brush-in-hand as she spoke to the audience in character as the artist in question; very talented and skilled, but not great theatre and more suited to the radio. This production does not make the same mistake and is thus well worth going along to see.

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‘Spy Movie: The Play!’ (Venue 33, Aug 9-12, 14-19, 21-26)

Posted in 4*, Comedy, EdFestivals 2024, Pleasance, Pleasance, Potterrow & Teviot, Rated: Nae Bad, Theatre by

“The ensemble cast of four keep the laughs coming at a whirlwind pace. “

Editorial Rating: 4 Stars (Nae Bad)

This hilarious spoof homage to the Bond movie franchise is a fast-paced satire which sends up pretty much every scene from Dr No to The Spy Who Loved Me. But you don’t need to be a fan of Ian Fleming’s 007 to appreciate the quickfire wordplay in this show, which bears the same relationship to the genre it parodies as Blazing Saddles does to westerns, or Police Squad does to 1970s TV cop shows. The premise of the show is that what you’re seeing on stage is a pitch to an audience of Hollywood movie producers to get the script turned into a film. The farcically disastrous goings-on are reminiscent of The Play That Goes Wrong; and two of the cast members you see were in that very show.

The protagonist of The Greatest Spy Movie (N)ever Made is Jane Blonde, who has 24 hours to save the world and likes her martinis “shaken, stirred, and jiggled”. Along the way, she must contend with the global criminal network EVIW, which stands for Every Villain In [the] World (just think about how a cockney would pronounce the word “evil”). From the first moments we are treated to merciless skits of scenes that are the hallmark of every classic Bond movie you’ll have seen: the opening credits sequence; the briefing from M; a chase down a ski slope; a trans-European rail journey; a car chase.

The ensemble cast of four keep the laughs coming at a whirlwind pace. Jo Hartland plays Jane Blonde with cool panache (though she refuses to dye her hair blonde), whilst the versatile Emily Waters tickles the funny bone playing character roles ranging from M (pronounced “mmm”) to super-villain Mr Lovely. James Watterson doubles as spy novelist Ian Flemish and American secret double agent Randy Lust. The irrepressible Matthew Howell plays just about everyone else and certainly gets to wear the greatest variety of hats as he darts seamlessly from role to role.

Using a minimal set consisting of a pair of curtains, the pseudo-cinematic action is irreverently created by some highly co-ordinated and inventive use of props, always with the tongue planted firmly in the cheek. The show’s publicity warns of loud sound effects, flashing lights and lasers, and smoke/haze, all used to create a lively sense of anarchic slapstick. This is also probably the only show in Edinburgh this season that makes use of an actual flying helicopter.

Staged in the Beneath auditorium at the Pleasance Courtyard, the show runs for nearly the whole of this month, excepting Tuesdays. Starting at midday, it’s an ideal laugh-a-minute show for all of the family. It’s already selling well, so Get Your Coats On and go buy your tickets!

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Beryl Cook: A Private View at Venue 33 until 25th AUG (not 12th or 19th)

Posted in 3*, Pleasance, Pleasance, Potterrow & Teviot, Rated: Nae Bad, Theatre by

“Well written and immaculately performed and produced”

Editorial Rating: 3 Stars (Nae Bad )

The name of the late Beryl Cook (1926-2008) will be familiar to many people of a certain age. Labelled as a “naive” artist by the British art establishment, she was very well known for her works depicting plump, extrovert ladies and gentlemen enjoying themselves in pubs, at picnics, or on hen nights and the like. Her instantly recognisable personal style was so popular that she made a fortune in reproduction rights from greetings cards. A shy and private woman who shunned publicity, Cook had no formal training in art and took up the brush in her thirties and was entirely self-taught.

Cook is played by the veteran TV, film, and theatre actress Kara Wilson, who also wrote the script. Wilson met members of Cook’s family whilst researching her subject to shed light on this intriguing and enigmatic figure. No mean artist herself, this is Wilson’s fifth “painter play” as a writer, and she skilfully portrays Cook creating one of her most famous works Ladies’ Night whilst siting at a table full of paint pots and brushes.

The show successfully previewed twice earlier this year at the King Alfred Phoenix Theatre in Hampstead. As Cook/Wilson paints, she regales us with amusing anecdotes arising from the artist’s personal world: for all her shyness, Cook enjoyed a drink or two in the pubs of Plymouth, amidst their often rowdy clientele of hen nights, male strippers, and the drunken, tattooed sailors of the Royal Navy. Such a play clearly appeals to a certain demographic and looking around me, I spotted a number of ladies and gents who might well have been escapees from one of Cook’s wryly observational works. Performed in the Attic auditorium at the Pleasance Courtyard added an air of authenticity to the show, creating as it did the ambience of an artist’s studio.

There is, perhaps, a PhD thesis waiting to be written by some postgraduate Theatre Studies student on the subject of One-hour One-woman Shows at the Edinburgh Fringe; nowadays surely a major genre all of its own in the Festival calendar? This show was a fine example: well-written and immaculately performed and produced. It differs from many in this category in that it features a painter, rather than the ever-popular 19th century lady novelist, or the contemporary angst-ridden sex confessional. However, it’s a rather sedentary production; albeit necessarily so, as its protagonist paints whilst we watch and listen to her talk. One hesitates to opt for some cheap shot about “watching paint dry”, but apart from the visual aspect of the developing canvas, there isn’t much to see here. Script-wise, it is more of a radio play than a theatrical drama.

That being said, its target audience lapped it up and shows such as this are an agreeable way to spend an hour on a weekday afternoon. The paintings created live by Wilson during each performance are all on sale, with contact details available upon leaving the auditorium at the end of the show.

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‘Polishing Shakespeare’ (Venue 20, Aug 8-18, 20-25)

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

“A potentially explosive cocktail ready to flare up on the issue of making Shakespeare more relevant. Relevant to who exactly?”

Editorial Rating: 4 Stars (Nae Bad)

Gandhi once said something about how the railways made pilgrimages less meaningful. The journey matters as much as the arrival. Make the journey too simple, too short, too easy and something of great value is lost. For centuries Shakespeare has been mucked about with. It’s strange because nobody ever thinks to rework Jonson or the rest of the Elizabethian / Jacobean hall-of-famers whose works moulder on the subs bench alongside the Bard’s own lesser-performed works. Are uncurious audiences or are overcautious producers to blame for the constant repetition of the greatest hits? Is there a feedback loop? And why have so many people been so keen to impose their own ski lifts and coach tours on the slopes of Mount Shakespeare National Park?

Big money has a big sense of entitlement. Hitch that horse to the creeping bureaucracy of arts funding, add a struggling playwright to the mix and you’ve got a potentially explosive cocktail ready to flare up on the issue of making Shakespeare more relevant. Relevant to who exactly?

Brian Dykstra’s script is high polemic poetry. Every. Single. Word is a masterclass in precision iambic pentameter delivered naturally, fluidly, and candidly. As the billionaire with the billion-dollar idea, Dykstra bestirdes the stage like a colossus. His big Willy Shakespeare energy summons the ghost of the Stratford schoolkid who went to London, made his fortune, and returned to live in the second-biggest house in his auld home town. Bums on seats and coins in the box – the one that lives in the box office – the spirit of enterprise hitched to a purpose, unshackled from any higher motive.

Shakespeare did not live to edit his plays for publication in a folio as Jonson did in 1616. That task was left to Mssrs Heminges and Condell. There is strong evidence to suggest Shakespeare had made a start. In Greenock, there is a copy of North’s translation of Plutarch with an impeccable provenance containing much marginalia in need of closer study. The fact that the charms and strength of Shakespeare was overthrown before he could curate his legacy left a space for lesser talents.

As Ms. Branch, Kate Levy is the curatorial middleman all too familiar to us but unknown to Shakespeare whose only paymasters were his public and his Royal booking agent. Levy never entirely decides if she is playing the true villain of the piece, the pandering procuress intent (knowingly or unknowingly) on selling purity and virtue for the right price. Levy plays it safe which is what her character would do. 

The serious heavy-lifting, the role of the besieged struggling playwright Janet, is outstandingly performed by Kate Siahaan-Rigg. Through tongue-twisting monologues, moments of sensational sturm and serious drang Siahaan-Rigg breathes life into the script keeping it real, keeping it thought-provoking.

Is the result on stage always entertaining? I guess that depends on how much you like being repeatedly beaten around the head with an over-extended allegory. Here is a script demonstrating perfectly why direction matters. Margarett Perry is one of the best directors at EdFringe. She has a gift for pace like Elvis had a gift for rhythm. She worked what she’s got into the shape of something truly memorable, perhaps even culturally valuable. Just don’t sit anywhere but dead centre, the show’s blocking must not have made it through customs.

Come for this light and fluffy performance of a hardcore script. Stay for the things that need saying about the state of the arts in our own day and age. Get your coats on and go see this!

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‘Fountain of You’ (Venue 20, Aug 9, 13, 15, 18, 21, 24)

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

“Wróbel plays to the unambiguous ambiguity of the role in perfect contrast to Lucy McClure’s sweetness and light fairy Godmother archetype.”

Editorial Rating: 4 Stars (Nae Bad)

Bob Dylan once sang a song about how the tables can turn. How one minute you’re on top of the world and the next you’re on your own, with no direction home, a complete unknown, like a rolling stone. The Patriarchy is like that, always on the scrounge for a new Renfield, a new familiar to be standing by day and night to unquestioningly serve the needs of the bloodsucking sociopath lying in the coffin. So when a 30-something actress is suddenly aged-out of show business, she undergoes a wildly unconventional spa treatment to get her old life back. But it sets her on a whole new path to pursue true power and equality… at a cost.

As the 30-something actress, Martyna Wróbel is a flawless depiction of flawed humanity ready to get red in tooth and claw when the chips are down. The role demands sufficient sympathy to draw us in even as the horrible price to be paid gets reckoned. It’s Dorian Grey without the picture. It’s Sweeny Todd and Frankenstein but with less self-loathing. Wróbel plays to the unambiguous ambiguity of the role in perfect contrast to Lucy McClure’s sweetness and light fairy Godmother archetype, who dabbles in the dark arts by necessity, not choice.  

Selina Savijoki, Jadon Simone Trelour, Kaiyi Xu, and Bernice Jiaxin Zheng are billed as the ‘Esthettes’ and certainly, they deliver sensitivity and beautiful touches by the wheelbarrow full. These were four precision performances which instinctively demonstrated that they knew when to be seen and when to blend into the unfolding drama. Like a Persian rug possessed of a single tiny flaw to remind the viewer that total perfection is totally preserved to divinity, the single slip I spotted – a lighting mirror held the wrong way round during a dance number – served to amplify the meticulous striving for excellence we should expect from an RCS production.

There are plenty of good reasons to see this production, but the most compelling is David Joseph Healy who plays all the good guys as well as all the bad guys. Healy’s character work is funny, studied, striking, hugely impactful and… so my companion – a kittenish cougar – tells me both during and after… it’s sexy. Healy is clearly one to watch which raises the first of several question marks hanging by a horsehair over the banquet.

First, this is a show about how tough women have it, so why give the only male actor half the roles? It’s a glaring flaw in the script which should have sounded some alarm bells. This is a story about the impossible standards women face in the impossibly vain and shallow world of mass light entertainment as they age. And yet it is performed by horribly young and horribly attractive people who are horribly wonderful at everything they do.

Playing to a home crowd at Edinburgh is an incredible privilege, just ask a New Zealander. There’s nothing inherently wrong with privilege but, as Lord Acton did not say, absolute privilege corrupts absolutely. The single worst decision any EdFringe producer can make is to waste time. This was a one-hour story which was allowed to stretch on and on and on. The mantra, show me don’t tell me, works so long as someone is brave enough to make a cut or six where the ‘show me’ is killing the pace and packing. If this script were luggage it would be liable for an excess weight fee.

Still, as a showcase of what the RCS community can make happen, as a showcase of Olympian-level talent on stage and off this show is a triumph worthy of the great legacy and bright future of one of the nation’s most important centres for arts education. Get your Napoleon in rags coats on and go see this!

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