Category Archives: Rated: Nae Bad

The Gold standard. Work worth seeing.

‘Sherlock Holmes: The Last Act’ (Venue 20, Aug 8-25)

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

“Rooted in the best that has gone before Miles-Thomas delivers something I never looked for, never knew I wanted, but suspect I will no longer be able to do without – an intimate understanding of the famously finicky curmudgeon direct from the horse’s mouth.”

Editorial Rating: 4 Stars (Nae Bad)

I’ve just had a really good lunch. Breast of Guinea Fowl and a glass or two of something uncomplicatedly red. Peace and quiet in the tranquillity of Edinburgh’s clubland. A very short stroll to the Assembly Rooms and I’m ready to be told a chuffing good story, chuffing well, by a chuffing good actor. SPOILER ALERT: I get exactly that. An uncomplicated hour of familiar canonic classics.

Nigel Miles-Thomas’ classical portrait of Holmes is a lively, astutely judged and gratifyingly authentic homage that should easily pass muster with the purists. Rooted in the best that has gone before Miles-Thomas delivers something I never looked for, never knew I wanted, but suspect I will no longer be able to do without – an intimate understanding of the famously finicky curmudgeon direct from the horse’s mouth. Holmes without Watson to translate him into human is a tall order.

Edinburgh’s own Conan Doyle has been adapted more times than the Napoleon of Austerlitz has had hot biographies. Adaptations of the Sherlock Holmes universe are ten a penny but EdFringe punters have come to expect solid gold by those taking the road more travelled. There’s gold in this thar script by Holmesian hyper scholar, David Stuart Davies. Davies’ Holmes is humble, he recognises how much he needed Watson and is man enough to admit that he might have said so more clearly and more often. Holmes on the level is a much more amiable after-lunch companion than would have been the emotionally stunted, emotionally unavailable Sheldon Cooper Sherlock the arrogant SOB high on his own genius.

Cards on the table, the show’s director Gareth Armstrong produced what I consider to be the finest thing I have ever, and am ever likely to see at EdFringe – ‘The Rape of Lucrece’ performed by Gerard Logan in 2012. This was not so brilliant, nothing could be. I find myself wondering if there is rather too much material that’s been left in. A Fringe hour is like a suitcase, there is an artistry to packing it right and there’s something here that’s missing by its very presence. The high Victoriana set and properties did not sit comfortably with such determined minimalism. I’d have liked to have seen more movement, more business, more theatre framing Miles-Thomas’ exquisite portraiture. 

Like all brilliant careers, the Holmes universe lends itself to the retrospective scope. This is an adaptation which delivers the goods, although you’ll have to unpack them yourself. Let’s be clear, this is a potboiler but it’s as welcome as a Le Creuset coming out of the Aga and into good, companionable company. Get your Inverness capes on and go see this!

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‘Black and White Tea Room: Counsellor’ (Venue 20, Aug 8-11, 13-18, 20-25)

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

“It’s as though the Roaring Forties had popped by for high tea on a balmy summer’s day.”

Editorial Rating: 4 Stars (Nae Bad)

We enter to find a man sitting alone at a table. Control. This is a man in control. This is a man with a preference for control. The telephone rings. His visitor has arrived at the station. If the visitor follows the man’s instructions, then he will arrive shortly. The man puts a vinyl record on. There is no sound. The record spins round and round but no sound do we hear.

The visitor arrives. He is younger. He is dishevelled. He is not at ease. The visitor’s pulsing anxiety is in uncomfortable disharmony with the quiet tearoom where the man he has come to see provides counselling sessions in addition to light refreshments. There are rituals to be observed. Trust must be built. The man guides his visitor through the opening steps of their structured conversation. Trust will be essential if progress is to be made even as the mystery as to who these individuals are deepens, unravels, and ties itself in further knots. The man is not just any man, he is The Man – the kindly brute. The visitor is not just any random, he has a past to dredge and resentment to air.

As The Man, EdFringe favourite Nicholas Collett is as understated as a deadly cobra waiting to strike. Like a magician of auld he conjures the sturm directing the gale forces into a cyclonic hurricane of emotional turmoil in which both men will be torn apart. The Man is not without his own pain, not without his own losses. The Man is all too human which is why having an actor celebrated for his dramatic and emotional intelligence is such an important fit for this occasionally puzzling play. Collett is the lightning rod that keeps the ornate edifice from burning down.

As the visitor, Jonathan Kemp (of Drama Studio London faculty fame) delivers the drang, the stress that upsets The Man’s tranquillity with a sudden devastating revelation. It’s as though the Roaring Forties had popped by for high tea on a balmy summer’s day. Our perceptions are turned on their head. Has the visitor got a plan? Does he know what he is about? Kemp milks the mystery treading the line between uncertainty and hesitancy with nimbleness. Like something out of Hemmingway, we wonder if Kemp can land his catch. SPOILER ALERT: he does and he does so with an unforgettable, uncomforting authenticity.

This is a script which works in some places and which sags in others. This is a script where the overall wood and the individual trees are not always in perspective. There are gaps not all of which can be explained as a result of British actors tackling a sensitive chapter in Korean history. Still, for those of us who enjoy the bold subtleties of contemporary Korean storytelling, this is a fine vintage from a respected winery blending high drama, some dark comedy, and much to think about.

Come for the high-octane acting. Stay for the rip-roaring ride. Get your feather-down puffer coats on and go see this!

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‘Aude Lener – Love Reboot’ Venue 53 until 24th AUG (not 11th)

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

“Wanna feel loved? I’m no magician; I’m just French.”

Editorial Rating: 4  Stars (Nae Bad )

As a regular visitor to the Fringe for some years now, I’ve always had a soft spot for single-handed shows. So often the preferred vehicle for solo female performers, they can frequently take you by surprise, drawing from the almost infinite well of personal imagination and experience, unhindered by the theatrical presumptions inherent in a full-cast play. This slick, energetic, and well-staged production is written and performed in English (with occasional forays into Française) by the French film and TV actress Aude Lener.

Part stand-up comedy, part pop-philosophical treatise, part scatological cabaret, Lener delivers a wryly amusing exploration of a single woman’s life as she realises that the pursuit of love is slipping through her ageing fingers. As she wearily notes with a particularly gallic take on her situation: “Wanna feel loved? I’m no magician; I’m just French.” There is physical action a-plenty as Lener presents us with a rapid-fire series of vignettes enacting her somewhat crazy social and family life. These include a rather clever whiteboard presentation; much skilful use of a banana as a visual metaphor (oh, how the ladies in the front row giggled); the funniest rendition of Amazing Grace I’ve ever heard; and the recurring ghostly presence of her Aunt Madeline, who is dead but won’t lie down and keeps intruding into Aude’s life like an escapee from some grand guignol show at a seedy theatre in 1950s Pigalle.

Lener herself is something of a dramatic phenomenon. Her demure movie star face is elastic enough to quickly contort into a thousand visual caricatures to suit as many different voices, some her own internal monologue, others those of relatives, friends, and a succession of would-be lovers. With her pacy and emphatic delivery, she packs much observational humour, wit, and physicality into this 50-minute whirlwind of a show. Maybe it’s a cliché of national stereotyping for me to say that Lener’s French accent imbues her comedic insights with a philosophical authority that just wouldn’t be there if it came from a British actress? But it does.

So if, like me, you’re looking for something a little different to seek out in a small black-box studio theatre and won’t lose sleep if you never again see yet another angst-ridden portrayal of Emily Brontë or Mary Shelley, get yourself to TheSpace @ Surgeon’s Hall (Theatre 3) to laugh along with this quirky little gem.

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‘Steve Richards Presents: Rock’n’Roll Politics’ (Venue 43, until AUG 26th)

Posted in 4*, EdFestivals 2023, Rated: Nae Bad by

“This show has put down roots in EdFringe over the past decade, establishing itself as a regular Fringe favourite.”

Editorial Rating: 4 Stars (Outstanding)

Rather a lot has changed in our political landscape since I last reviewed ‘Steve Richards Presents: Rock’n’Roll Politics’ in 2013. For one thing, the Post-Post-War Consensus – the steady relay race that delivered (relative) policy continuity from Major to Blair to Brown, to Cameron – broke down under the weight of a binary in/out referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU. So the only big question in politics today is who will the architects of the Post-Post-Post-War Consensus be? Post-pandemic, post-net zero, who will be running Britain?

“Not you mate” as the voter said to the organist. Labour needs Scotland and London to win at Wastemonster. With the Independence question still unanswered, the former remains as much of a challenge as it did before the spectacular implosion of the seemingly solid Sturgeon administration. With Mayor Sadiq Kahn’s ULEZ expansion proving so terrifically unpopular, the former is less certain than it should be at this point in the election cycle. Post-Corbyn, the red team’s mounting internal divisions and catastrophic vulnerabilities will be a key determining factor in whether Labour can oust from office a blue team holding 157 more seats than them. It’s worth remembering that in 1997 New Labour gained ‘just’ 146 in the most dramatic landslide of recent memory.

So there’s a contradiction running through the heart of this year’s edition of ‘Rock’n’Roll Politics’. This is a show, or rather it’s a conversation, between Richards and his audience, about what is happening and what might happen rather than what he or they would want to happen. Richards has views, he has opinions, but his focus is on objectivity rather than the kind of subjective political debate that so quickly descends into a shouting match. And yet, objectively, Labour seems further from Number 10 than is allowed for in the unchallenged assumption that Keir Starmer is anywhere close to victory. By the end of the hour, I am no more enlightened as to how Labour intends to triumph than when I went in. Perhaps that’s the point.

Subjectively, I like Steve Richards and I am clearly not alone. It’s a full house. Objectively, this show has put down roots in EdFringe over the past decade, establishing itself as a regular Fringe favourite for many. And yet, as a vigorous sapling, it still has many of the same issues it had as an ambitious seedling. The pacing is still hopeless. Richards, who made his living padding out the Sunday politics shows back in the day, needs to say what he will do much less than he just needs to do it. Richards needs to upgrade his format without dislodging himself from that comforting midpoint he inhabits between Peter Henesey and James Carville. The content is all there but he should not be content with how it’s presented.

Without some big clear questions being asked, commentary breaks from insight and heads off down a rabbit warren. I’m ready to see this show branching out of the Wastemonster bubble and looking further afield for inspiration. The shadows dance across the back wall of Plato’s cave amid endless speculation and commentary. Meanwhile, reality gets on outside. Richards has an ultra-solid foundation. It’s time for him to build on it.

In the meantime, come for the quiet charm and unabashed wonkery. Stay for the rapport. Get your anoraks on and go see this!

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‘Colonel Anne: Jacobite Heroine’ (Venue 45, until AUG 19th)

Posted in 5*, EdFestivals 2023, Rated: Nae Bad by

“Despite many nettle dangers, the Dunn Players have stretched every fibre of their artistic being and plucked a flower – success.”

Editorial Rating:5 Stars (Nae Bad)

There is a grandeur about Scotland and Scottish life that is nought to do with the scenery. It comes from an ancient nobility of character and an elegant refinement of living. Like Livy’s Romans of the ancient Republic, the Scots of yesteryear were superior beings contrasted with their dowdier, less upstanding descendants who are but inheritors and not surpassers. It was those folk to be found in the North British baronial halls and urban drawing rooms of the 18th and early 19th centuries who built so much of what we now appreciate to be Scotland. We petty men walk under their huge legacy and peep about. It is no mean ambition to recreate their world as it was at the ‘45, to breathe life into characters as dynamic as Charles Edward Stuart, Butcher Cumberland, and Colonel Anne Mackintosh. Despite many nettle dangers, the Dunn Players have stretched every fibre of their artistic being and plucked a flower – success.

A cast of eleven in EdFringe terms is a cast of thousands. Together, marshalled under the direction of Kevin Purvis and under the watchful eye of James Shirreff as prompt, they deliver a spectacle as intimate as if Charles Martin Hardie had painted it and as lyrical as if Eddi Reader sang it. The true (and truly astonishing) story of Anne Mackintosh is of a heroine of that rising which won immortality for Bonnie Prince Charlie, if not the restored crown he sought. Colonel Anne defied her husband, the laird of Mackintosh, to raise and lead troops for the Jacobites. The neglect of Anne’s memory is a travesty only now being put right. This production is part of the campaign to provide a fitting memorial to Anne in Leith where even her grave is now lost. Considered alongside a similar movement to erect a statue honouring Dr Elsie Inglis, it seems Auld Reekie is finally doing something about the dearth of monuments honouring the great women of Scottish life. Barring the occasional fluffing of author David Shirreff’s excellent lines, this play is a strong sure step in the right direction.

As Colonel Anne, Carol Robson is the perfect balance of strident and seductive. She commands the stage as Boudiccea might have commanded a battlefield. Her delivery is a claymore thrust into the pomp and circumstance of the men she must outmanoeuvre. Not the least of them is Jerry Ponder as Lord Loudoun. Offstage Ponder, I have no doubt, is a fine fellow. Onstage he so perfectly inhabits the bumptious British Commander in the North that I find myself hoping a chandelier falls on him.

Peter Lerpiniere as Anne’s husband is another great balancing act. Neither too meek nor too mild. A man of peace in a time of war. As his mother, Lady Mackintosh, Fiona Drewery adds fierce gravity to what might otherwise be mistaken for a blousey costume drama. Genny Dixon, as love rival Elizabeth Campbell, is the ideal foil to Robson. Their chemistry is the spring in the step which keeps the drama on a human scale. Caught between them is Richard Jones as Alasair MacGillivray. Jones does not share much more time and space with Lerpiniere than Byron did with Foscolo, but the two big beasts circling one another make the jungle a more interesting patch of earth.

The humanising effect of Graham Bryans, as Anne’s blacksmith, as well as the young chap playing Mackintosh’s nephew, serve to contextualise the drama as an earthshaking event making ordinary folk tremble. Given the mighty fine performances of both Chris Drewery, as Cumberland, and John McEwen, as the Prince, there is a need for honest, ordinary folk to offset the great men of history being portrayed with such dash and style, vim and vinegar. But it’s the costumes, by Upper Circle Costume Hire in Kelso, which truly steal the show and make for an unmissable 80 minutes of spectacularly performed spectacle.

Come for a story which deserves to be told and retold till the rocks melt with the sun. Stay for performances which do more justice than Cumberland. Get your Justacorps on and go see this!

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‘Upstart! Shakespeare’s Rebel Daughter Judith’ (Venue 24, until AUG 27th)

Posted in 4*, EdFestivals 2023, Rated: Nae Bad by

“Rachel Kitts sparks and sparkles throughout, her relationships making the drama”

Editorial Rating: 4 (Nae Bad)

Who was Judith Shakespeare? Did she have an identity beyond her close personal orbit around her father, England’s greatest teller of tales? Mary Jane Schaefer’s script takes a scholarly approach to the many possibilities, weaving the plausible threads into a monumental drama of ordinary lives lived in the shadow of a blazing star.

Together Rachel Kitts and Susannah May, representing the young and auld Judith, portray a woman frequently disappointed with her lot, the keeper of Shakespeare’s most infamous secret – the true identity and significance of The Dark Lady described in his sonnets (sonnets 127–152). May remains on stage throughout, a widowed country lady sitting in her easy chair, toying with her memories as they play out stage left. It’s the first of some bold decisions which make for a rather cumbersome and cluttered production saved by a very strong script and some excellent and memorable performances.

This is an unusually big show for a Fringe show. Big cast, big set and, at 80 minutes, it’s also a long one. Kitts sparks and sparkles throughout, her relationships making the drama: with the splendid Aisling Groves-McKeown as the peevish Anne Hathaway; with the debonair Angus Bhattacharya as her life’s true(ish) love Tom Quiney; with the fabulous Becky Sanneh as the mystery woman and as Judith’s sister Susanna; and with the cerebral Luke Millard as William Shakespeare. Roddy Lynch and Oscar Blend add strength and depth to the ensemble as a solid host of supporting characters.

The strong script hangs on familiar assumptions. That Mr and Mrs Shakespeare had an uneasy marriage. That their unhappiness was compounded by the tragic early death of their son, Judith’s twin. That scandal attached to the marriage of Judith and Tom. That Shakespeare’s infidelities as a travelling player caused much distress. That Shakespeare’s last will and testament is the key to unlocking his domestic circumstances. To these Schaefer’s script adds a bold and daring innovation concerning Judith which makes this show a must for every true Shakespearian.

Come for the bigness. Stay for some exquisite character work. Get your doublets on and go see this!

 

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‘Ancient Coins of Forgotten Kingdoms’ (Venue 605, until AUG 27th)

Posted in *Written Interviews, 3*, EdFestivals 2023, Rated: Nae Bad by

“A masterclass in infotainment done right.”

Editorial Rating: 3 Stars (Nae Bad)

Hands up. I picked this one. Hammered coins are beautiful and children should be supported to see their artistry and know something of their history. Few everyday objects have such capacity to give one chronological vertigo. Time bends around them. Lost voices. Lost stories. Lost lives. To hold one is to form one link in a chain of transactions that might have bought a horse in a steppe-side community long ago, been plundered from a burning city, lost on the Spanish Main or been used to illustrate a parable about what does (and does not) belong to Caesar.

Mark Saltveit is a stand-up comedian (of which there are many) and prominent palindromist (of which there are fewer). He’s also a collector of ancient coins. In this cute little show, performed in the Fringiest of Fringe venues, his enthusiasm is enthralling and (I’m so glad to say) contagious. His description of how the design of the tetradrachm of Philip of Macedon – with which Alexander the Great’s father paid his Celtic mercenaries – morphed and adapted down the centuries is a masterclass in infotainment done right.

Less successful is his reference to Celtic FC as an “English” club, which he almost compounded into a spontaneous lynching, “but surely when they get good enough they can get promoted to the premier league?” Also, don’t forget your laptop charger.

Daughter 1.0 (8 years) wrote this in her notebook, the one with a tetradrachm on which the obverse horse has morphed into a unicorn on the cover: “I went to The Roman coins show. When I whent in I saw lots of chairs and a man talking. He talked about Roman coins and what they had on the front. Then he made a place for children to make play-doue coins. And a place to look and hold the coins. I like the bit where we got to hold the coins.”

Saltveit did exactly what he promised on the tin and I could not be more grateful. He has planted a seed which an over-produced public museum event would never have germinated. Like a bag of recently minted silver Gloucester half pennies carefully buried in the fens to appropriately age, this production needs a little TLC to be shown off to best effect. But this is the real deal. Authenticity guaranteed. In what other show can children handle authentic pirate’s treasure?

Come for the open window into eons passed. Stay for passion as performance art. Get your coats on and go see this!

 

‘Last Stand on Honey Hill’ (Venue 8, until AUG 27th)

Posted in 4*, EdFestivals 2023, Rated: Nae Bad by

“For a one-woman show, there’s a lively crowd on stage.”

Editorial Rating: 4 Stars (Nae Bad)

We live at the low point of human stupidity. Our ancestors may have lived lives nasty brutish and short – but they didn’t own any plastic Harry Potter wands. No seriously. Think about it. What is a wand? It’s a stick. Where do sticks come from? Trees. Sticks literally grow on trees. Trees are everywhere. But we are so stupid that we part with our hard-earned cash (or as likely dip deeper into debt) in order to purchase plastic likenesses of sticks possessing none of the magical properties that transform a stick into a wand. All that expenditure. All that economic effort. All that tapping of petroleum-based science, and for what? It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad.

In this context, the city of Cambridge is growing. We pretend that Cambridge is growing because of the booming biomedical science sector. But, in truth, a city that makes its living selling little pieces of paper certifying that the bearer is not stupid, cannot help but grow in times such as these. This exponential growth creates a problem. Cambridge has an international reputation as a rather nice place. Not quite Venice, but certainly not Houston. Stupidity will obviously spoil Cambridge. And, once spoiled by flagrant stupidity, it is unlikely that those locally-sourced little pieces of “I’m certifiably not stupid” paper will retain their global prestige and value. If you are reading this 50 or 100 years hence, chances are that the Cambridge bubble has long since burst and been forgotten. Cambridge, it will be recorded, was monumentally, uninspiringly slow to adapt, post-pandemic, to new and better economic models that regarded overconsumption as a failure not the purpose.

‘Last Stand on Honey Hill’ is one woman’s effort to narrate in real time the sound and feel of a changing landscape. Through songs, storytelling, and audio/visual accompaniment Liz Cotton walks us through proposals to relocate Cambridge’s main sewage treatment plant further downstream and into her backyard. As can be imagined, folks in the affected villages and lovers of the greenbelt are far from delighted at a prospect which seems to be one more aspect in the multifaceted, yet strangely faceless, overdevelopment of Cambridge.

According to the local paper, “The new facility is proposed to replace the existing plant in the north of Cambridge, in order to free up the land for the North East Cambridge development, which could see over 8,000 new homes and around 15,000 jobs created.” Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone?

‘Last Stand on Honey Hill’ is also the story of an empty nest, a neglected mother, a marriage drifting into the sunset. It’s a conversation about life, the universe, and everything even as the Vogons Destructor Fleet looms over the horizon. Liz’s rapport with the audience is spontaneous while her playing is well-rehearsed and faultless. Her timing and delivery are perfect. Her staging is flamboyantly intentional yet stylishly minimal. Along the way, we are introduced to the many colourful local characters organising to resist. For a one-woman show, there’s a lively crowd on stage.

In the bar afterwards, I suggest that a better, more descriptive name for the show would be ‘Sweary Menopausal Woman Sings Songs’. There are shows at EdFringe which are timeless. This isn’t one of them. This is a show very much of a particular moment in the human story, a chronicle of the faulty transition into a bright future mostly undertaken by dim people with questionable motives. Come for the auld fashioned guitar-based protest singing. Stay for a lively and engaging protest singer. Get your green wellies, green hats, and green coats on and go see this.

FULL DISCLOSURE: The author, Dan Lentell, is an independent, opposition District Councillor at South Cambridgeshire.

 

‘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.

 

‘Abbey’s Box’ (Venue 236, until AUG 26th)

Posted in 4*, Comedy, EdFestivals 2023, Greenside, Rated: Nae Bad, Theatre by

“Abbey Glover presents an up close and personal performance well suited to the intimacy of the Sprout Theatre”

Editorial Rating: 4 Stars (Nae Bad)

When trawling through the Fringe catalogue seeking interesting-looking theatre, it’s always a good idea to keep an eye out for what’s going on in some of the smaller venues. It’s in the nature of fringe drama that there are a lot of solo shows to choose from, but every now and again you stumble across the odd small gem hidden away in a small room in a large old building just off one of Edinburgh’s main thoroughfares.

Abbey’s Box is just such a gem: a one-woman show performed in a small black box studio theatre. This wryly humorous drama tells the first-person story of a young woman’s life from childhood, through school, to her first love affair. Abbey is a quirky, charming, introspective girl with big dreams who wants to love and be loved. Whilst not a laugh-out-loud comedy, the way in which the episodes of her life are enacted in this show raise many a chuckle of recognition, of sympathy, and of embarrassed familiarity from the audience. Using an engaging mixture of physical drama and storytelling, Abbey Glover presents an up close and personal performance well suited to the intimacy of the Sprout Theatre, one of the smaller venues in Greenside at Infirmary Street. As a 64 year-old man, I often found myself spellbound by her revelations concerning the (to me) hitherto mysterious workings of the female psyche during relationships, not only concerning what she was thinking, but her intuition about what he thought of her. The sympathetic reactions from the women in the audience suggested I was onto something here!

Abbey shows us the intimate details of her relationship with a young man, from an awkward first date as teenagers at a high school prom, through their developing life together in California and Vermont, to their first maladroit attempts at sex. There is much insightful observation of the private, unspoken expectations that lovers have of each other; wryly articulated aloud here to reveal the underlying absurdity of love – which does, indeed, as someone once said, make fools of us all. And the eponymous box? A metaphor, of course, for Abbey’s hang-ups, foibles, fears, and introspection. But, this being Fringe theatre, there is an actual box which has a supporting role, not as a character, but as a well-manipulated extension of the protagonist’s persona.

In a meta-theatrical moment, Abbey breaks the fourth wall to self-referentially mock herself using the familiar accusation that one-woman shows are really a form of therapy for the performer. I don’t know how much of this show was based on Abbey Glover’s actual life, but by the end I – along with the rest of the audience – strongly applauded the slice of life that we’d just been treated to. The late afternoon show runs until 26th August, so get your coats on and go see it! Go for the box – there really is one! Stay for the quirky insights into the female psyche. Leave armed with a few new ideas concerning what your partner might be thinking about you.

 

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