Category Archives: Theatre

Reviews of theatre work.

‘Sex Tips for Straight Women from a Gay Man’ (Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose, until AUG 28)

Posted in 5*, EdFestivals 2022, Gilded Balloon, Theatre by

“The flamboyant style and innuendo-laden patter had the audience shrieking with laughter from the outset. “

Editorial Rating: 5 Stars (Outstanding)

The programme note “Includes scenes of a sexual nature” is putting it mildly for this hilariously raucous and bawdy romp. Based on a book of the same name by Dan Anderson and Maggie Berman, it comes to the Edinburgh Fringe after productions in Las Vegas and Off-Broadway New York. Not for the shy or straight-laced, the tips of the title are presented as a step-by-step guide to sex in the format of a scholarly presentation that quickly escalates into something like Love Island-style reality TV or an X-rated late-night quiz show.

At the centre of the action is Dan, the “Gay man” of the show’s title, played by Adam Fane, who hosts the evening like Graham Norton on acid and is camper than a field full of tents. His flamboyant style and innuendo-laden patter had the audience shrieking with laughter from the outset. His foil is Robyn, a bookish ingenue who vainly tries to sustain the pretence of an academic seminar amidst an onslaught of dick jokes and phallic symbols. While we’re on the subject of the penis, come prepared to volunteer a nickname for the male pudendum to be used for the rest of the show. I heard the audience propose everything from the workaday “knob” to the exotically suggestive “beef whistle”, but the one we ended up with was “Ever-Ready”. The third cast member is Bradley Allen Meyer, who plays Stefan the stage manager. Something of a stud who clearly excites the interest of Robyn. Stefan is used as a life model and stripper for some of the tips demonstrated.

Things were cranked up another notch when a little more audience participation saw three brave ladies take the stage to mime various arousal techniques under Dan’s instruction. This greatly excited the other women in the audience including my wife – normally a presbyterian sort of lady – who started fondling me in a way she hasn’t for a wee while. Dan whipped things up even further to whooping hysteria when we were invited to mime something – modesty forbids me from saying what – using our rolled-up programmes. At this stage my wife giggled: “This is like a Hen night in Blackpool!” (And she told me she was going to a conference…)

This ribald laugh-out-loud show is an absolute hoot. The large auditorium was nearly full when I was there and I can only imagine things getting even busier as word gets around. So come for the Sex Tips, stay for the laughs, and leave with a few nifty ideas to buck up your love life. Get your sexiest coats on and go see this!

 

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‘Bird with Kylie Vincent’ (Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose, until AUG 28)

Posted in 4*, Comedy, EdFestivals 2022, Gilded Balloon, Rated: Nae Bad, Stand-Up, Theatre by

“This is edgy and very funny stuff, delivered with self-deprecating wit that invites much laughter”

Editorial Rating: 4 Stars (Nae Bad)

There is no shortage of stand-up comedy at the Fringe these days, which is rather taking over from theatre. This production (and I think that’s the right word for it) comes somewhere between the two. Kylie Vincent takes the stage as a feisty in-your-face young comedian, opening with some funny if fairly conventional observation about being an American in Edinburgh.

But we quickly realise there’s going to be more to this act than meets the eye. The traditional relationship trope of performer and audience is exploded by her analysis of a heckle she received at a gig in New York – to which we listen on audiotape – before this leads her off into a revealing and confessional exploration of her self-image and personal life. The usual idea of a comic making wry observations about the world we all share is abandoned as we are drawn into the sometimes dysfunctional and abusive world of her “white trash” family upbringing. This is edgy and very funny stuff, delivered with self-deprecating wit that invites much laughter – but I noticed there were several highly introspective episodes when there was scarcely a giggle for some minutes as the audience were raptly absorbed in listening to stories that were a little too painful for amusement. Jerry Sadowitz this ain’t – and I mean that as a compliment.

The eponymous “Bird” is Kylie’s name for herself. She sees herself and others as metaphorical animals, with other friends and family referred to by names such as “the deer” or “the gazelle”. Tellingly, all of the males in her life are monkeys or apes, with her father being “the gorilla”. Although a fine emotional rollercoaster of a show, I felt that overall it fell a little too far down between the two stools of dramatic monologue and stand-up comedy to be an out-and-out success in its current form. But Kylie Vincent is someone to watch: this combination of misery memoir and wryly observational humour felt like a work in progress that has much potential and I suspect we’ll be hearing more from Ms Vincent in years to come.

So come for the laughs, stay for the heartbreak, and leave thinking a little more about the ups and downs of your own family life. Get your coats on and go see this emerging new genre of tragicomedy.

 

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‘Les Dawson: Flying High’ (Assembly George Square, Gordon Aikman Theatre, until AUG 25)

Posted in Comedy, EdFestivals 2022, Rated: Outstanding, Theatre by

“Tim Withnall’s script perfectly captures Dawson’s often poetic turns of phrase, with Culshaw’s note-perfect delivery setting up pirouetting metaphors to be brought crashing to earth with hob-nailed one-liners.”

Editorial Rating: 5 Stars (Outstanding)

The huge queue outside the venue before the show bore witness to the enduring popularity of both John Culshaw (BBC R4 Dead Ringers) and the comedian to whom this one-man show is a tribute. The 450-seat theatre was packed – I’d book early if you haven’t already got one of the hottest tickets in town. Those familiar with his work will know Culshaw is a master impressionist, but he has a head start here in bearing a more than passing resemblance to the lugubrious Les, his elastic face cheerfully twisting into that familiar expression akin to a bulldog chewing a humbug.

We first meet Les at the peak of his career, crossing the Atlantic on Concorde, looking back over his rags-to-riches life story, delivered in Dawson’s trademark deadpan style. We’re taken from his childhood on the streets of Manchester to his days as a pianist in a Parisian brothel and the TV stardom that lay beyond. Tim Withnall’s script perfectly captures Dawson’s often poetic turns of phrase, with Culshaw’s note-perfect delivery setting up pirouetting metaphors to be brought crashing to earth with hob-nailed one-liners.

Dominating the set upstage is a huge TV screen, on which we regularly see re-enacted episodes from the comedian’s life and career. All parts are superbly played by Culshaw, ranging from Dawson’s Cissie and Ada double act with Roy Barraclough, BBC newsreader John Humphreys, to Opportunity Knocks compere Hughie Green. An upright piano enables singalong audience participation as Les murders two or three songs in his laugh-out-loud tone-deaf style.

A show about a comedian who’s been dead for 30 years and whose heyday was half a century ago inevitably draws an audience with an older age profile. But the laughter of a few young people around me suggested that, while some mother-in-law jokes might be showing their age a bit, there’s still some mileage left in Dawson’s curmudgeonly wry take on life.

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‘The Actress’ (Underbelly Bristo Square – Dairy Room, until 29th AUG)

Posted in EdFestivals 2022, Rated: Outstanding, Theatre by

“…superbly captures the debauched revelry of Restoration London. “

Editorial Rating: 5 Stars (Outstanding)

In the London of 1660, the restoration of King Charles II heralds an arts renaissance, a keynote of which is the reopening of theatres and most controversially, women being allowed on an English stage for the very first time. The King’s Company of players invite two actresses to join them, but only one can be the first ever to play a major role: that of Desdemona in Othello. Who will it be?

Written and directed by Andrew Pearson-Wright, this production by the Long Lane Theatre Company (based on a true story) superbly captures the debauched revelry of Restoration London, and as the programme warnings of some occasional nudity and content of a sexual nature suggest, there is much roister-doistering afoot! Charlotte Price plays the hopeful outsider Anne Marshall, a provincial ingenue in search of her big break into acting. The competition comes in the shape of the glamorous Eve Pearson-Wright, playing the worldly and experienced front-runner Margaret Hughes. Naturally, we root for the virtuous Anne, sympathetically and convincingly played by Price, but Pearson-Wright as Margaret is very easy on the eye and easily wraps the two men on the stage – Matthew Hebden and Andrew Loudon as men about town and the theatre manager – around her manipulative fingers. A third actress in this five-piece cast is Hattie Chapman, who plays a number of smaller characters, including Anne’s best friend. Chapman is a highly effective foil to the main characters, her strikingly engaging facial expressions and electro-magnetic eyes enhancing the humour and emotion of every scene she was in.

As may be expected in a play about theatre, there is much wry self-referential humour about life on the stage: “Audiences? Since when have they been able to judge what’s good and what isn’t?”. But a dark counterpoint to this is shown in the portrayal of a time when men could pay to watch the actresses changing into their costumes backstage before a play, and female performers could be subject to vicious attacks by religious fundamentalists who saw them as little more than “devil’s whores”. The enduring feminine struggle to find one’s way in the world was reflected in a frisson of recognition from women around me in the audience when Margaret wearily remarks to the naïve Anne: “You’re a woman: adapt or die”.

Enacted on a small stage with a basic set in a plain black-box auditorium, the show drew well-deserved whoops of rapturous applause at the end from the near-capacity 100-plus audience. I left the building imagining how this magical little gem of theatre would make a good Netflix costume drama.

 

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‘The Wonder Games with Maddie and Greg’ (Underbelly George Square, until AUG 13)

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

“My youngsters asked if they could recreate an experiment at home and watch more of Maddie and Greg’s videos. Result.”

Editorial Rating: 5 Stars (Outstanding)

If you don’t have children under the age of 10 you may never have heard of Maddie and Greg. They are though to the CBeebies generation rockstars. Their popular science videos on YouTube were enormous hits during lockdown and helped inspire a generation of youngsters to stay curious.

We arrived early at the big purple cow to see a queue already snaking off towards the Meadows. Many children (and some adults) in Maddie and Greg t-shirts. There was a genuine hubbub. Maybe even a hullaballoo.

And then Maddie and Greg bounded on stage. They explained the Wonder Games: a series of games – with full audience participation – which would bring science to life.

The duo are exceptionally skilled pros. Working with kids and parents wearing comedy Sou’Westers isn’t easy. Experiments can go wrong.

They make it look easy as they guide the audience through the science. Youngsters cheering, clapping and desperately hoping to be picked. From the first minute to the last they hold their young audience in the palm of their hands. Youngsters nearby shouted out for particular games or experiments they’d tried at home and wanted to see in the flesh (I suppose a bit like those middle aged dads shouting ‘’Do more Beatles’’ stuff when McCartney was playing Glastonbury)

Over the course of four games – all involving the audience, all built around learning about science in a fun way – Maddie and Greg compete with each other. We were resolutely Team Maddie. There’s vortexes, intros to gravity, Irn Bru, and a genuinely hilarious game called Fact Bombs. Our girls – and two friends they bumped into – thought this was hilarious and were properly belly laughing. Maddie was doing her best to corpse Greg but he was just about fly enough to get through it.

It is a highly polished, inventive, enjoyable show. It makes you want to learn more about science. My youngsters asked if they could recreate an experiment at home and watch more of Maddie and Greg’s videos. Result.

 

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Splash Test Dummies (Underbelly’s Circus Hub on the Meadows – The Lafayette, until AUG 27)

Posted in Theatre by

“Adults were grinning. Kids were grinning. Isn’t that what you want from a show?. Stars of the Fringe”

Editorial Rating: 5 Stars  Outstanding

The last proper Fringe was 2019 – Gosh that seems a lifetime ago. That was the first Fringe my eldest daughter (now 8) really remembers. Since that carefree summer – the last summer we all enjoyed without worrying about the chap coughing behind us at a show – she has consistently talked about one show: Splash Test Dummies. My youngest who was too young last time round has been desperate to see what the fuss was (and remains) about.

I trotted off with the whole Marrs troop to revisit the Dummies. Would they be as good? Could they be as good? Would the youngest daughter (now 5) be similarly besotted?

Resounding yeses all round. Slapstick, silly, skilled, puerile, the works. Both of the girls were in hysterics at points, both whooping and hollering at points. Their highlight was me having a net thrown over me by one of the Dummies and called a ‘’pretty man’’.

For seasoned Dummies fans (we are in that ballpark), there are elements you’ve seen before: the ping pong ball scene, the smell travelling round the room and being thrown hither and thither. That isn’t a criticism! These are classics that kids love. And of course there is always the capacity to surprise. The act with the huge ring showed the gymnastic capacity of the Dummies – I’ve never seen anything like it before. I still don’t know how the Dummy manages it. The swimming hat gag is everything you’d want from clowns: silly, clever, and you never know quite where it will finish.

If you can’t enjoy a show where three men dressed up as lifeguards run around with the audience and spray each other (and you) with supersoakers then you probably need to re-evaluate your life.

The three dummies are seriously talented: acrobatics, gymnasts, smashing through the fourth wall atwill, physical humour, clowning, juggling and much more besides. There are moments where they lift each other in seemingly impossible ways. It might look funny but there is real skill there. To make it look effortless as these three do is quite something.

One minor quibble: the show seemed to start late. I think that was perhaps a technical issue. Nothing major but kids shows probably do need to start on time – simply because exasperated parents can only answer ‘’I don’t know when it is starting’ so often.

This is a show for kids but one adults will enjoy to. Under 10s will enjoy it enormously. Both of mine thought it fantastic. The younger said I should give it a ‘’googleplex’’ when I asked what the score should be. I had to look that up. The other a resounding 10 out of 10. Neither are compliant with our scoring system.

Adults were grinning, Kids were grinning. Isn’t that what we want from shows? The Dummies know their audience and deliver precisely what the audience wants. Joyous, wholesome stuff from the minute you meet the Dummies at the entrance through to chatting with them for photos afterwards. Stars of the Fringe and I’d guess it will be a sell-out run.

 

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Shannon Matthews: The Musical (Just the Tonic at the Caves – Just up the Road, until AUG 27)

Posted in Theatre by

“You’ll feel awful as you cackle throughout.”

Editorial Rating: 5 Stars (Outstanding)

A common complaint of seasoned Fringe goers is the gentrification of the event: Aperol spritzes, padded seats, expensive tickets. All a bit prawn sandwiches.

It is refreshing then to find the old Fringe, the real fringe: a small, sweaty venue, shock value, plastic pints and the general feeling that you are seeing something naughty and exhilarating.

And that is what I found in the Caves: ‘’Shannon Matthews: The Musical’’ has made headlines with various blowhard MPs calling for the show to be banned given the subject matter. It was banned from a number of venues in Leeds recently but has managed – for now – to escape the wrath of the Whitehouses here in Scotland.

For those who don’t know the background: it revolves around a staged abduction of a child – in the wake of Maddie McCann’s disappearance – with the aim of making her dysfunctional family famous and rich. Is a child abduction fit for comic purposes? That is for personal taste. There’s nothing more unpalatable here than you’d find at a Gervais or Boyle gig. It isn’t as if Kunt and the Gang hide it. The clue is in the name of the show after all. If you don’t think it is appropriate don’t go. It is your loss,

But… never mind the should it be allowed discussion. Is it funny? Yes. Is it good? Yes.

I was doubled over laughing often ashamed of myself for doing so admittedly. Thee sheer outrage of the jokes forced the audience to whoop, applaud and cackle. It may seem blunt or base but it is more than that. There is cleverness here and a deft touch. It is relentless: Shows hitting 90 minutes and with pretty much constant gags are as hard to find as Prince Andrew’s used sweatbands. Those who have seen Kunt before know what they are getting: electro pop, 80s nods, hilarious songs, gags that would make the Profanisaurus blush and a deep understanding of a certain sort of British life.

More Shameless than Downton Abbey but as British as looting cultural treasures. Some of the songs will stick in your head. That may cause issues or funny looks. I found myself singing ‘ Can’t work, won’t work’, ‘Shannon ain’t dead (she’s under my bed), and ‘I’ve got a plan – based on Maddie McCann’ walking through the Cowgate. Perhaps ones to sing under your breath. Hilarious, shocking, catchy tunes. Well worth a watch.

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‘Love, Loss, and Chianti’ (Assembly Rooms – Music Hall, until 28th Aug)

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

“Johnson’s blazingly thunderous denunciation will almost certainly ring true with any woman who’s had to endure sharing a table with some whining piss-artist of a boyfriend.”

Editorial Rating: 5 Stars (Outstanding)

This one-hour, two-handed bittersweet drama consists of consecutive playlets, based on two poems by Christopher Reid. The first, A Scattering (which won the Costa Prize in 2009) is based on the author’s reaction to the death of his wife. A widower, who looks back over his marriage and his late wife’s life and death as he sorts through boxes of mementoes, is played with his trademark line in wistfully crumpled charm by Robert Bathurst (Cold Feet, Toast of London, Downton Abbey). Rebecca Johnson (Call the Midwife, Fleabag, Casualty) strikingly evokes his late wife, who comes back to walk hand-in-hand with him as he remembers past holidays on Crete and the discovery of the cancer that would kill her. Whilst a lyrical piece of verse drama at heart, with soaring glimpses of poetry amidst the pithy dialogue, the panache and erudition of the performers delivers all the pace, light and shade required of a tear-jerking drama. Some of the most poignant grief-stricken lines come in Bathurst’s monologues, when he is left alone again with his memories and keepsakes, soliloquising in the solitary nights upon his status as a ghost in his own house.

For the second half of the show, we quickly and seamlessly segue into The Song of Lunch, a light-hearted romp portraying a boozy midday date between a washed-up poet and an old flame who meet in a seedy Italian restaurant in Soho. Bathurst’s poet gleefully evokes the literary London of his youth as he makes his way to the venue, only to find it in sad decline – rather like the publishing industry to which he has devoted his life. His early apprehension about meeting his old lady friend evaporates as she (Johnson) arrives in all her confident and glamorous glory as the wife of an old – and far more successful – literary friend. Bathurst’s portrayal of the poet’s glass-by-glass decline into a self-pitying alcoholic stupor is a joy to behold. As a result, Johnson’s blazingly thunderous denunciation of him – and his awful poetry – will almost certainly ring true with any woman who’s had to endure sharing a table with some whining piss-artist of a boyfriend.

Whilst the thoughtfully introspective first half of the show might perhaps lend itself more naturally to a smaller and more intimate venue, the actors easily fill the gilded classical splendor of the Assembly Room Music Hall. The sparsely furnished set is unobtrusively enhanced by back-projected and lightly animated sketches by Charles Peattie. Originally two hours in length when it premiered in London in 2020, this one-hour Fringe version loses none of the impact in Jason Morrell’s tightly-staged production.

 

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EdFringe Talk: The Stones

Posted in *Written Interviews, EdFestivals 2022, Theatre by

“We were meant to be presenting “The Stones” in 2020, but, well, we all know what happened!”

WHO: Kit Brookman: Writer/director

WHAT: “In the aftermath of a terrible break-up, Nick takes a job out of town as a private tutor to two young children. The job seems perfect, the family too good to be true. But then the stones begin to arrive. The Stones is a darkly comic gothic mystery about guilt, delusion and the responsibility we share for the next generation of people who have to live on this planet.”

WHERE: Assembly Roxy – Downstairs (Venue 139) 

WHEN: 12:30 (60 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

Yes, this my first time in Edinburgh both as someone presenting work and as a punter. We were meant to be presenting “The Stones” in 2020, but, well, we all know what happened! But I have a lot of mates who’ve brought shows to the Fringe in the past and they’ve all talked about what a particular experience it is – fun, full on, often exciting, occasionally maddening, probably exhausting. And I thought: I could do with a bit of that in August.

What are the big things you’ve learned since 2019 and have you absorbed any of the lessons yet?

I think the big thing I’ve learned over the past couple of years is the utter fragility of so much about our lives that we take for granted. To give an obvious example, I live in London but I’m from Australia, and that distance has always felt manageable because in my mind I was only ever a flight away. But actually, 17,016 kilometres is not a short distance! And suddenly when you can’t fly you’re confronted with how unsustainable that choice is on a number of levels. Or in terms of working in theatre, you always assume you’ll be able to be in a room with other people, until suddenly you can’t. I think this lesson of fragility is something that all of us are probably going to have to keep learning in different ways in the future.

Tell us about your show.

“The Stones” is a solo show, a contemporary riff on the gothic mystery genre. It’s a funny and frightening deep-dive into guilt and delusion with a persuasive, unreliable narrator. I wrote it specifically for Luke Mullins, who’s an extraordinary performer from Australia. Luke’s created a number of massively acclaimed solo shows in the past like “Lake Disappointment” and “Autobiography of Red”, and with this show we wanted to create something that was radically distilled, that used the barest elements of theatre in the most effective way we could imagine. We did a brief 1-week tryout of the show in London in 2019 and the responses were really great, so we decided to keep developing it and bring it to Edinburgh.

What should your audience see at the festivals after they’ve seen your show?

OK – I have a long list but I’ll try to be brief! See David Finnigan’s “You’re Safe Til 2024” – David makes amazing work at the intersection of science and theatre, and this show brings an urgent perspective to the climate emergency. In terms of comedy, I’m sure everyone already knows they should go and see Rhys Nicholson at Underbelly, but I’m telling you anyway. In terms of theatre, I’m very keen to see Antler’s show, “Civilization”. A newer company whose work I’m going to check out is Alien Jefferson, a young company out of East 15’s excellent Theatre and Contemporary Performance course. I taught them for a unit in their second year and they’re smart and inventive and have created a genuinely odd and moving show with “Enter Mr. Citrus Man”. And if you see one thing in the international festival, make it Belvoir St Theatre’s “Counting and Cracking”, an extraordinary multi-generational story spanning Sri Lanka and Australia.

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‘The Bobby Kennedy Experience’ (Town and Gown, 7-8 April)

Posted in 3*, The Town and Gown, Theatre by

“…the biggest, boldest, and most successful choice – to revel unashamedly in the chaos and frantic pace of RFK’s final days.”

Editorial Rating: 3 Stars (Nae Bad)

The chroniclers of other people’s lives set out on their journeys to answer one question – who was so and so? Who was Robert F Kennedy, for example? There are several plausible answers. Politician. Younger brother. Junior partner. Unlikely folk hero. Trailblazer. True believer. Martyr.

In ‘The Bobby Kennedy Experience’ Russell Lucas (directed by Sarah-Louise Young) brings together (some of) these threads which made up the life of the most famous man not to be elected US President. The threads of Robert Kennedy’s life were violently cut short by an assassin in June 1968, a low watermark in that decade of high profile murder.

We enter to find the disorderly detritus of a campaign stop. The floor is scattered with red, white, and blue balloons. Quotations about the man himself -from luminaries including Bono, Carlin, and Obama – are projected onto the back wall. It’s been nine years since Russell Lucas played RFK in the National Geographic documentary, ‘JFK: Seven Days That Made a President.’ The look is there. The stump speaker in shirtsleeves. The slight figure struggling to fill big shoes. The occasional glimpse of a perfectly tailored US Naval Reservist echoing the pomp and circumstance which immediately followed the President’s death in Dallas.

This is still a very raw production, or rather preview of the production possibly to come. The big and little choices are still stark and unrefined. The slips into freeform dancing, for instance, do not work. RFK was in the sixties but he was arguably not of the sixties as remembered by the people who, ip so facto, could not have been there. It detracts from the biggest, boldest, and most successful choice – to revel unashamedly in the chaos and frantic pace of RFK’s final days. To see the good the bad and the ugly from inside the subject’s head as a cacophony of noise and motion.

Sometimes the presentation meanders, other times it skips. It skips over RFK the hater of LBJ, over Robert Francis Kennedy the devout Roman Catholic, past Bobby Kennedy the one-time thorn in Jimmy Hoffa’s side. Lucas, as a paid-up Kennedy nerd, needs to slaughter a few more sacred cows and beef up the content to match his insight and commentary.

In these pages, when interviewing authors of biographies, I often ask “when” a hero or villain was to be found in their lifespan. When did the individual most resemble our lasting impression of them? No person lives entirely static. We experience life as a series of transitions from being one thing to being another. ‘The Bobby Kennedy Experience’ breaks the mould of one-person shows to be more Plutarchian than Suetonian. It is as much an inquiry into the internal mind as it is a portrait of the external man.

Get your coats on. Come for the honest homage to a great man. Stay for the drama. Come away with a sense of the possibilities.

Reviewer: Dan Lentell

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