Tag Archives: Napoleon’s 100 Days

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

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

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

Editorial Rating: 4 Stars (Outstanding)

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

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

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

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

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

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EdFringe Talk: Napoleon’s 100 Days

Posted in *Written Interviews, EdFestivals 2024 by

image of event

“Like many artists, I live and breathe for doing my own shows.”

WHO: Andy D

WHAT: “Andy D tells the story of Little Boney’s second coming. Not recorded by history, he’s accompanied by his Mancunian friend and a dog called Fido. Napoleon once famously stated ‘I am the revolution’. And he was. Once. However, in 1814 he gets banished to the little island of Elba by European powers. There, not surprisingly, he gets howling at the moon bored. So he escapes, with a force of just over 1000 men! Along the Route Napoleon he is advised by his Mancunian friend. And protected by Fido. All three of whom will end up at Waterloo.”

WHERE: Paradise in The Vault – The Vault (Venue 29) 

WHEN: 19:45 (60 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

Originally, I’m from Manchester but have been based in Edinburgh since 2017. Since then I have done 4 Edinburgh Fringes. In 2018 we Sold Out with ‘Shackleton and his Stowaway’, which I both wrote and produced. This went on to play 4 weeks in Park Theatre London, which goes to show that Ed Fringe really can be a great platform. In 2022 it was ‘Tam O’Shanter, Tales & Whisky’, which went on to play The Gaiety, Brunton, and the Trav in Scotland. So once again, as long as the show comes together, it can have a future life!

Like many artists, I live and breathe for doing my own shows. But in 2019 and 2021 I just attended the Fringe as a spectator. Sometimes I can barely believe my luck having the world’s biggest Arts Festival, just a 20 minute bus ride away! Looking at shows as an outsider, but with a producer’s and a writer’s eye, can give you a really good feel for where you fit into the whole eco-system.

What are the big things you’ve learned since 2023 and have you absorbed any of the lessons yet?

2023 was my first year as a solo performer. It went pretty well and we had good audiences. The show was ‘Mark Twain’s Stolen White Elephant’. But as they say in Spain I was really getting my ‘tablas’ last year – getting stage experience. This year I feel far happier at playing on the stage, as opposed to just keeping the train on the tracks!

Napoleon’s 100 Days is a piece of comic storytelling, that does have some dark moments in it. I think this is another evolution for me, from last year’s absurdist piece.

Tell us about your show.

My show is Napoleon’s 100 Days. It’s actually a lockdown project. I love history and I read a lot back in 2020/21. Initially, I was going to write a show about the Duke of Wellington, but I find Napoleon a far more fascinating character. Having said that, it is a story still told from a kind of British perspective: Stanley, Napoleon’s sidekick, is from my home town of Stockport! The show is pretty comic, and throughout Stanley pokes some fun at ‘Little Boney’s’ megalomaniac/populist tendencies.

Napoleon was undoubtedly the biggest historical figure of the 19th century, and hugely divisive. In France, he remains so to this day. He was a populist and a master manipulator of the media. Undoubtedly, certain parallels can be drawn about his lust for power at any cost, and some modern day political figures.

In my show Stanley (and Fido) are often satirising him, hopefully pretty effectively!

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

Various history shows, as there are so many great historical stories: Boiler Room Six A Titanic Story – everyone knows The Story of the Titanic, but there are so many individual stories to tell. Tom Foreman has found a new angle with this one, it is the equivalent of the band playing on, but with the heroics going on in the foremost boiler room.

Chopped Liver and Onions – lots of parallels with the modern age with this one too, with its political themes of immigration, equal rights, and far-right demagoguery. About the life of the Unionist Sara Wesker. Pivotally, it builds up towards the Battle of Cable Street, which is when London as a city effectively rejected fascism.

The Last Bantam – Michael Hughes is a superb storyteller, and once again we have a unique angle on a famous historical event, World War I. The bantams were battalions of men, between 5ft and 5ft 3 inches in height. They were particularly effective at working in confined spaces underground. Hughes plays an Irish Bantam, which also adds the dimension of the Easter Rising of 1916. Several well-researched stories!

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