Comedy and Steve Cramer

Imperial Fizz delivers comedic take on Hollywood films of the 30s

David Calvitto returns to the Edinburgh Fringe with Brian Parks play

27 Jul 2010

‘It certainly gets into the blood. I’ve performed in ten of the last 11 festivals and this will be my 14th show in those ten years,’ says US actor David Calvitto of his return to the Edinburgh Fringe. ‘While others have been preparing for their…

School for Scandal

School for vandals

13 Aug 2009

RB Sheridan’s classic comedy has much to recommend it in our current era of vacuous celebrity tittle-tattle and grotesque self-interest. Yet the normally admirable Cal McCrystal’s production seems to have read the text so radically against what it seems…

The Canterbury Tales

25 Jun 2009

ADAPTATION Made in 1971, the second of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s noted trilogy, The Canterbury Tales has much to admire about it, but doesn’t quite reach the heights of his earlier adaptation of The Decameron. The answer as to why this might be is…

I'm Not Rappaport

11 Dec 2008

(12) 129 min There’s a quiet, mirthful kind of charm to Herb Gardner’s Broadway hit of 1985, here transposed to the screen in this 1996 version directed by the writer. It tells the story of two old men who meet in Central Park on a daily basis, one…

National Lampoon's Cattle Call

4 Sep 2008

It’s a shame that National Lampoon, long associated with tasteless but somehow crudely endearing comedy, should have lent its name to this effort by writer/director Martin Guigui (Swing, Changing Hearts). In it, we meet three young males who hatch a…

The Producers

21 Aug 2008

COMEDY Mel Brooks’ classic and surely – with full respect to High Anxiety and Blazing Saddles – his greatest film still stands up brilliantly forty years on. For those unfamiliar with its plot, we meet a rapacious Broadway producer (Zero Mostel) and…

Vegas Baby

10 Apr 2008

COMEDY (15) 86min (Momentum DVD rental/retail) One of the problems with Eric Bernt’s wannabe lad comedy is that there’s a twist in the tale that even the planners for Heathrow Terminal 5 could spot in advance. But it’s not the only problem. There…

Les Patterson Saves The World

13 Mar 2008

COMEDY (15) 85min (Arrow DVD retail) Strewth! When an unfortunate incident involving fart-burning at the UN sees Sir Les Patterson ignite Mustafa Toul, dictator of an oil rich middle eastern state, our hero is sent there to make amends. From there he…

Phil Nichol

1 Aug 2007

We’ve all got our heroes, and perhaps they provide us with life models. Or perhaps not. Phil Nichol’s new show throws into question the nature of our obsession with celebrity, and other forms of worship we see in contemporary society.

Three Sisters

King’s Theatre, Edinburgh, run ended

7 Sep 2006

REVIVAL The fascinating thing about Chekov is the way in which, as his work crosses cultural and national boundaries it alters from comedy to tragedy to wistful elegy, yet still contrives to fascinate. The several different versions of The Seagull…