Issue 611

Five questions: Jill Gascoine

21 Aug 2008

Currently enjoying a successful run playing the suicidal mother of four estranged daughters in Sister Cities at the Gilded Balloon, star of The Gentle Touch and CATS Eyes Jill Gascoine turns her talents to our Q&A 4 shows you’re looking forward to…

The Shadow

21 Aug 2008

Enthusiastic acting is let down here by an over-written, confused and dizzyingly fast-paced script about a poet who loses his shadow. A barrage of contradictory metaphors dealing in the currency of light, dark, joy, greed, friend, foe and princesses…

Summat an' Nowt

21 Aug 2008

Olivia Neville has got a rich cache of characters and uses her talents well, but one can't help but feel that she's wasted an opportunity here to really lampoon Lancashire. The title of the show suggests something other than the amusing sketches she…

Pluck

21 Aug 2008

A brilliant mix of high comedy, astonishing musicianship and a touch of romance, Pluck give us a re-imagined telling of the musicians who stayed behind on the Titanic in spite of a strange intruder, string rivalry, and well, the obvious sinking of the…

Saving Tania's Privates

21 Aug 2008

This show should come with a warning. Not because of the references to lesbian sex and liberal attitudes to everything else - being open to that should go without saying. But because one woman (Tania Katan) exposes her survival of breast cancer (twice)…

Shafted

21 Aug 2008

Three men with motives for murder are trapped in a lift. As the lights flicker out, one succumbs to a macabre death in a straightforward thriller that even Stephen King would struggle to twist to life. Two valiant performances are dwarfed an almost…

The Censor

21 Aug 2008

Hands flicking towards each other's groins, two actors circle one another in the basement office of the film censorship board. Prudishness and sexuality are explored in Anthony Neilson's electrifying text. Unfortunately, the dynamics of the central…

Slap, Tickle and Squeak

21 Aug 2008

If this show carries any profitable message for its audience, it's that all improvised comedy performances should carry a warning. Using every drama teacher's game in the book, the trio present sketches and freaks in a poor adaptation of Edwardian…

Chris Cox

21 Aug 2008

An amiable young man, Cox makes behavioural predictions about his audience by reading their body language, using neuro-linguistic programming and sometimes just peeking when his eyes are supposed to be closed. Frequent mistakes and bad guesses make this…

Gamarjobat

21 Aug 2008

The playful Japanese pair deftly animate all the trappings of a silent Western, complete with a revenge killing and a big-hearted prostitute. A clever use of shiny happy plastic props and stylishly twee sound effects successfully endow the sex and guns…

Jason John Whitehead

21 Aug 2008

The laid-back Whitehead, defined by his rock apparel and sleepy eyes claims to have worked hard over this year's show: 'it's got a theme; it's about being a comedian.' This is typical of the Canadian's easy-going style and enjoyable performance, but…

Foreskins Lament

21 Aug 2008

This dodgy production of New Zealand playwright Greg McGee's landmark 1980 play is played out in the locker room of a local rugby club changing room. A couple of really appalling performances and some less than inspired direction derail things. Still at…

Histrionics

21 Aug 2008

With this rough-hewn but charming play, award-winning writer James Butler keeps the comedy flowing with men in drag, tuneless singing and tussles on the saloon floor. Blue smoke, a live lute and the damp air of the Caves transports us back to the 18th…

Sound & Fury

21 Aug 2008

Forcing your audience to participate from the off, to the extent of having them read the first lines of your play, is pretty risky. Fortunately, LA-based Sound & Fury muster this feat with shambolic charm. Employing iambic pentameter, flouncey costumes…

Strippers & Gentlemen

21 Aug 2008

This show does little to illuminate the dark truths of the stripper's lifestyle, but a lot to emulate their writhing dance moves and skimpy outfits. Good multimedia elements and promenade staging make the atmosphere genuinely exciting, but its ability…

Which to Burn?

21 Aug 2008

A one-woman show about loneliness, death and the Forth Rail Bridge might not sound like a winning combination, but Rachel Ogilvy brings the character to life through a series of remembered vignettes. The downbeat and often sad story of a woman trapped…

Another Side of the Mirror

21 Aug 2008

Lynn Ruth Miller returns to the Fringe to perform another chapter in her fascinating life. Now nearly 75 years old, she presents her memories to us with joy and candour. From anecdotes about her Romanian grandmother to her long battles with illness…

Felix Dexter

21 Aug 2008

Affable as Dexter seems, his is another show of thwarted ambition, over-reliance on funny voices and an hour show that clocks in at almost 50 minutes, a somewhat irritating trend that has been all-too prevalent this year. There's nothing lightweight…

In Conflict

21 Aug 2008

A verbatim theatre piece featuring astute performances from a young cast, this series of interviews with US military personnel who have served in Iraq reflects everything from bitterness to a defiant kind of idealism. Director Douglas Wager adds some…

FxP2 in Trouble!

21 Aug 2008

The thing with last-gasp chances are that you have got to take them. And thankfully this set of young sketch artists pulls out a ludicrously playful finale (a boy band mime) that saves the day. It's when they are left to their own writing devices that…

66a Church Road

21 Aug 2008

Sitting amid an array of suitcases as if he has been thrown out onto the street, Daniel Kitson creates a tragicomic riff on his old flat. At first the imaginative conceit successfully taps into the sentimentality people invest in their homes, but the…

Achtung Pal

21 Aug 2008

Twelve hopeful students chew, gag and gurn their way through a barrage of German and 'Schottish' accents in this dreary 1943-Nazi-occupied-Dundee-set comedy. Sparky performances from the stinky Scottish gypsy prostitute and an officer's secretary are…

Literally

21 Aug 2008

Taking an admirably no-prisoners stance against the abuse and misuse of the word 'literally', Paul Parry delivers his anecdotes and research tongue-in-cheek (though not literally). His smart, dry humour and Viz-style subversive pedantry combine with his…

Barbershopera

Slapstick moments and lyrical buffoonery appear effortless

21 Aug 2008

There a couple of pre-requisites for attending Barbershopera: an appreciation of musical comedy and a passion for a cappella are essential. A penchant for false facial hair is helpful. That said, Toni & The Guys put on an almost seamlessly tight show…

Black Sun

21 Aug 2008

Dark doom from Glasgow deviants Black Sun. This is sludgy, rumbling metal that reverberates through your synapses like an earthquake. A crushing assault on the senses with a dose of post-hardcore and ambient of the blackest variety. Check out new album…