Issue 637

Wolfboy

Unintentionally funny, with unmemorable songs

21 Aug 2009

This musical adaptation of Brad Fraser’s play feels like someone’s titillating soft-core fantasy, in which two troubled boyband-pretty teens with hard bodies and perky nipples come very close to kissing but can only cope with bashfully simulating…

Around the World in 80 Days

Steve Coogan in the recent interpretation of the classic adventure

21 Aug 2009

The little ones will be back at school soon, but if the schizophrenic weather is doing your head in then it may be time for Saturday morning trip to the cinema. This chaotic and silly adaptation of Jules Verne’s novel starring Steve Coogan and Jackie…

Ritter, Dene, Voss

Torment amongst siblings

21 Aug 2009

Skilful acting and inventive staging underpin this menacing yet comic tale, in which two sisters bring their brother home from a mental institution and are confronted by their fraught relationships over the dinner table. Taking Austrian writer Thomas…

The Dandelion’s Story

The circle of life

21 Aug 2009

A dog drops an enormous poo. The lonely shite is then shunned by birds, chickens and farmers until a delicate friendship is formed between her and a clod of earth, and she turns into a dandelion. This Korean variation on The Ugly Duckling with physical…

Words of Honour

Lifting the lid on the Italian mafia

21 Aug 2009

This exposé of the inner workings of the Sicilian mafia is a frustrating failure. Based on Attilio Bolzoni’s Parole D’Honore, it uses the testimony of an investigative journalist and a handful of criminals to lift the lid on life inside the Cosa Nostra.

A Fistful of Snow

The strange but amusing tale of an estranged writer

21 Aug 2009

Danny Alder plays Chester James, a writer who has inexplicably ended up in Svalbard guarding the world seed bank, paralysed by the success of his first novel, and with only an inflatable moose, a pompous budgie and a hungry polar bear for company. It’s…

The Rap Guide to Evolution

Combining Chuck D and Charles Darwin

21 Aug 2009

Part gig, part stand up, part lecture, Baba Brinkman, the man who brought you The Rap Canterbury Tales, tackles Darwin’s theory of evolution. Instantly accessible, destroying creationism through the music of The Notorious BIG, Dead Prez, Mobb Deep and…

No Parole: Family is a Life Sentence

A true story of rocky relationships and career criminal mums

21 Aug 2009

One man show from Carlo D’Amore concerning his life and rocky relationship with his career criminal mother and her one woman crime wave from Peru to America. This true story is touching, funny, poignant, outrageous and very personal but is ultimately…

Nightfall

Experimental mime

21 Aug 2009

Hurtwood Theatre Company’s experimental work is a charming meditation on different forms of love. At first relying solely on mime, the impreciseness of some of the actors’ movements means a few sequences are hard to follow. But as the form progresses…

I Don’t Live Here Anymore

Poignant rather than heavy

21 Aug 2009

Emma’s dying, David’s wondering how to move on. We see scenes from the beginning and end of the relationship. The audience might feel weighed down were it not for interruptions from two jocular narrators, who extrapolate subtexts and keep things…

George in the Dragon’s Den

Bringing the Saint into the 21st century

21 Aug 2009

The tale of St George is brought into the 21st century as the eponymous hero becomes an illegal Polish worker and the dragon a greedy banker. Performed entirely in verse, the spoken word dominates and confuses, while attempts at creating a…

Parents’ Evening

Interactivity brings the fear of parents' evening to life

21 Aug 2009

This interactive show works best in its first five minutes. Brief one-on-one encounters with the staff of Aultyme High easily recreate the dread of parents’ evening. Group activities follow, and while fun, these never achieve the same kind of genuine…

Been So Long

Great tunes, pounding voices and beguiling dialogue

19 Aug 2009

The Scottish premiere of Che Walker and Arthur Darvill’s straight play-turned musical brings a bittersweet reflection upon love and our fear of it, tempered by a sardonic streetwise wit, which, pleasingly, isn’t nearly as tough as it makes out. The…

Broken Records

A dry atmosphere and a workmanlike performance

19 Aug 2009

Promoted to the Queen's Hall after last year's Edge festival performance at the Liquid, and following a year of showing the world just how beautiful music can be, you'd think this old cacophonous church would be the ideal place to show off the…

Where Eagles Dare/The Bridge of Remagen

19 Aug 2009

Fans of great war movies shouldn’t miss this great Sunday double bill which has been programmed to coincide with the release of Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds (see review). Brian G Hutton’s familiar but still brilliant 1968 men-on-a-mission epic…

The Grind Show

Carnival slapstick and profound questioning from the TBA Collaborative

19 Aug 2009

A mix of slick physical theatre and naturalistic dialogue, The Grind Show follows wide-eyed ‘Boy’ through a surreal circus. Underworld characters, including the double-bodied Miss Von Ambourg (whose act involves splitting apart to throw daggers at her…

Susurrus

A triumphant reworking of David Leddy’s boundary-pushing piece

19 Aug 2009

A triumphant reworking of David Leddy’s boundary-pushing piece of promenade audio-theatre. While at first it feels odd setting off around the Botanics, map in hand, Leddy’s dark tale of an opera singer’s family, loosely based on A Midsummer Night’s…

Jack Mink

A mesmerising spectacle

19 Aug 2009

Blending improvisation with mime, humour with tragedy, this show is entirely what you make of it. Mink in Victorian-style garb and clown make-up welcomes you to his space and presents a series of hypothetical situations that on this occasion included…

Phil and Phill

Toe-curling awkwardness

19 Aug 2009

Phil and Phill are best mates. So much so that they’re planning a double wedding: if they can find some brides. The show’s intention is one of studied discomfort as the pair occupy a far too close relationship for onlookers to witness, but the result is…

Almost Like a Virgin

Strikes an impressive pose

19 Aug 2009

The problem with pretending to be someone else is that there’s always a chance the audience will want more of them and less of you. This ode to the Queen of Pop is a case in point. Madge impersonator Evelyne Brink strikes an impressive pose as she belts…

Killing Me Softly

Rhyming couplets that feel remarkably natural

19 Aug 2009

In this one-man verse play, we are guests at a ‘welcome-home party’ for Sylvia, complete with 80s pop and cheap decorations. Slowly - in rhyming couplets that feel remarkably natural - we learn why we're invited. Our host is chatty, evasive, and…

The Moonfish Rhumba

A jarring clash between the potential and the misfiring, crude reality

19 Aug 2009

Billed as a ‘unique blend of musical mayhem and off-the-wall comedy’, this double act is, at least, visually unique as Dan Lees and Guy Combes sport the looks of a 1930s detective and a Hispanic Freddie Mercury respectively. Their material is a…

Michael Fabbri

Destined for a bigger stage

19 Aug 2009

The Brighton funnyman brings a strong, very smoothly delivered set, with tales about being employed in a job centre, and snippets of internet forum abuse making for smart comedy fodder. A section with melodramatically soppy background music is a…

Super Situation

An engaging physical performance

19 Aug 2009

Imagine a super heroine with a banal suburban life who, between foiling an evil genius repeatedly attempting to destroy the earth, likes nothing more than to curl up in front of the telly with a pizza, and you’ve seen the whole joke of this one-woman…

Porn: the Musical

Misses the money shot

19 Aug 2009

Conceived in Malta, this bawdy sing-along tells the story of a native nerd who trades his small island for the Big Apple and finds happiness making skin flicks in the US. The parody of stage musicals is energetically performed, but it’s too raucous for…

Helen Arney

Charming, witty and warm with great one-liners

19 Aug 2009

81/2 Songs About Love (And Other Myths) is a hilarious parade of stalking, dysfunctional relationships, Jean-Paul Sartre, washed-up accordions, over-eager dates, and death by disastrous marriage proposal, set to piano, ukulele and a pimped glockenspiel.

The Muffia

Uncomfortable, unplanned and best avoided

19 Aug 2009

Tight Women is a baffling little number, telling the tale of two market traders fantasising about their own telly show. However, the action is overshadowed by the awkward silence of an audience desperately trying to like and understand the two stars…

Fahrenheit 451

Performances make up for in gusto what they can lack in finesse

19 Aug 2009

The Prodigy’s ‘Firestarter’ opens this cautionary tale set in a future envisaged by Ray Bradbury, where books are burned for fear of independent thought. The track sets the tone for a production in which performances make up for in gusto what they can…

Playing with the Past

19 Aug 2009

This fantastic programme of old movies and new music returns after making an acclaimed debut at this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival. Teaming short film works made in the 1930s and 40s from the Scottish Screen Archive including John…

Festival of Spirituality and Peace

19 Aug 2009

The quality of human relationships and their ability to engender peace in our hearts is the loose theme of this year’s laudable festival. Its film strand kicks off with a digitally restored print of Derek Jarman’s inspired adaptation of Benjamin…

Unsupervised Detention

Tight sketch comedy by gifted young players

19 Aug 2009

Tight sketch comedy by gifted young players and, though some scenes suffer from a too-actorly approach, there are more hits than misses and evidence of a genuine facility with the surreal. The introductory premise of bored schoolkids in detention…

Serate Bastarde

Subversive, shocking, clever and utterly nuts comedy

19 Aug 2009

Carmen, Renata and Silvia are intellectual, Italian lefties, and they want to make you think about current affairs, through spoof pop videos, bared boobs and free samples of Berlusconi’s sperm. With a Kabul-set Sex and the City remake, a bikini dance…

TeakShow

More absurd than funny

19 Aug 2009

Shrieking, bulging eyes, hummus throwing, pelvic thrusts, lounging on the mantelpiece, and twists on familiar scenes give this show a surreal air. The exaggeration is overdone, though, to the point that some sketches are more absurd than funny, losing…

Patch Hyde & Adam Tempest

A sweet way to spend an hour

19 Aug 2009

The Fudge Kitchen certainly makes for a kooky venue. With scrummy smells, free fudge and very limited audience squeezed in, this feels like an exciting Fringe experience. The comedy, courtesy of charming daytime fudge-makers Hyde and Tempest, remains at…

The Funeralogues

Gently comic with genuine poignancy

19 Aug 2009

Set in a churchy C space, this piece by US actress and playwright Stacy Mayer is a mild-mannered wander through the mind of an obsessive. ‘Stacy’ is captivated by all aspects of the funeral business and will do anything to gatecrash a wake. Gently comic…

Susan Harrison

The writing and chosen subjects let her down badly

19 Aug 2009

There’s clear talent abounding in this pint-sized comic actor, but the writing and chosen subjects of Five Characters in Search of Susan let her down badly. She adds very little to well-worn tropes of the posh ‘street’ kid and reality TV wannabe, while…

Stephen Carlin

A fierce invention at play

19 Aug 2009

While his show title insists that he’s blowing the lid off the whole filthy business, the London-based Scottish comic’s ambitions are more low-key. There is certainly a fierce invention at play with his often surreal material about whisky, shatterproof…

Jollie

Story-based songs on various countries

19 Aug 2009

What do you get if you cross two men called John and Ollie? Why, ‘Jollie’ of course! And what do you get if you base an entire hour on their invitation to perform at ‘an important European festival’? Story-based songs on various countries, all delivered…

I’ll Always Think of You that Way

Fresh, zany and surprising

19 Aug 2009

Rehab, depression, attempted suicide, departed husbands and death aren’t immediately comic material, but the adventures of silver-spoon idiot Savannah, and Alison, her fat, steadfast, depressed friend are very funny. It could do without the explanations…

Peter Duncan’s Dark and Dangerous

Safe, dated, yet surprisingly humble

19 Aug 2009

Following an encounter with the keepers of heaven and hell, early 80s Blue Peter presenter Peter Duncan has one hour to justify his career and deliver himself from purgatory. Tied together by audience participation, tomfoolery with a video screen, and…

Sam Simmons

Lacking in spontaneity but his methods are inventive

19 Aug 2009

For his Fringe debut, the Australian puts his all into a song-and-goof show about the things you find down the back of the sofa. His absurdist observations may be lacking in spontaneity but his methods are inventive and being from the ‘if in doubt…

The List Operators

Enthusiastic and frantic hosts rip through their material

19 Aug 2009

In this 100 Greatest age, it was inevitable that a Fringe show would be concerned exclusively with the making of lists. This Aussie pair (one naively boyish, one mildly sleazy), are enthusiastic and frantic hosts and they rip through their material…

Don Quixote – Theatre of the Blind

Audio-aural experience works pretty well

19 Aug 2009

Given the constraints involved in putting on a Fringe show, blindfolding the audience and performing to their other senses seems an eminently sensible idea. How else would you stage Cervantes’ classic on a budget? Here the audio-aural experience works…

Mike Bubbins

Lacks punch but a natural charm just about sees him through

19 Aug 2009

Stocky Welshman Bubbins is the spit of The King of Queens’ Kevin James and, unfortunately, his Fringe debut is about as adventurous as the tepid US sitcom. The former PE teacher’s tales of daytime TV, smalltown life and material strife are often…

Oh, My Green Soap Box

Whimsical yet heartfelt

19 Aug 2009

Lucy Foster aims to illuminate why we haven’t yet pulled our collective finger out and saved the planet. We get sidetracked by the trials of everyday living and loving just as her proposed game-changing environmental campaign gets sidetracked by…

Plagiarismo

Pootles along without anything much happening

19 Aug 2009

An hour in Richard DeDomenici’s affable company is always entertaining, but this short lecture on artistic plagiarism is among the weakest of his works. He gets easy laughs from clips pointing out various pop music thefts, but the show pootles along…

Boy in Darkness

A lot of ambition that hasn’t found the right vehicle

19 Aug 2009

Mervyn Peake’s novella set in the same world as Gormenghast is rich with possibility, so when Curious Directive offers to stage it with projection, puppetry, audience interaction and an exploding armchair, things look promising. Bafflingly, few of these…

Harbingers

Unable to rein their natural exuberance into anything remotely amusing

19 Aug 2009

This trio are so far out of their boxes that they are clearly unable to rein their natural exuberance into anything remotely amusing. But 50 minutes in their company for *Enough Rope is not overly painful given the effort they have taken to become just…

Mark Walker

Immensely likeable and dynamic

19 Aug 2009

An hour in Walker's company and you'll know not only his star sign, but his hopes, dreams and curriculum vitae (rock star, impersonator and pebble-dasher). Immensely likeable and dynamic, Walker shows potential in comic avenues such as impersonation and…

Grandees

The mugging and gurning from the cast becomes migraine-inducing

19 Aug 2009

From the gruesomely unfunny opening narration to the intensely overacted pap that comes later, The Grandee Way is not a route to be recommended. The story of an 80s nightclub which may be the target of a bombing campaign (immediately hilarious), the…