Theatre
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Newland
17 Aug 2012
Funny and intelligent jazz-inflected Western
Love and betrayal jostle for the starring role in this non-traditional Western from the talented cast of M&T Productions. Within the first two minutes of the fast-paced musical, murder, betrayal and cover-ups tumble forth, causing the sheriff of…
Perle
17 Aug 2012
Gem of a show exploring grief and loss
Perle shows a life on pause. A man sits in front of a television, feeding it one VHS tape after another. At first he seems like any other screen-junkie, swapping the big wide world for the small screen, but gradually an unshakeable grief reveals itself.
The Golden Cowpat
17 Aug 2012
Lo-fi Jackanory with ukulele-to-blues soundscape
Farmer Hector has fallen on hard times. The pigs and geese have been sold, his once robust vegetables are puny and small. Salvation comes from the rear end of a cow. Betty, an ornery beast much given to tipping her herd-mates, produces 24-carat…
Rainbow
17 Aug 2012
Overwrought, overwritten trio of monologues
Playwright Emily Jenkins can’t resist a flourish. In Rainbow, three vaguely interlinked monologues, barely a noun goes unadorned and awkward similes come thick and fast. Like ill-educated cheetahs. If someone sweats, it’s ‘like a horny pig’. Breasts…
Circus in Hand
17 Aug 2012
Hand made circus puppetry with a human touch
There can’t be many circuses at the Fringe where you can behold a ringmaster standing on a giraffe’s head or a tap-dancing zebra. But then there can’t be many circuses at all where the performers are made from neat slices of stretchy fabric, adorably…
Dracula: Sex, Sucking and Stardom
17 Aug 2012
A thoroughly camp vamp
Jonathan Harker leaves his fiancée Mina to go to Transylvania, where he has some business to transact with the mysterious Count Dracula. When he gets there, he finds a jazz-handsy vamp obsessed with travelling to England and auditioning for Andrew Lloyd…
Clinton The Musical
17 Aug 2012
Ex-president inspires high-energy, catchy musical from talented ensemble
Former United States president Bill Clinton should offer any theatre production – let alone an all-singing, all-dancing musical – some great inspiration for material is a given. But, from his inauguration through to his sexual relations with ‘that…
Meine faire Dame - ein Sprachlabor
16 Aug 2012
Radical reimagining of Lerner and Loewe's My Fair Lady gives much food for thought
Sitting down in the audience for Swiss director Christoph Marthaler's Meine faire Dame is something akin to entering a conversation class in a language you have no knowledge of. At first, it's completely baffling and you doubt you'll ever make sense of…
Confessions of a Grindr Addict
16 Aug 2012
Conspiratorial reminiscences and anecdotes make up this compelling take on dating in the modern age
Felix is getting ready to go out for a date, his first in ages. For a long time he’s relied on meeting guys via location-based gay dating app Grindr, for not much more than, well, you know. The thought of an actual date, with the boy right there in…
MacBeth in Scots
16 Aug 2012
Dark and unsettling new take on a classic
While referred to as ‘The Scottish Play’ in theatrical circles, Shakespeare’s Macbeth, a tale of ruthless ambition and the rise and fall of a tyrant has never been adapted for, or performed in, Scots. Robin Lorimer’s new version, which gives the Bard’s…
Rémy
16 Aug 2012
Vivid Napoleonic re-imagining written and performed by talented Claire Gaydon
On the strength of this, the first show produced under the banner of newly formed theatre company Everything I Own, writer/performer Claire Gaydon is a talent to keep an eye on. Her historical drama, which unfolds in the aftermath of Napoleon’s reign of…
The Fantasist
16 Aug 2012
Imaginative treatment of mental health
The visionary-idealist-romantic of the title is a French woman named Louise who is tormented by her bipolar disorder. As the show opens we find Louise in a hospital in England where she is receiving treatment. She’s got a good, caring nurse and a dear…
Strong Arm
16 Aug 2012
Thought-provoking look at transformation and self-betterment
At the age of 13, Roland Poland weighs 20 stone. In his early 20s, he’s a muscle god, pumped up on four-hour gym sessions, hourly protein shakes and arcane shark’s fin supplements. But in breaking himself so that he can grow even stronger, has he lost…
Simple Matters
16 Aug 2012
Clowning around becomes a comedy of errors despite clear talent
This international troop of clowns present mime and physical comedy and, though skilled, grossly misread the audience to a less than comedic effect. Relying on 'volunteers', interaction that could work with a boozy, up-for-it Saturday night crowd comes…
My Elevator Days
15 Aug 2012
Gentle play about old age and identity never loses sight of harsh reality
What do we leave behind in an ever-changing world? The old man in front of us will never get the 19 million Google results of Grace Kelly, with whom he shares a birthday, nor the blue plaque of the artist that goaded him as a child. Given his borderline…
Hand Over Fist
15 Aug 2012
Beautifully textured monologue about lost love and Alzheimer’s
Joanna Bending is devastatingly effective as Emily, an eerily child-like pensioner struggling to recount the events of her past as her memory of it slips away from her. In this one-woman show, Emily tells the story of a fateful night in the 1950s…
And the Girls in Their Sunday Dresses
15 Aug 2012
This post-Apartheid era Zakes Mda adaptation has universal resonance
With its absurdist humour and metaphorical meaning, this clever, funny, political play is like a South African version of Waiting for Godot. As with Beckett’s luckless protagonists, two women (brilliantly played by South African comedians Hlengiwe…
Poe’s Last Night
15 Aug 2012
Recitation of great works is strictly for Poe-heads
A self-professed work in progress, this one-man show is still not ready for public consumption. But isn't this sort of experimentation exactly what the Free Fringe should be doing? Dawn of the Dead actor David Crawford is not at his best as a rather…
Call Me!
15 Aug 2012
Accurate and amusing portrait of dating in the modern world
The interweaving lives and loves of three single girls and one new couple come together to create a scarily accurate portrait of dating in the modern world. Essentially split into two sections, there’s a interesting distinction between the early section…
Tenderpits
15 Aug 2012
Uncomfortable and alienating autobiographical show
A man dressed in a Where's Wally-style hat and a huge, dirty nappy serves dinner to two teddy bears. Surprisingly, this is the most accessible scene in Anthony Johnston's willfully obscure one-man show. Tenderpits is ostensibly autobiographical but…
Peter Straker’s Brel
15 Aug 2012
Belgian chanteur Brel’s life explored in song, costumes and storytelling
Jamaican born Peter Straker has been involved in British TV, music, and theatre for decades – he’s been in Doctor Who, collaborated with Freddie Mercury and starred in Hair and Phantom of the Opera amongst other things. In this latest show however, he…
2008: Macbeth
14 Aug 2012
Theatre of war re-imagined for the 21st century
The first we hear of Major Macbeth, he’s radio-ing in from his Scotland-52 helicopter saying he’s going to undertake a dangerous raid on Arab insurgents in an unnamed Middle Eastern country in defiance of his commander. The attack is successful, so we…
Caesarian Section – Essays on Suicide
14 Aug 2012
Polish company grapples with deeply human emotion elegantly and sensitively
With a title like Caesarian Section – Essays on Suicide, this production by Wroclaw-based company Theatre ZAR was never going to be a light undertaking. Yet despite it’s heavy subject matter – it is described as being about ‘suicidal compulsion and the…
Educating Ronnie
14 Aug 2012
Compelling true-life fable engagingly told
Joe Douglas’ day job may be that of professional theatre director, but his one-man show is based on a strand of his own life that’s far richer than anything he could have made up. The story dates back ten years to his gap year in Uganda. Alongside…
I Shall be Remembered – The Story of Madame de Pompadour
14 Aug 2012
All that glitters is not gold in one-dimensional take on a fascinating figure
The stage at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre has been dipped in gold. Glittering trinkets lie on gold-rimmed furniture and gold-framed paintings line the walls. This is the 18th century court of King Louis XV and the domain of his savvy…
