Theatre, Reviews
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Boy in a Dress
10 Aug 2012
Thought-provoking and fabulous drag-related cabaret
Androgynous, third-gendered, ginger beauty La JohnJoseph makes a show-and-tell of the idea that all identity is a performance, and none more obviously than that which occurs on the stage, with his conflagration of gender theory, drag performance and…
The Curious Scrapbook of Josephine Bean
10 Aug 2012
Rediscovering the beauty of scrapbooks
Shona Reppe’s new production is a wonderfully scientific venture that slowly blossoms into a love story. The set is beautiful and intricate, a cross between a science laboratory, an operating theatre and a dark room. Reppe dons a lab coat and becomes…
It’s So Nice
10 Aug 2012
Irreverent and beguiling history play
Part physical theatre, part clowning about, this bilingual show that takes a look at the relationship between Mary, Queen of Scots and her cousin Elizabeth I is an absolute delight. It takes the form of a history play-cum-lecture-cum-travelogue as…
Wojtek the Bear
10 Aug 2012
Fascinating real-life bear drama is worth a look
Fascinating real-life bear drama is worth a look There’s no denying that the true story of Wojtek ‘the soldier bear’ is fascinating. Sold to the Polish army stationed in Iran in 1942, he was officially drafted into the 22nd Artillery Supply Company…
Death Boogie
10 Aug 2012
Political hip hop poetry musical is all sound and fury
Death Boogie is a political hip hop musical, performed by a dancing poet-rapper rhyming over his own beatbox loops, a double bass player and violinist, all against a backdrop of comic-strip visuals peppered with WHOAs, BIFFs and BOOYAKASHs. Sound like a…
Knee Deep
10 Aug 2012
Redfining the meaning of headstand
Casus, Australia’s most exciting new circus company, have the audience squealing and gasping within minutes of beginning. The four performers use each other as climbing frames, running up limbs and jumping off shoulders, creating four-person towers and…
The Static
10 Aug 2012
Compelling school drama with a strong cast
Sparky is a clever but obstructive and truculent 15-year-old boy who is facing permanent exclusion from school. Siouxsie is a charismatic, rebellious fellow pupil who has, she believes, psychic powers. Davey Anderson’s The Static, in which the…
Africa Calling
10 Aug 2012
Song, dance and drumming from Grassroots of Zimbabwe
Aside from drummers, dancers and phenomenal singers, at the centre of this understated extravaganza is a huge beating heart and a simple message of peace, love and unity. Zimbabwe-based Grassroots tours schools, prisons and local communities with…
Morning
10 Aug 2012
Play for teenagers exerts a certain painful fascination
At first glimpse Simon Stephens’ ‘play for young people’ seems to take place in the same universe as an episode of Hollyoaks. Stephanie (Scarlet Billham) and her friends at sixth-form college hang out and have breathless discussions about sex, clothes…
My Robot Heart
10 Aug 2012
Stylish, likeable one-woman show with live band
This charming one-woman show slathered with well-observed social satire about wardrobes, Morrissey, and the rules of the playground asks an important question: ‘If it’s only physiologically possible to be in love for 12-18 months, then what on earth…
And No More Shall We Part
10 Aug 2012
Deeply affecting contemplation of voluntary euthanasia
Voluntary euthanasia is possibly the most contentious moral issue of our times; made more urgent by both economic austerity and an ageing population. It is, perhaps, surprising therefore that the theatre hasn’t broached the subject more often than it…
Machines for Living
10 Aug 2012
Perky, admirable Fringe debut from promising young company
‘Writing about music,’ Frank Zappa famously said, ‘is like dancing about architecture.’ Well, there’s plenty of the latter in Let Slip’s perky Fringe debut: a goofy, spoofish critique of the Brutalist ideal that gradually caked Britain’s cities in…
Turn of the Screw
10 Aug 2012
Hand-carved puppets in assured adaptation of Henry James thriller
Assured adaptation of Henry James’ thriller Henry James’ slow-burning thriller, Turn of the Screw, demands an exceptionally sophisticated approach. It’s a sign of HookHitch Theatre’s determined ambition that they’re willing to tackle this piece at the…
Blake’s Doors
10 Aug 2012
Existential grappling that overreaches its capabilities
Revolving Shed, from the London School of Economics, offers a bleak meditation on the human condition. A neat framing device sets up the idea of human life being something between everything and nothing, existing in the momentous and the mundane before…
Treasure Island
10 Aug 2012
Comedy on the seven seas
There’s nothing groundbreaking about this new show from Derby’s Uncontained Arts. But sometimes it’s OK to just tell it like it is, and Treasure Island has enough unusual characters and exciting plot developments for them to get away with it. Building…
Tiddler and Other Terrific Tales
10 Aug 2012
Julia Donaldson over-kill
Scamp Theatre’s 2011 adaptation of Stick Man was a skilful blend of lively storytelling, great songs and playful actors. They did Julia Donaldson proud. So it comes as something of a disappointment to see what they’ve done with Tiddler. As you would…
Dead Souls
9 Aug 2012
David Johnstone celebrates Gogol’s masterpiece in his single actor adaptation
Adapting a novel for the stage is always a challenge; especially so when, like Gogol’s Dead Souls, the focus lies in the psychology of characters rather than the action. In this case there is a big risk of making the adaptation either shallow or boring.
Night of the Big Wind
9 Aug 2012
Touching show set in an Irish fishing village, ambitiously told
Following last year’s hugely enjoyable Street Dreams, Canterbury-based Little Cauliflower Theatre Company return with more puppetry, physical theatre and clowning in this whimsical and sometimes dewy-eyed show set in an Irish fishing village. But here…
Teach Me
9 Aug 2012
Touching comedy from Edinburgh-based young company
Simon is a naïve 18-year-old, keen as mustard to get his first taste of naughtiness but clueless about how it all works. Emma is ten years older, in a ‘complicated’ relationship with a married man, and now unexpectedly alone with Simon in a bedroom at a…
Belt Up Theatre’s A Little Princess
9 Aug 2012
Unengaging adaptation of a timeworn classic
Young York company Belt Up Theatre have been the toast of the Fringe in recent years for their immersive, intensive renditions of stories new and old, but it feels like things have gone off the boil slightly with this staging of Frances Hodgson…
Midnight at the Boar’s Head
9 Aug 2012
Shakespeare's characters meet and clash in a folksy pub setting
Here’s one: a porter, a king and a shrew walk into a bar. What happens next? Midnight at the Boar’s Head bumps Shakespeare’s characters’ heads together as they meet in a pub to get drunk, pick fights and flirt with strangers, all in Shakespeare’s…
Lingua Frank
9 Aug 2012
Grindingly obvious comedy with lame jokes fails talented cast
Lingua Frank is supposedly a comic play but is really a sketch show, stretched to snapping point. The scant plot revolves around bumbling English Language tutor Frank (Harry Gooch), who has lost his girlfriend and is on the brink of losing his job. A…
Captain Ko and the Planet of Rice
9 Aug 2012
Sci-fi triptych scuttled by a slow pace and repetition
This retro sci-fi two-hander walks the fine line between conceptually impressive and impressively boring. While this trio of sketches is certainly interesting, ultimately the slow pace, repetitiveness, and rejection of narrative make watching it an…
People Like Us
9 Aug 2012
An A-grade for effort, but sadly Savage Theatre fails to hit the spot
Young company Savage Theatre have brought a beast of a play to the Fringe this year. With its harrowing subject matter, tempestuous characters and broken dreams, People Like Us should be a gripping and engaging drama. Young lovers Simon and Stacey…
Hearts on Fire
9 Aug 2012
Immersive recreation of 2009 sweat lodge deaths
The Fringe guide makes this sound like a participatory event, but it's not any more so than any other performance. It is immersive, though, with a setting inside a heated sweat lodge at the top of C's most recently commandeered venue. Recreating the…
