Oliver Giggins, Author at North West End UK

Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder – Summerhall Roundabout

9Aug

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder – Summerhall Roundabout

BFFs Kathy and Stella are true-crime fans hosting a podcast on the subject in Hull. With it, they dream of making the big time (and avoiding their other problems) but their best chance is blown when their favourite investigator-author is murdered. Building on the skills they've no doubt absorbed through osmosis, they resolve to crack the case themselves. Making good use of the venue's theatre-in-the round mise en scene, Bronté Barbé, Rebekah Hinds, Jodie Jacobs, TJ Lloyd and Imelda Warren-Green (in particular) are energetic, funny and likeable, navigating effortlessly between the humour, drama, and, of course, singing, ably accompanied by live keyboards, with the lighting underlining well the mood, punctuating the joke and energising the scene transitions. However, the show is sl...

9Aug

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

The Queen’s Cartoonists – Assembly Roxy

The Queen's Cartoonists are six jazz musicians currently part of the New York City jazz scene (the eponymous Queen's being the location over there, rather than the person over here). Their show aims to make jazz music more accessible by performing a live soundtrack (which sometimes involve folley too) to classic and contemporary animation, synchronized with the projected films. With a seemingly extensive repertoire of music and shorts, their Fringe show feature prominently Classic Warner Bros cartoons, accompanied by some (probably less well known here) shorts from Russia and Korea. For their British audience they have also teamed up with Aardman Animation to include four of their pieces starring their three most famous characters, a no doubt canny move judging by the awed murmur which ...

7Aug

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

Comedy Sassafras – Pleasance Courtyard

Hosted by Richard and Greta, alter egos of Nina Conti and Shenoah Allen, Comedy Sassafras is basically a variety show with only a couple of other acts, which change from night to night. As such one imagines the overall feel of the show might be slightly different every time, though the big role played by Richard and Greta and the largely consistent style of the performers suggests that may possibly not be the case. There was a very improvisational and loose feeling to the night, with the audience seemingly relishing the throw-stuff-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks approach (the closing number was performed by Richard playing guitar with Greta singing on his shoulders because why not?), even on the occasions when it didn't quite work. The small number of overall acts also contributed t...

Will Tell and the Big Bad Baron – Gilded Ballon Patter Hoose

6Aug

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

Will Tell and the Big Bad Baron – Gilded Ballon Patter Hoose

Theatre Fideri Fidera is an Anglo-Swiss theatre company, and their production of Will Tell and the Big Bad Baron aims to shed a UK limelight onto the famous European character, Wilhelm Tell, the “Swiss Robin Hood”, probably most famous to laypeople for shooting an apple off a child's head with a crossbow. This children's play refocuses the story around his daughter, Wilhelmina Tell (Natasha Granger) who disguises herself as a night and embarks on a quest against the evil Baron Boris von Bummelkrachenhofer (Jack Faires) to rescue her father and the Baron's daughter Edeltraut (Jack Faires) from the evil man and his crow (Jack Faires). Image: Chloe Nelkin Consulting The workmanlike script is elevated by Colin Granger's direction, and the enthusiastically over-the-top performances by ...

The Importance of Being… Earnest? – Pleasance Courtyard

6Aug

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

The Importance of Being… Earnest? – Pleasance Courtyard

“A show goes wrong” is a theatre staple (see Noises Off, The Real Inspector Hound) and, coupled with the equally popular genre of improv-comedy, nowhere is the resulting sub-genre more popular than at the Edinburgh Fringe. Here, it seems, one cannot throw a stick without hitting a shit-faced Shakespeare, musical, or a show that was supposed to run normally until somebody threw a stick at them. To this “[Insert IP] but it goes wrong” genre comes The Importance of Being... Earnest?, as the “Oscar Wilde But It Goes Wrong Show”. And it's a lot of fun, both in how it uses its audience members and how it gives its own actors characters, arcs and jokes to play with through-out the show. It's not every improv related show designed to be different every night that has through-lines and gags ...

Receptionists – Summerhall Old Lab, Edinburgh

5Aug

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

Receptionists – Summerhall Old Lab, Edinburgh

Kallo Collective's physical comedy Receptionists appears in the Fringe as part of Start To Finnish, an annual showcase since 2011 to promote Finnish performing arts at the Edinburgh Fringe. Clowns and (show creators) Inga Bjorn and Kristiina Tammisalo star as two receptionists in a five-star hotel for whom every day actions, such as waiting for customers or answering the phone, quickly escalate into huge physical challenges and situations. Taking a simple situation and wringing every ounce of physically comedic potential over an extended period of time is an art, and a difficult one. For proof of that, one need not look any further than Rowan Atkinson, a lifelong fan of comedians such as Jacques Tati, whose past classics such as Mr Bean haven't stopped him more recently faltering with N...

Something In The Water – Summerhall, Edinburgh

5Aug

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

Something In The Water – Summerhall, Edinburgh

The appropriately named Scantily Glad Theatre company presents Something In The Water, starring Grumms, a person who transforms from a normal girl into a squid monster. The show describes itself as Creature from the Black Lagoon meets The Muppets. Personally, I'd say it's like a child who hasn't seen The Shape of Water snorted a bunch of coke and then tried to explain the story using whatever they had in their bedroom. But in a very good way, unlike a child doing hardcore drugs. Both descriptions cover the important roles within the show played by plastic Barbie and Ken dolls, as representatives of what is “normal”, and the squid puppet, as the “monster”, with the sets being made from a hand-drawn picture book, a projector and a fish tank, the combination being simultaneously quite soph...

PASH – Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose, Edinburgh

4Aug

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

PASH – Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose, Edinburgh

Seemingly Wholesome Productions PASH is about the bisexual, Max (Olivia McLeod). She is turning twenty-five in a week and, thanks partly to her own idealised and Hollywood-inspired notion of what A First Kiss would feel like, she hasn't had one yet. So, she embarks on a quest to change that before her big quarter-century anniversary, punctuating her chronicles with anecdotes of her friends’ (much earlier) first kisses. The show is parked somewhere between a stand-up set and a monopolylogue, the former because of the “relatable” blurring between character, performer and audience and the latter through its structure, props and use of space, sound and lighting. Because of this, it rests almost entirely on the shoulders of creator / performer Olivia McLeod, who rises to the challenge...

Jeremy Sassoon’s Mojo: Musicians of Jewish Origin – Assembly Checkpoint, Edinburgh

4Aug

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

Jeremy Sassoon’s Mojo: Musicians of Jewish Origin – Assembly Checkpoint, Edinburgh

Following a one week run in the 2021 Fringe, Jeremy Sassoon's Mojo returns this year for a full run. The show tells the story of a 100 years of Jewish songwriting in 75 minutes, from Irving Berlin to Amy Winehouse and beyond, through covers (and anecdotes) of the most iconic of these songs, with vocals and piano by Sassoon; double bass, electric bass, and vocals Nicola Farnon; and drums by Phil Johnson. To a gentile such as myself, it's an eye-opening experience. Even for the artists whose religion one already knows, this isn't necessarily the lens one is used to view them through, and when grouped together their collective impact is impressive, as Sassoon's medley of classic Christmas songs alone plainly demonstrates. The show also fits into a larger narrative, charting the evoluti...

10Jun

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

On Air – Traverse Theatre

"On Air" mixes classic Fairy-tale characters and stories with modern sensibilities and need for "content". It evolved from small improvisations based around fairy tale characters in unusual settings, which were subsequently structured and developed by director Bradley Lewis Cannon. It is presumably from this latter stage we get the wraparound story involving a group of high-schoolers (an out-of-his-depth director played by Christie Gill, an ambitious Runner played by Emma Makin, and the genial sound-man Peter played by Jamie Duffin) trying to make a fake show as an audition piece for a TV channel together with its host, Kerry Minger (Finlay Gilzean). Within this structure we get three individual pieces, two of them involving tabloid talk shows around Sleeping Beauty (Layla Crombie-Su...