REVIEWS Archives - Page 12 of 612

Bigfoot Ripped My Dog In Half I Saw It – Summerhall

10Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Bigfoot Ripped My Dog In Half I Saw It – Summerhall

Xhloe Rice and Natasha Roland are rapidly becoming something approaching Fringe royalty. Arriving from New York on crowdfunding in 2022, they won a Fringe First with And Then the Rodeo Burned Down, then repeated the trick in 2023 and 2024. Three consecutive Fringe Firsts inevitably creates expectation. So, is Bigfoot Ripped My Dog in Half I Saw It simply riding a considerable wave of hype? Not a bit of it. This year's Summerhall run is sold out, with the show heading almost immediately afterwards to Soho Theatre in London. On the evidence here, that trajectory feels entirely deserved. Rice and Roland, two diminutive New York clowns with painted faces, impressive physical dexterity and an anarchic imagination, play teenage girls in an isolated Appalachian community who, larg...

Skank Sinatra: How to Succeed in Show Business Without Really Trying – Underground at Assembly George Square Studios

10Aug

By Torya HughesNo Comments

Scotland

Skank Sinatra: How to Succeed in Show Business Without Really Trying – Underground at Assembly George Square Studios

Drawing inspiration from the title of his show, Jens Radda certainly succeeds in show business and manages to make it look mostly effortless. Performing as his drag alter-ego Skank Sinatra, the multi-lingual Radda delivers a masterclass in show business. The lessons are simple – be the director, diversify your portfolio, and always read the script before making any commitments. This is a new show from Radda, meaning that there are a few rough edges, however he more than makes up for this with his stage presence. Mixing crowd work with comedy and song, the show tells his story as a boy growing up in South Africa who had one very important ambition – to play Eva Peron. The songs are a clever mix of original music and arrangements of familiar musical classics, with the edited lyrics co...

10Aug

By Caroline WorswickNo Comments

London

Getting Ready – Etcetera Theatre

Set in Lucy’s bedroom post-University, Lucy (Naoise White), Cara (Maisie Hogan), and Faye (Luisa Fischelt) are to spend their last evening celebrating the end of university, and the beginning of their new journey’s. Lucy is travelling to Copenhagen, Cara and her boyfriend Ethan are beginning a new life in Sydney, Australia, and Faye is staying at home as her Paris plans did not work out. We soon learn that Lucy and Faye live in the same town and have been friends for many years, and Cara met the two of them at university. As the friends get ready for their night out at the local pub, they explore their friendship, their future, and whether they feel that these changes are for the better. At first impression, Lucy appears to be carefree, but as she opens up, we s...

The Silliad: Improvised Myths and Legends – Museum of Comedy

10Aug

By Caroline WorswickNo Comments

London

The Silliad: Improvised Myths and Legends – Museum of Comedy

Ancient Greek myths, what can be more tempting to improvise, and with the name of the improv troupe adding some silly into Homer’s Iliad, we have a huge hint as to what is coming. As we are seated, we are asked to complete a card with an idea, and then they select a card out of pandora’s box. The question that they must answer is – Why do humans have hair? And it will take place in a basement. The audience is also asked to vote on what type of myth they would like, Greek, Norse, or Egyptian. It was a close-run thing between Greek and Egyptian, but Greek was slightly ahead in the vote. The players today are Zack, Ollie and Jane, and we begin by King Minos of Crete announcing that he has opened his basement up to the public, so Athena and Alan decide to g...

Our Town Needs a Nandos – theSpace on the Mile

10Aug

By Jessie MartinNo Comments

Scotland

Our Town Needs a Nandos – theSpace on the Mile

Up and coming Edinburgh-based theatre company Hot Mess Productions, brings their rendition of Samantha O’Rourke’s, Our Town Needs a Nandos to the Edinburgh Fringe. The play sees a group of young girls in high school work on creating a devised piece for their drama exam. In a run-down town with not much to do, this is a coming-of-age story where friendships are tested, sexuality is explored, and the girls shared experience of sexual violence is at the forefront. Each girl faces a sense of displacement, whether that be down to emigration, isolation, or repression. The cast of five work well together, clearly taking their strong bonds from the rehearsal room to the stage. Each cast member is believable as an unruly teenager finding their feet in the world, hitting ...

10Aug

By Jessie MartinNo Comments

Scotland

BearGirl – Assembly Roxy

In dealing with the death of her husband, thirty-year-old BearGirl (played by Rachel de Fontes) finds comfort in the form of a second-hand bear onesie. Day by day as the grief and guilt consume her, she retreats further into her bear persona – running away from memory and reality. Given the premise of this play, one would expect a surrealist piece of theatre that sweeps you away from realism and into true primality. BearGirl however is very much grounded in reality – perhaps too much so. In classic Fringe style, this play turns out to be your typical one-woman show, although is accompanied by Jimmy Kavanaugh multi-roling a number of characters, including BearGirl’s narcissistic husband, her elderly neighbour, and the grandiose fortune teller. Kavanaugh transit...

Kevin!!!!! – Forth at Pleasance Courtyard

9Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Kevin!!!!! – Forth at Pleasance Courtyard

Last year Recent Cutbacks gave me one of my picks of the Fringe. Fly, You Fools! was gloriously inventive, while Hold On To Your Butts proved equally adept at turning a much loved blockbuster into breathless, brilliantly silly theatre. So, I arrived at KEVIN!!!!! expecting another hit. Instead, they have given me Christmas in August. This Home Alone parody may be described as something wildly different from the company’s other Fringe offerings, but there is an irony here. KEVIN!!!!! was originally developed around ten years ago and, having seen what Recent Cutbacks have subsequently become, this feels less like progression and more like a retro step too far. The approach is predominantly puppet led, with handmade miniature s...

9Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Nesting – Summerhall

There are Fringe shows you admire, shows you enjoy, and occasionally shows that remind you why actors act and why people like me continue to write about theatre. Nesting is one of those. Peter McCormick’s new play, directed by Ben Standish, places Billy Mack’s Francis, a man living with motor neurone disease, alongside his pregnant daughter Emma, played with extraordinary emotional commitment by Francesca Hess. As the disease progresses, daughter increasingly becomes carer, until into this painfully recognisable world comes something altogether stranger. Michael Guest’s Gull offers Francis an extraordinary escape. Allow the bird to nest inside him, inhabit his body and somehow release father and daughter from what is coming. It sounds almost impossible on paper. Gues...

9Aug

By Caroline WorswickNo Comments

London

Muse – Hen & Chickens Theatre

Many great painters have a ‘muse,’ but how does it feel to have someone obsessing about you aesthetically? Artist and muse met at an art gallery on a Friday night, Lilith (Millie Small) is a photographer and interested in art, and Lucas (Xavier Atkins) is an artist desperate for his break, and they both admire a painting. They talk, and Lucas explains that he is looking for a model that he may paint. Lilith is intrigued, but will she go along…? Of course she will! Lucas is somewhat aloof, and Lilith is intrigued by this mysterious painter. The studio is at his place, and once he begins painting, we hear that Lucas has been lined up for a prize if he creates some suitable work, hence his need for a live model, as he wanted his painting to be a masterpiec...

Kanpur: 1857 – Above at Pleasance Courtyard

9Aug

By Ella BeckleyNo Comments

Scotland

Kanpur: 1857 – Above at Pleasance Courtyard

The Fringe First-winning production follows true events of Indian uprisings against British colonisers, told from the perspective of both the coloniser and the rebel. The siege of Kanpur, formally anglicised as Cawnpore, was a major event of the Indian rebellion of 1857 in which several hundred British were slaughtered by rebels on the banks of the River Ganges. British women and children were held captive in a house named Bibi Ghar where all 200 of them were brutally murdered. In retaliation, British troops captured and executed rebel soldiers by hanging, and on occasion would tie them to a live canon, with an audience of onlookers. &n...