Flesh is a campy, fun jaunt through some of the darker side of Edinburgh’s history!
This tale starts at the point of Burke and Hare are arrested for the Westport murders before we travel back in time and follow them on their whirlwind killing spree. Both Jeremy Fraser and Roddy Macleod did an excellent characterization of the infamous killers, and the supporting cast were fantastic! I personally highly enjoyed Anna Scott as Mag, she did a great job at portraying the kind of character you love to hate, and Alison Henry as Nell had a fantastic voice. Frank Burr was a delight in the role of Dr Knox.
The costumes were well made and added to selling the look and feel of the piece.
The big chorus songs were a highlight of the show, and the composition was upbeat, catchy and well performed. This show had a fairly good mix of different genres of music although it could have benefited from a couple less ballads. There were lots of modern quips and jokes throughout lest things become too morose or serious and Archie Lowe provided some great comic relief, I was impressed at the amount of times one man could be murdered under different guises!
You could tell there was some inventive thought behind the way they got around some of the action and the director came up with some fun ways to portray some of the subject matter. I very much enjoyed the way the murder montage was handled and acted out. I have to say that I found the Thomas Ireland and Anne story a bit too disjointed from the rest of the plot and was confused when they initially appeared, though both actors did a good job, it didn’t really gel very well with the main story and seemed like an afterthought.
Overall, this show was well produced and filled with wonderful character portrayals by some skilled individuals, some great vocals, big chorus pieces and some catchy tunes. Well worth a watch, missing this would be a grave mistake!
Playing until 13th August, times and tickets can be found HERE.
Reviewer: Kat Clifford
Reviewed: 8th August 2022
North West End UK Rating: ★★★★
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