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Max Fosh: Zocial Butterfly – Underbelly Bristo Square

20Aug

By Roger JacobsNo Comments

Scotland

Max Fosh: Zocial Butterfly – Underbelly Bristo Square

Ah, so that’s why he spells it with a ‘Z’… The other half of the title is no mystery at all as Max flits and flutters about the stage, cramming in a baker’s dozen’s-worth of material on top of what he borrows from his considerable canon of YouTube adventures. Lazy, he isn’t, and his genuine enthusiasm heads off a certain strain of criticism at the pass. It’s apt to hear many teenagers these days refer uncharitably to Radio’s Three and/or Four as ‘Radio Tory’, and yet they (1.34 million subscribers) love Harrow-educated Max and it’s probably because in the first place he doesn’t try to hide his background and second, he’s authentically interested in what he’s doing. Which means not everything he does is interesting or amusing to everybody, but his hit-versus-miss ratio is pretty decent, ...

Cicada’s Children – theSpace on North Bridge

19Aug

By Melissa JonesNo Comments

Scotland

Cicada’s Children – theSpace on North Bridge

Anna Freeman’s black comedy drama Cicarda’s Children stars Mark Jones as footloose and fancy free Danny who’s unwittingly fallen for a surviving member of a now defunct cult, Cicarda’s Children, Bella (Anna Freeman). Duped into believing Bella into launching a coffee shop, Danny spirals into a descent that involves relinquishing every aspect of his 2022 identity. At only 50 minutes long, this short production is a mere taster or perhaps even portfolio of what Freeman as actor and writer are capable as writer and actors. Or perhaps a vignette of a wider on-going story. So, the Fringe is the perfect frame to perform this short one act play that has ‘A Play, A Pie and A Pint’ quality to it. At the centre of this weirdly charming piece are Jones and Freeman, whose consummate unforced nat...

19Aug

By Stewart Who?No Comments

London

Brawn – King’s Head Theatre

As someone who’s been diagnosed as bulimic, it’s safe to say that negative body image is an issue that has personal resonance. Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is a condition characterised by a preoccupation or obsession with perceived flaws in one’s appearance. BDD is usually associated with girls and women, but recent studies have found that nearly as many men as women are unhappy with how they look. A third of young British men say they need to alter their appearance because of the "picture perfect culture" on social media. The Mental Health Foundation and YouGov recently released a Body Image report. The results found that a third of LGBTQ people (33%) have experienced suicidal thoughts because of poor body image. This is more than double the number for heterosexual respondents who fe...

The Twenty Sided Tavern – Pleasance Dome

19Aug

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

The Twenty Sided Tavern – Pleasance Dome

There are very few shows quite like the Twenty Sided Tavern, a choose your own adventure for theatre goers and dungeons and dragons fans alike. Step into the game with your own selected dice picked blindly from a bag determining your designated player. Are you a Fighter, a sorcerer or a Rogue? Either way you are in for a treat. Three professional improvisation artists take to the stage bringing the crazy world of Dungeons and Dragons to a live audience, determining their character’s movements with a combination of audience choice and the spin of the twenty sided dice. They are silly, bold and utterly hilarious. Guiding the gang is the “Game Master”, the dungeon master of the game. If you choose to embark on this quest adventurer, be prepared to use your mobile phone. Upon arrival...

Murder, She Didn’t Write – Pleasance Courtyard

19Aug

By Kat CliffordNo Comments

Scotland

Murder, She Didn’t Write – Pleasance Courtyard

Murder, She Didn’t Write is a quick, funny and well presented production. In this improvised show no one, not even the cast, knows what journey they will end up taking the audience on. I was struck immediately by the quality and careful design of the set, and I very much enjoyed that even as the audience were filing into the room we had our detective working on his notes and a pianist playing us in, it really set the scene and put you in right frame of mind for a murder mystery extravaganza. The show kicks off with some audience participation as one of the audience is chosen to help the detective in the investigation. The setting and the mystery are then set by the audience. The detective, played by Stephen Clements, had some great quips and jokes right off the bat, building up the e...

Comedy Night at the Museum – Gilded Balloon

19Aug

By Kat CliffordNo Comments

Scotland

Comedy Night at the Museum – Gilded Balloon

Comedy Night at the Museum is a hilarious illuminating romp through a litany of exhibits at the National Museum of Scotland. We were guided through this adventure by a smart and witty host. There was some audience interaction and some sharp jokes right from the offset. The host invited a group of ‘professors‘ in the form of a variety of stand-up comedians to come on stage and review slides of museum exhibits and give their ‘academic’, ‘professional’ and …entirely incorrect opinions and interpretations of items from the museum leading to some absolutely absurd, side splitting, hysterical tangents and some bizarre outcomes. The narrative was pushed forward by some intellectual questioning from our host which only served to make these explanations become ever stranger and more ludicrou...

The Crucible – Woolton Drama Group at St James’ Hall, Woolton

19Aug

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

The Crucible – Woolton Drama Group at St James’ Hall, Woolton

Whilst Arthur Miller’s 1953 play dramatises the true story of the horrific with hunts in Salem, Massachusetts at the end of the 17th century, at its time of writing it was an allegory of the anti-Communist persecutions in post-World War 2 McCarthy era USA. That it remains an accurate reflection of the fashion and fad culture of today reinforces the idiom that rather than learn from history we continue to make the same mistakes. Act I sets the background to the play and to the mischief which will become frenzy as the sanity of this God-fearing community is broken down with the upright Reverend Pariss (Andrew Parsons) and the Putnams (Curtis McGuinness and Georgina Anwyl) waiting expectantly on his afflicted daughter Betty (Razz Cadman). The arrival of Giles Corey (Zoran Blackie), Reveren...

Things We (Never) Learned in Sex Ed – The Space On North Bridge

19Aug

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

Things We (Never) Learned in Sex Ed – The Space On North Bridge

You can probably guess what the show is about from the title, though a slight distinction must be made. As the show itself states, this isn't about covering the biology or, as it were, the ins and outs of the thing, as these things are the closest thing most education systems get to covering well. This show is more about the other stuff, like how puberty affects your (and other people's) relationships with your body, consent, pleasure, and many other non-penetrative aspects of sex. Though of course those, and other sexual acts, are also dealt with. This is done through songs, sketches, stories told directly to the audience and discussions between the creators/performers, Lindsay Spear and Lea Sheldone. It's a mix of the personal and the general, of the comedic and the educa...

Much Ado about Nothing – Hope Mill Theatre

19Aug

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

North West

Much Ado about Nothing – Hope Mill Theatre

Shakespeare isn’t for everybody, they say. Well, it was tonight in Ancoats! HER Productions & Girl Gang Manchester & Unseemly Shakespeare have produced yet another (this is their fourth Shakespearean outing) magical piece of theatre which allows the wit of Shakespeare’s writing to speak for itself, with an impressive cast who relish the opportunity to perform it. A plot to drive a couple apart and a plot to unite another paring both through trickery and male misplaced notions of the opposite sex. A play about desire and love, this production highlights gender politics acutely; it’s far more than a Tudor rom-com. The gender fluid casting is pure Shakespeare and adds a unique joy to the play. This a comedic play and each line was delivered with a sharpness that made the Elizabetha...

Room – A Room of One’s Own – Pleasance Courtyard

19Aug

By Anna ChiariNo Comments

Scotland

Room – A Room of One’s Own – Pleasance Courtyard

Room- A Room of One’s Own, written and performed by Heather Alexander, is a refined, intimate, and literary pleasure. A room for the soul, where one can meditate, reflect on contemporary reality, be enchanted by the beauty of prosody, and let oneself go with hope, not only in the future but also in an illustrious past that still lives within us. Everything, from the scenography to Dominique Gerrard's direction, is impeccable. With just a few props, Alexander moves around the stage in a monologue, almost a stream-of-consciousness, transporting the spectator to a very precise era, a very precise environment, and a very precise mind. We are in the early 1900s in the room, or instead at the desk, of Virginia Woolf, the author of One Room of One's Own, and the words, the reflections, and the...