Camden Fringe Archives - North West End UK

26Aug

By Alan Stuart MalinNo Comments

London

Belated – Etcetera Theatre

Celebrating a milestone birthday almost a year late might suggest poor organisation, but for Anna, it represents something far more purposeful: a refusal to let disappointment have the final word. In ‘Belated’, a postponed party becomes the stage upon which she takes stock of middle age, abandoned ambitions and the uncomfortable feeling that everybody else’s life has progressed more successfully than her own. Anna once worked as a professional dancer but now teaches Pilates to wealthy and famous clients. Approaching her 51st birthday, she is contending with the demands of motherhood, the aftermath of a painful separation and the lingering frustration of creative aspirations left unexplored. Rather than quietly accepting that those opportunities have passed, she transforms her long d...

24Aug

By Alan Stuart MalinNo Comments

London

Mates – The Courtyard Theatre

Four Face Theatre’s ‘Mates’ begins with an appealing comic problem: four friends, based on a misplaced promise, have secured the resources and financial backing to stage a new production but have yet to decide what that production should be. Each arrives with different artistic ambitions, and their attempts to develop a coherent piece soon become a contest between personalities, insecurities and conflicting definitions of meaningful theatre. This framework gives the company considerable room for invention, and the action repeatedly shifts into imagined productions proposed by the characters, enabling the show to experiment with contrasting genres and performance styles. Within this theatrical patchwork are amusing observations about masculinity, social privilege, conspiracy culture ...

24Aug

By Alan Stuart MalinNo Comments

London

Maz Pantz – Canal Café Theatre

Created and performed by Mary Redmond, ‘Maz Pantz’ arrives at the Camden Fringe with considerable confidence, promising a character-led sketch show combining physical comedy, mime, cinematic voice-over and cleverly constructed material. Unfortunately, the performance itself falls some considerable distance short of that promise. Across approximately 45 minutes, Redmond introduces an assortment of eccentric characters through a succession of sketches, some of whom return throughout the show. There is certainly imagination behind the concept, and Redmond commits enthusiastically to each creation, employing physicality, recorded sound and exaggerated characterisation to distinguish between them. On paper, this should be a fun show, however the difficulty is that the comedy rarely la...

17Aug

By Charlotte MansfieldNo Comments

London

Improv the Dead – Bridewell Theatre

Zombie-themed group, Improv the Dead, performed their one hour long-form improv show last night at the Bridewell Theatre as part of this year's Camden Fringe festival. With shambling, moaning and sparkly intestines, they turn audience suggestions into a zombie film with more laughs than horror. Last night's show told the story of 'Delay of the Dead', where terrified TfL workers had to escape a zombie-infested Bakerloo line. Time travel, rat catching and experiments in cloning led to an underground teeming with the undead, who were eventually defeated by being trapped in the carriages of the London Eye, doomed to an eternity of circular sightseeing. To start with, the story rambled a little, with scenes going on for too long with no real purpose. I was worried that we'd be in for ...

16Aug

By Alan Stuart MalinNo Comments

Scotland

21 Days – Etcetera Theatre

Sushant Nair’s ‘21 Days’ takes a recognisably human crisis and places it against the increasingly blurred boundary between people and artificial intelligence. Set in 2030, although there is little to evidence this from the staging, Jay is struggling following a painful break-up, retreating into isolation, anger, alcohol and self-help books, before the arrival of the enigmatic May begins to disrupt his downward trajectory. Presented at Camden Fringe in a 60-minute abridgement of a longer 90-minute production, the play has an intelligent, contemporary premise. Its strapline, “As AI learns from itself, humanity must relearn itself”, provides a provocative starting point, although perhaps humanity has always been doing precisely that. We reprogramme ourselves whenever relationships end,...

Are you there, Mother? – Etcetera Theatre

14Aug

By Carole GordonNo Comments

London

Are you there, Mother? – Etcetera Theatre

A dying mother, a grieving daughter and a jobbing actor/stand-up/drag artist come together in this dark, witty comedy written and performed by Thomas Carruthers. Lured by the possibility of actually making some money, Vincent agrees to pass Martha's daughter a message after her death. Martha, a strong-willed and persuasive woman, plays on his emotions using the fact of her imminent death, until Vincent reluctantly agrees to do this as an act of kindness to bring the daughter peace at her mother's passing. After Martha dies, Vincent feigns psychic abilities to "channel" Martha and pass on the message. Rather than being a one-off event, Vincent is increasingly drawn into the daughter's manipulations in her desire to keep the supposed connection with her mother. The deception continu...

Murder on the Allotment: The Musical – The Cockpit

11Aug

By Alan Stuart MalinNo Comments

London

Murder on the Allotment: The Musical – The Cockpit

‘Murder on the Allotment: The Musical’ arrives at Camden Fringe with an intriguing premise and worthwhile intentions, but unfortunately the resulting production falls considerably short of its ambitions. Elizabeth Wood’s story centres on Karwan, a 17-year-old asylum seeker who finds himself navigating the prejudices and petty territorial disputes of a provincial allotment. There is undoubtedly fertile planting ground here for satire, particularly around immigration, xenophobia and attitudes towards belonging. Yet despite positioning itself as funny and provocative, the production rarely achieves either. The principal problem is the score by Elizabeth Wood, Tess Adèle Glinert and Scarlet Billham. A mammoth eleven original songs are packed into an hour, yet few feel sufficiently devel...

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...

A Curious Demise – Hen & Chickens Theatre

9Aug

By Caroline WorswickNo Comments

London

A Curious Demise – Hen & Chickens Theatre

Do you fancy yourself as a murder mystery detective? Or a writer – this Agatha Christie style show might be for you! A Curious Demise, is an improvised murder mystery, and they use their long-form improv skills to create a short play using some suggestions from the audience. As we enter the theatre, a guy with a rather dodgy moustache is brushing up and sets the tone for the show perfectly. With A Curious Demise, the show begins with a body, and the mystery is solved along the way by the cast developing the characters and the storyline naturally unfolds. But first, they must get some suggestions from the audience. Where has the body been found? - a greengrocers is suggested. The dear departed gentleman died holding something in his hand, wha...

8Aug

By Caroline WorswickNo Comments

London

Sick Dog – Etcetera Theatre

As I kick off my Camden Fringe Festival coverage, I began with a charming play called ‘Sick Dog,’ which incidentally does not have a dog as a cast member! Winne (Cara Crofts) shares her flat with her friend Eliza (Pearl D’Souza), and they hang out and share household duties, and this is your usual flatmates play…until you realise that Eliza is not human, but a humanoid! We learn that Winnie has been existing in her flat for months and has an illness which has made her unable to work. Eliza is stepping in to help where she can, and she is also learning about Winnie’s characteristics and mimicking them in an attempt to learn more about humans to integrate more authentically. Directed by Lily Gilchrist, the play is set in Winnie’s flat and revolves around Winnie’s ill...