Edinburgh Fringe Archives - Page 7 of 15

Horse Country – Assembly George Square Studios

29Aug

By Kathleen MansfieldNo Comments

Scotland

Horse Country – Assembly George Square Studios

Roll up! Roll up! Let’s talk car sales, magic tricks, Piaget, coercion and bedroom slippers. If you like your theatre slick, then Horse Country, directed by Mark Bell and featuring Daniel Llewelyn-Williams and Michael Edwards of Flying Bridge Theatre Company is for you. Fast paced and jam-packed with allusions to well-kent faces, films, songs and writers (Samuel Beckett, Arthur Miller and F.Scott-Fitzgerald come to mind), this ode to The American Dream with all its frailties is crafted for speed and requires quality performers to do it justice. C J Hopkins has written both character, Sam and Bob, with boundless energy and buzz. They spend their time trying not to address the underlying issues of a macho, capitalist society while constantly talking around the issues of oppression, domina...

28Aug

By Ella CatherallNo Comments

Scotland

Boom Town – theSpace @ Surgeons Hall

‘Boom Town’ is billed as a story of family, morality and feminism. Set during the Gold Rush in a town named Crimson, the show focusses primarily on Beau Barton, the daughter of the town’s sheriff, as she tries to find where she fits in her hometown. The main selling points of this show are the performances by the actors, and the score. Vocally, it is very difficult to fault the actors, who effortlessly knock out incredible solos and ensemble numbers, with some really nice-sounding harmonies. This was also all done while singing in an accent, that was well-executed and consistent both throughout the show, and with each other. With regards to the score, Matilda Booth has managed to effectively fuse classic musical theatre with country-and-western influences, to give an end-product that do...

Kelty Clippie: The Musical – Greenside @ Nicolson Square

27Aug

By Wendy McEwanNo Comments

Scotland

Kelty Clippie: The Musical – Greenside @ Nicolson Square

This lively musical, set in Fife, returns to the Fringe and with memorable characters, delightful songs and plenty of laughs. The show is based on John Watt’s folk song of the same name and written by Willie Logan and John Murray. The Kelty Clippie is Maggie Blair (Jacqueline Hannan), who follows her dream and becomes a bus conductress in 1970s Fife. She is excited to wear her uniform and blows her whistle with gusto. On her first day she meets Boab the Driver (Linton Osborne) and finds herself going weak at the knees when he puts on his sunglasses and serenades her with a sensational performance of Are You Lonesome Tonight – who wouldn’t fall in love with such a man! The bus makes its way through Fife, from Kircaldy to Kelty. The plot is simple, with a se...

24Aug

By H.S. BakerNo Comments

Scotland

Earwig – Assembly Rooms

Impeccable timing, fine acting and sustained energy are what make this short play well worthy of a five-star rating. Too short really, I couldn’t believe an hour had passed so quickly and left the venue wanting more. This perky play, set in the silent movie era of the roaring ‘20s, tells the story of Marigold. Now a young woman, Marigold has been deaf since the age of five after contracting meningitis, she now lip reads and speaks perfectly. Although never formally qualified, Marigold has a passion for insects and has become an expert in the field of entomology. She lives with her mother, a snobbish northern woman with aspirations for herself and her daughter that have nothing to do with Marigold’s passion for creepy crawlies. She marries Marigo...

24Aug

By Dylan MooneyNo Comments

Scotland

I am Gavrilo Princip – Army @ Fringe

I am Gavrilo Princip follows the true story of the infamous, or forgotten, assassin responsible for the death of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the beginning of the First World War. A war where between 15 and 22 million people lost their lives. This play puts Princip in purgatory asking if he was really as bad as history makes him out to be. The production features two live musicians, a guitarist and a trumpet player, who, at various points, looked as bored as the audience felt. Both musicians underscore the piece, often playing far too loudly meaning writer and actor, Oliver Yellop, cannot be heard. In addition, sometimes the music is used in a very cartoonish style, such as the guitar mimicking gunfire, which detracts from the more serious themes explored in the play. Ye...

Absurd: A Live Cabaret Panel Show – PBH’s Free Fringe @ Roti

24Aug

By Kat CliffordNo Comments

Scotland

Absurd: A Live Cabaret Panel Show – PBH’s Free Fringe @ Roti

Absurd: A Live Cabaret Show was good, old-fashioned, silly fun! The show sprang into action right out of the gate and began with a good helping of audience participation! There were plenty of lighthearted, good humoured jokes about finding high quality cabaret in the basement of a restaurant. This variety show was an upbeat romp through a wide variety of acts. We had magic, stand- up comedy, sketches and singing (sort of) all loosely held together by the semblance of a TV panel show. There were heaps of audience participation with games and gentle ribbing of those chosen for various antics. The acts were random and varied either the standouts were Nira Tal who was a very funny lady and Aaron Jones was very enjoyable to watch with his mix of humour, jokes and magic and of course hi...

Unfortunate: The Untold Story of Ursula the Sea Witch – Underbelly, George Square

21Aug

By Kat CliffordNo Comments

Scotland

Unfortunate: The Untold Story of Ursula the Sea Witch – Underbelly, George Square

Can I give this show 6 stars?! Unfortunate is a phenomenal, intelligent, filthy, satirical extravaganza! Every part of this camp, queer, raunchy retelling of the little mermaid from the perspective of Ursula, the sea witch, was on point. The cast were an extremely gifted group of individuals. Ursula, played in this performance by Robyn Grant, was absolutely magnetic and had a voice that was pure electricity. Nearly the entire cast played multiple characters and their portrayals were so unique and different it really felt like watching an entirely different person each change. This is an extremely talented group of performers who have honed their craft to near flawless. The duets between Triton (George Whitty) and Ursula were exhilarating and every song in the show was performed wi...

21Aug

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

Muse by FLIP Fabrique – Assembly Hall

Muse is an empowering, magical and witty show like no other that explores gender and social pressures in which we put on ourselves and others. Football or Ballet? Two sport industries designed for all, but gender assigned by the masses. What happens when a girl wants to play football? A man wants to be a ballerina? Or neither fancy either path? Delve into these topics with the use of acrobatics, circus skills and song (although for the most part the music is in French). The show carries throughout the symbol of the apple, the first sin. But to look in to the first sin is to decide if it was indeed a sin or just a woman making a choice. Muse urges you to take the apple like eve, break the rules and be who you really are. Despite little speech the whole performance is innovative and mo...

The Failure Cabaret – Underbelly, Cowgate

20Aug

By Natalie LewisNo Comments

Scotland

The Failure Cabaret – Underbelly, Cowgate

Stephanie Dodd and Justin Badger’s ‘Failure Cabaret’ was a misguided attempt at comedy which indulged in the standard of American humour with a non-American audience. The pair discuss their life together from meeting in New York to accidentally moving to a middle-class white haven to somewhat turbulent and abusive fights they’ve been having (unclear whether this is said in jest or in sincerity). The music was lively and well written. Their voices: very pleasant to listen to, making it certainly a feel-good show and very easily listening. However, this was subverted by the inelegant humor surrounding abusive within the relationship of the characters, ultimately put down to bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder, ultimately leading to deep depressive episodes ap...

Bareback: Horseplay – Underbelly, Cowgate

20Aug

By Natalie LewisNo Comments

Scotland

Bareback: Horseplay – Underbelly, Cowgate

PBJ’s ‘Bareback: Horseplay” was a torrent and a torment of absurdity lacking any semblance of grounding or substance which would facilitate such an outlandish production, resulting in an unmelodic raucous of a sketch show and wasting the extraordinary talent of the actors involved. The premise itself is turbulent: sketch comedy show bouncing from social satire to philosophical inanity, resulting in an audience exhaustingly attempting to keep up with a fast moving, unexplained (unexplainable?) parade of celebrity caricatures, genitalia, aged talk show hosts, homosexual Irish children and slam poetry. The duo were dressed in nude bodysuits which did facilitate fast movements from one character to the next, impressively taking on the roles. The actors’ ranges of accents and characte...