Wednesday, August 19

Tag: PBH’s Free Fringe

Samantha Day (I’ve Started So I’ll Finish) – Edinburgh Banshee Labyrinth
Scotland

Samantha Day (I’ve Started So I’ll Finish) – Edinburgh Banshee Labyrinth

Self-styled Heritage Hottie, self-confessed Recovering Accountant sits in a quiet, dark corner of (Scotland’s most haunted pub/venue – tell us another!) The Banshee Labyrinth and at least we know we’re in the right queue. Thirty minutes later we’re in the company of someone hilariously dark but nowhere near quiet. It’s an intimate venue, the Cinema Room, and proximity to a performer such as Day provokes the odd spot of discomfort, related anatomical details notwithstanding. But it’s so worth it. Reminiscences about ‘Dating Direct’ (was a thing in the late noughties, apparently), lies and false photos posted, one’s inability with age to suppress comments about others, self-effacing admissions regarding youth (‘I was like Harrods, everyone was queuing to get in’) pepper an hour where the tim...
Flat 4 – The Outhouse Bar, Broughton Street Lane
Scotland

Flat 4 – The Outhouse Bar, Broughton Street Lane

The loft space in the Outhouse Bar is a true Fringe venue space. Like Isabel Songer herself, it comes as is. There is no major lighting rig installed and there is no particular definition of the acting space. This is a welcome change to the black box pop-up theatre that defines most show experiences. Chairs encircle the acting area, and the audience gather as if the show were some kind of group therapy session in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. Taking the stage in blue silk pyjamas, these ingredients set the stage for Songer to present her unpretentious monologue of university life with passion and gusto.  The action is set in a two-bedroom flat. Alex and her best friend Bex are together for the long haul. If that means binge watching television for days and eating greasy take...