Month: August 2015

Restaurant Mark Greenaway

11/08/15

North Castle Street, Edinburgh

So, you know how it is, you’re deeply embroiled in the Edinburgh Festival, you’re running from one show to another and it’s your first wedding anniversary. Why not, we thought, eat somewhere we haven’t reviewed yet? And rather than return to Bistro Moderne in Stockbridge where we celebrated our marriage, let’s visit its sister restaurant, Restaurant Mark Greenaway, up on Castle street. A good plan, we thought and made the booking.

The restaurant is more formal than it’s relaxed sibling, with a slightly austere feel. The place is completely deserted when we arrive, at 5.30, but soon fills up with a collection of (it has to be said) rather glum-looking punters who don’t appear to have very much to say to each other; but the staff are friendly enough and service is attentive. Since we’re on a tight budget, we opt for the market menu which offers three courses for £22 with an accompanying wine ‘flight’ for £18.

The starters duly arrive and look like little works of art. Susan has the Comfit Gartmont Farm Duck Terrine, which is accompanied by gingerbread, plum gel and foraged Scottish herbs. The terrine is lip-smackingly moist and full flavoured. The idea of serving it with gingerbread is inspired. It shouldn’t really work but somehow does. I sample the Smoked Salmon Canneloni (see picture) with sauce gribiche, saffron mayonnaise and mini melba toast. The powerful salty flavour of the salmon filling is perfectly cut by the accompanying white wine, (proof once again that a good Somellier is a fine thing indeed and Restaurant Mark Greenaway has not one, but two of them, who clearly know a thing or two about their subject and are happy to share their knowledge.)

On to the main courses. Susan chose Baked Fillet of Plaice, accompanied by sweet Cicely gnocchi, clam chowder and vanilla foam. The over-abundant foam seemed to us a slight misstep, the flavour more appropriate for a pudding, but the dish was otherwise perfectly cooked, the fish melt-in-the-mouth soft and the creamy clam chowder satisfyingly sticky. I had the 11 Hour Slow Roasted Pork Belly, served with spiced fillet, savoy cabbage, pommel pureé and toffee apple jus (see picture). This was note perfect, though I fear I caused some raised eyebrows when I requested a bowl of mustard (that’s just me. To my mind, meat without mustard is like… rhubarb without custard).

Speaking of which, for my dessert, accompanied by a thick, sweet wine, I had Rhubarb and Custard with sweet granola, poached rhubarb, custard espuma and rhubarb sorbet. It was, to be honest, quite delicious, the lightly cooked chunks of rhubarb giving the meal a delightful crunch and the sorbet definitely of the ‘Mmm’ variety. I made short work of it. Susan, meanwhile had the Dark Chocolate Fondant (for which the diner must allow fifteen minutes preparation time). This came surrounded by salted caramel, coffee macaroons, burnt white chocolate and vanilla ice cream. It was every bit as delightful as it sounds though the fondant itself was of the (slightly disappointing) miniature variety. Which is not to say that we were left hungry by any stretch of the imagination. But we could have managed a bit more of that fondant. Easily.

All in all, this was a satisfying meal and if I have a criticism of the restaurant, it’s simply that its staid, rather stuffy atmosphere belongs to a bygone age. Would it harm to relax a little? Maybe even introduce some background music? Just a thought. As for the food (that slightly odd vanilla foam aside) the restaurant’s reputation is clearly well-founded.

Would we recommend it? Hell yes.

4.3 stars

Philip Caveney

Stewart Lee: A Room With a Stew

11/08/15

Assembly Rooms, George Street, Edinburgh

“No one is equipped to review me,” says Stewart Lee – and I doubt I’m the first reviewer to feel compelled to include the line in my review. And he’s right, in a way; he’s fiercely intellectual, this comedian, and I’m sure he could shoot down in flames any criticism I might make.

It’s fortunate, then, that I don’t have much to criticise; we’re already fans; we went to this show secure in the knowledge we would like it. It’s our wedding anniversary, after all (we got married a year ago, while at the Fringe), so of course we chose a show we knew we’d relish; we wanted to enjoy the day.

We’ve seen this show before, or, at least, we’ve seen a show with the same title and a few of the same routines. That was back in March at the Lowry in Salford, where – although the material was as deft and challenging as you might expect – the room was too big, and the whole thing felt a little too remote.

Not that Lee is aiming for ‘engaging’ or ‘crowd-pleasing;’ he references Brecht’s Verfremdungseffekt, and it’s certainly a technique he likes to employ, simultaneously haranguing his audience for being “the wrong sort” and appealing to the vanity in all of us when he says those wrong ’uns are “not like my core audience: those of you who understand what it is I do.” We all want to be in Stewart’s gang; we all want to be clever enough to be in on the joke.

The second half of the show is my favourite: Lee’s quest to mine the “lucrative Islamophobic observational comedy market,” along with his trademark meta-commentary on the very idea of jokes, is just breath-taking, really: it’s rigorous, uncomfortable, demanding – and very funny.

It’s Stewart Lee; of course it is.

5 stars

Susan Singfield

Fault Lines

10/08/15

Basic Mountain, Venue 106, Hill Street, Edinburgh

One of the most exciting elements of the Edinburgh Fringe is that once in a while you will chance upon something unexpectedly brilliant: and this year, that accolade has to go to Phantom Owl’s superb production of Fault Lines, by Stephen Belber. Tucked away in a hard-to-find venue on Hill Street, the play, directed by Matthew Lillard (yes, that Matthew Lillard!) is a slice of intense Americana, superbly acted by a four strong cast to (at least on the night we visited) a frustratingly small crowd. This is powerful stuff that deserves to be seen by the biggest audience possible.

Bill (Dean Chekvala) and Jim (George Griffith) meet for drinks in a small room at the back of their local bar. Once the best of buddies, they haven’t seen each other in a while and are looking to reconnect. Bill is now happily married while Jim is still living a carefree life, enjoying commitment-free encounters with members of the opposite sex whenever the opportunity arises. The acting here is completely naturalistic; so much so you feel like you’re being given a sneak peek at two real-life characters. The mood changes with the arrival of a boorish stranger called Joe (Steve Connell). He quickly interposes himself into the conversation, insists on buying a round of drinks and starts asking inappropriate questions, many of which seem to revolve around Bill’s wife, Jess, (Zibby Allen) who is expected to turn up at any minute. The structure here is reminiscent of An Inspector Calls, though I have to say, this is a far more dynamic piece of theatre.

As the tension steadily builds, so the story becomes ever more intriguing and the rug is expertly yanked from under our feet, again and again. Who exactly is Joe? What is his motivation? And how does he know so much about the two strangers whose private party he has just gatecrashed? The explanation is something you surely won’t see coming.

If you enjoy riveting theatre, I urge you by whatever means possible to find your way to the oddly named Basic Mountain venue on Hill Street – you’ll have to look hard for it because it really isn’t easy to spot – and catch this superb production before the cast pack up their gear and head back to the USA, muttering darkly about wasted opportunities. There are shows currently playing to rammed houses that aren’t a patch on this little gem. There are more plays by the same company at this venue and you can be sure we’ll be seeing them, because Fault Lines is the first five star production we’ve seen at this year’s festival. Miss it and weep!

5 stars

Philip Caveney

Impossible

10/08/15

Pleasance, Queen Dome

Based around an intriguing real life tale featuring two of the 20th Century’s most celebrated figures, Impossible is about the escalating rivalry between escapologist/magician, Harry Houdini (very much the Derren Brown of his day) and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes. The two men were initially good friends, intrigued by each other’s abilities but Doyle’s belief in the supernatural (exacerbated, no doubt, by the untimely death of his son, Jack in the First World War) was at odds with Houdini’s desire to root out fake mediums and spiritualists wherever he encountered them. It didn’t help that Doyle’s wife was herself such a spiritualist and that Doyle saw Houdini’s refusal to explain how he accomplished his own ‘supernatural’ displays as a sign that he was really covering up his evident paranormal abilities. Eventually, the feud resulted in the two men becoming bitter enemies, which they remained until Houdini’s death in 1926.

Alan Cox is a confident and striking Houdini. With his exaggerated theatrical gestures and his strident personality, he convinces the audience that this is exactly how the man must have presented himself in real life. It’s nice also to see Phill Jupitus extending his range by giving us a dour, curmudgeonly Doyle, with a totally convincing Edinburgh accent. (If he got that wrong here, there would be a major problem!) There’s also some fascinating black and white cinema footage, including a reel from Willis O Brian’s groundbreaking stop-motion work for the film version of Doyle’s The Lost World, which in 1922, he playfully presented to a meeting of the Society of American Magicians as ‘psychic images of real dinosaurs.’ Many prominent magicians were completely taken in by it.

Handsomely mounted, nicely acted and with a genuinely poignant conclusion, this is definitely one to watch.

4 stars

Philip Caveney

That’s the Way, A-ha, A-ha, Joe Lycett

09/08/15

Cabaret Bar, Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh

The Cabaret Bar is sold out, and that’s the way (a-ha, a-ha) Joe likes it. He’s on good form this evening, positively oozing with wit and mischief; he makes stand-up look easy and the audience is on his side.

I’ve seen him performing a short set quite recently at a charity event, so I’ve already heard some of this material, but that doesn’t matter. It’s interesting to see how the routines develop and how they fit in to a broader context. There’s a theme of sorts (living in Birmingham), but it’s very loose; it’s more ‘what Joe’s been doing recently’ than anything else. And, honestly, what he’s actually been doing is pretty mundane: going on a stag night, having breakfast at a coffee shop, and messing around on social media. But, of course, it’s all in the telling, and the telling here is very good. Joe Lycett is seriously talented, I think; he engages effortlessly with the audience, and looks like he is having fun.

OK, so it’s a gentle form of comedy. There’s a moment – when he starts to talk about Fox News’s erroneous description of Birmingham as “100% Muslim” – when I think we might be heading towards something more challenging; he begins to question why Fox News presume – if this were true – it would be negative, and goes on to explore the idea of how the language we employ colours our views. But he doesn’t take this very far, soon wandering back into more comfortable territory, such as Cheryl Fernandez-Versini’s social media posts. Personally, I’d like to see more of the demanding stuff, but I’m sure Lycett knows his audience, and tonight’s punters seem more than happy with their lot.

Worth seeing, then – but you’ll need to be quick. The tickets for this one are selling fast.

4 stars

Susan Singfield

Takeaway

08/08/15

Kes Theatre Company, The Spaces On The Mile, Edinburgh

The streets of the East End are under threat from a dreadful new scourge… that most devious and all-encompassing of drugs… onions! And now the kids are hanging around outside a local takeaway and consuming them voraciously with little thought for the consequences. But what’s to be done about the problem? This sparky allegory by Jackie Kay, cleverly substitutes illegal drugs for something completely innocuous and manages to both expose the harm that drugs do and the over-reaction that society exhibits when dealing with them.

This is a school production, but it’s a damned good one – and at times the cramped performance space seems to literally strain at the seams to contain the sheer energy and enthusiasm of the ensemble cast. There were thirteen of them out there and as the piece incorporates quite a bit of physical theatre, they did well simply to avoid bumping repeatedly into each other; let alone moving with such evident control and precision. All the performances were exemplary and there were one or two potential stars of the future strutting their stuff in the midst of it.

If there’s a problem with Takeaway, it’s in the final section of the play, where Kay, having nailed her main subject with aplomb then segues into a riff on The Pied Piper of Hamelin – it’s almost as though she realised she needed to add an extra twenty minutes running time and looked around for a suitable fairy tale to tack on the end. Don’t get me wrong, it’s as nicely written as what’s gone before but doesn’t seem to sit comfortably with the rest of the script. But that’s hardly Kes Theatre’s fault. These gutsy young actors, from years 11 to 13 and based in Bath, have come to the Edinburgh Festival to compete with the professionals and have given a really good account of themselves. They should feel justifiably proud.

3. 6 stars

Philip Caveney

Foxfinder

07/08/15

Bedlam Theatre, Edinburgh

Dawn King’s Foxfinder is a gem of a play: it’s serious and playful with an awful lot to say. Set in the near future, the Britain we see here is a dreadful place, a dystopia where people are ruled by fear, and where foxes are the enemy. Sam and Judith Covey, whose farm is underperforming after a difficult year, are visited by Foxfinder William Bloor, sent to ensure there are no foxes on their land. If any are found, the consequences will be dire.

Master of None’s Fringe production is a bit of a gem too. The opening, where Sam (Hugo Nicolson) and Judith (Verity Mullan Wilkinson) are waiting anxiously for the Foxfinder to arrive, is beautifully done: the set, costume and lighting cleverly hinting at a bygone time, making explicit the connection with the witchfinders of old. This is reinforced by the arrival of Bloor, whose silhouetted, hatted figure looms menacingly at the door. When the lights go up and the actors move, the more contemporary setting is revealed – and it’s a relief… until we realise what’s going on.

William Bloor is the most interesting character: he is young, idealistic – and troubled. He has too much power and too little insight; he’s not mature enough to realise the truth of what he does. Indoctrinated since the age of five, he is a vulnerable and dangerous man – and Alex Stutt performs the role with charm and subtlety. He is utterly convincing as the conflicted Foxfinder, confused and disgusted by his sexual desires, and unswerving in his hatred of the evil, cunning fox.

This is a multi-faceted play, where the simple plot belies the myriad allegories. Foxes here are scapegoats for all society’s ills – they represent witches and devils, but the way they are treated aligns them with the persecuted too. This young theatre company clearly relishes the complexity, and their performances lay bare the toll such propaganda takes. Zoe Zak is particularly engaging as neighbour Sarah Box, who is forced to confront the limits of her own morality: will she, Stasi-like, inform on her neighbours to protect herself?

The direction is strong, although there is perhaps a little too much stage traffic at times, with a few unnecessary entrances and exits, but, all in all, this is definitely one to watch.

4.4 stars

Susan Singfield

Southpaw

06/08/15

Jake Gyllenhaal is always an interesting actor and, in Southpaw, he’s pulled off yet another transformation, piling on the muscle and jettisoning his good looks to play light heavyweight boxer Billy Hope; indeed, it’s hard to believe this is the same actor who gave us the creepy, emaciated ambulance-chaser he portrayed so brilliantly in Nightcrawler. We first meet Billy as he grimly holds on to his title belt in a bruising, bloody confrontation with a much younger fighter. The boxing sequences don’t really compare with the mesmerising, almost dreamlike sequences in Scorcese’s Raging Bull, but they’re nonetheless realistic enough to make the more sensitive viewers wince. But fate is waiting in the wings for Billy. When his wife, Maureen (Rachel McAdams) is accidentally shot dead in a fracas at a charity event, Billy finds himself on a slippery slope downhill as, in quick succession, he loses his licence to fight, his home is repossessed and his daughter, Leila (a winning performance from Oona Lawrence) is taken by child protective services. This is all harrowing stuff and director Antoine Fuqua mines it expertly for maximum distress; at several points I find myself tearing up. Can Billy ever find redemption and rebuild his career? Hey, is the Pope a Catholic?

It has to be said that from this bleak first third, the film enters a very familiar trajectory as Billy teams up with washed-up-boxer- turned-trainer, Tick Wills (Forest Whitaker), who quietly guides his protégée back to the top of his game. (Anyone who’s seen Rocky, will know the form. In that film, Burgess Meredith did pretty much the same with Rocky Balboa.) Whitaker manages the role with his customary skill and there’s a surprisingly decent turn from 50 Cents as a mercenary boxing promoter (who ironically declared his own ‘strategic’ bankruptcy recently – is this where he got the idea?).

Maybe Billy’s fall from grace is a little over the top – could anybody as successful as Hope fall quite so fast and quite so hard? And maybe his path back to championship fitness in just six weeks is a little too easy, encapsulated as it is in a perfunctory training montage. But nevertheless, the final confrontation is compelling enough to keep you on the edge of your seat till the final count.

All in all, this is decent entertainment with a distinctly gloomy edge.

3.8 stars

Philip Caveney

Our Teacher’s A Troll

06/08/15

Roundabout@Summerhall, Edinburgh

Edinburgh has a fantastic new festival venue in Paines Plough, Summerhall. From the outside, it looks fairly unprepossessing and you think, ‘Oh, it’s a tent.’ But once you step inside, all preconceptions are swept aside. This is a fabulous theatre-in-the-round, complete with state-of-the-art programmable LED lights and a crystal clear sound system – but, even more remarkably, it can be dismantled piece-by-piece and packed into a single lorry, to be taken anywhere in the world. Roundabout are justifiably proud of their new baby and offered a pre-festival sneak peek at one of their upcoming plays – Our Teacher’s A Troll by Dennis Kelly.

Kelly must be one of the most eclectic writers in the business. It’s hard to link this chirpy slice of children’s theatre with DNA or Utopia or his TV sitcom, Pulling, but they are all the work of an accomplished and creative mind. OTAT tells the story of two ‘terrible’ twins at an inner-city school, who, having driven their head teacher to a nervous breakdown (she’s found eating sand in the sandpit), discover that her replacement is something that they could never have expected – a gigantic flesh-eating troll with a hard line on troublemakers. The children at the school are made to dig up the playground and work in the resulting goldmine, while the troll takes action against anyone who is unruly (pupils and teachers alike) by biting off their heads.

This is a two-hander: the twins (and everyone else in an extensive selection of characters) are portrayed by Sian Reese-Williams and Abdul Salis, who effortlessly switch from character to character, occasionally using a voice-transforming microphone to embody the unseen but terrifying troll. The duo’s command of the circular stage is total and there’s plenty of lively interaction with members of the audience. The play is suitable for children aged 7 and up, but there’s plenty here to entertain the grown-ups also, and only the grumpiest audience members will fail to be enthralled as the tale unfolds. So parents of young children, take note. This is too good a treat to miss and it’s on until the 23rd August, with the hardworking actors (who are also appearing in other productions at the same venue) taking only an occasional day off throughout the run.

4.3 stars

Philip Caveney

Assembly Rooms Launch

05/08/15

Assembly Rooms, George Street, Edinburgh

The Assembly Rooms on George Street is one of the Fringe’s finest venues, its architecture creating an opulent backdrop for an eclectic range of shows.

This year’s offerings are many and varied; I’ll wager there’s something here for everyone. The selection we were offered last night barely scratched the surface, but still encompassed no less than seven genres of music – from comic ditties to classic crooning. There was theatre too, and comedy: it was a promising introduction to the latest festival.

There were too many acts to name them all, and we only saw a small sample of what they do (although we’ll definitely be back to find out more).

Standouts, though, included The Missing Hancocks, a recreation of four Hancock’s Half Hour radio scripts that have not been heard since the 1950s. Kevin McNally’s Hancock is delightfully accurate, with all the lugubrious charm of the man himself, and Robin Sebastian does a cracking Kenneth Williams. The scripts are funny in themselves, but they are performed here with vim and gusto and enough ‘new’ character to make them worthwhile in their own right (The Music Hall, 4.15pm – alternating daily between Show A and Show B).

Canadian Tom Stade’s stand-up was another highlight. He lives in Scotland now, and spent most of this short set ruminating on the cultural oddities his relocation has thrown up. His laconic style is utterly engaging, and this brief offering augers well for the full-length show (The Ballroom, 9.40pm – nightly).

We also enjoyed Christine Bovill’s Piaf, a delightful homage to a woman Bovill clearly adores. The songs are sung with warmth as well as precision, and Bovill is an engaging raconteur too, explaining both what the songs mean to her – and what they meant to Piaf herself. This is undoubtedly one to watch (The Spiegeltent, 7.20pm, various dates).

This was a strong start to this year’s Fringe at the Assembly Rooms – and, here at Bouquets and Brickbats, we are very excited about the next three weeks.

(We have decided not to include a star-rating for launch events, as it’s impossible to rate such a diverse collection of excerpts.)

Susan Singfield

Bouquets & Brickbats

Theatre – Film – Comedy – Food

Month: August 2015

Restaurant Mark Greenaway

Stewart Lee: A Room With a Stew

Fault Lines

Impossible

That’s the Way, A-ha, A-ha, Joe Lycett

Takeaway

Foxfinder

Southpaw

Our Teacher’s A Troll

Assembly Rooms Launch