Month: August 2016

Royal Vauxhall

2016ROYALVA-APJ-300

06/08/16

Underbelly, Med Quad, Edinburgh

Did you hear the one about Freddie Mercury, Kenny Everett and Princess Diana? The one where the two closet gay stars dressed the unhappy Princess in drag and took her out for the night to the infamous Royal Vauxhall Tavern in London? No, me neither. And, if it sounds like the unlikeliest story you’ve ever heard, then just take a moment to consider that it actually happened. And now it’s a musical. Not only that, but it might just be the best thing we’ve seen at The Edinburgh Fringe so far this year.

Desmond O‘Connor (not that Des O’ Connor!) has written a collection of witty and irreverent songs for the piece and this production is blessed with three stellar performances from a trio of gifted actors. As Everett, Matthew Jones (of Fringe stalwarts Frisky and Mannish) gets the voice and mannerisms just right. Tom Giles’ Freddie is also very accomplished, while Sarah Louise Young manages to portray Diana, Maggie Thatcher and (at one point) an Irish priest with aplomb. The events portrayed here are fast, funny and occasionally extremely rude (you’ll find it very hard to unsee Maggie Thatcher with a strap-on penis doing something very rude to Everett whilst quoting his infamous ‘Let’s bomb Russia’ remark).

I’ll be honest, I hadn’t really expected to rate this. The premise seemed too off-the-wall for comfort, too far-fetched by half. Discovering that it has some basis in fact was a revelation and the realisation that I was enjoying every minute of the show was the icing on the cake. The songs range from full on rock bombast to poignant ballads. You’ll be howling with laughter one moment and on the verge of tears, the next. There’s even an Everett dream sequence that features a delightful appearance by a puppet David Bowie.

Those who like their musicals quirky and irreverent should investigate this at their earliest opportunity. It’s a cracker.

4.8 stars

Philip Caveney

The Raunch

Raunch_with_missa

06/08/16

Circus Hub, Underbelly, Edinburgh

The clue is in the name. The Raunch is an unabashed celebration of all things physical – an uneasy mixture of old-fashioned circus skills, burlesque dancing and hapless clowning. Housed in the gorgeous circus hub on Edinburgh’s Meadows and lavishly costumed and presented, there’s evidently been a lot of time and money spent getting this ready for the public. I have to say that it’s a show that isn’t really aimed at people like us (for us, a strong narrative thread is always key) but there’s no doubting the skill and talent of the performers, who give it their all.

The event is tricked out in a cartoonish cowboy style – there are lots of Stetsons, pistols and whips on display, all accompanied by energetic hoe-downs to pounding western music. I find myself alternately thrilled by the balancing and fire-eating elements and vaguely embarrassed by all the frantic tassel-twirling and twerking that’s going on. Those hoping for some kind of cogent storyline will inevitably be disappointed. There is a story thread (a villainous woman attempting to pass off urine as gold dust) but it’s basically hokum, an excuse to bring out the next act. You want to see tap dancing knife throwers? You got it! And there’s a fabulous trapeze act in there – but was it really necessary to have a laser light shooting out of her bum?

The good thing about a fast paced show like this is that if you aren’t really enjoying a particular element it’ll soon be gone and replaced by something completely different – and it’s evident that the crowd packed into tonight’s performance are loving every minute, whooping and applauding fit to raise the roof. So, if the this kind of thing that floats your boat – and I’m willing to bet that there are plenty of festival goers who enjoy a circus – then head down to The Meadows and grab a seat.

3.8 stars

Philip Caveney

Danielle Ward: Seventeen

2016DANIELL_JE

06/08/16

Just the Tonic at The Caves, Edinburgh

Ugh, I don’t like this venue. The rooms are small and damp, with all the inherent charm of a medieval dungeon. But this is the Fringe, so it’s par for the course.

And I do like Danielle Ward. I’ve never seen her live before, but I’m a fan of her Do The Right Thing podcast, loved her musical, Gutted, and have heard a lot of her work on Radio 4. I’m excited to see what she does live, and she doesn’t disappoint.

The show’s premise is a simple one: what advice can Ward, at the ripe old age of thirty-seven, offer to a new generation of young women? What wisdom can she share with seventeen-year-old girls, on the cusp of adulthood? Can they learn from her experience?

Part reminiscence, part polemic, this is a fascinating show. Ward has a warm, natural appeal, and is so at ease on stage that she has no problem engaging the audience’s trust. She takes us with her effortlessly, through a list of topics as diverse as female masturbation and Donald Trump, chocolate oranges and red loo roll. It’s a feminist show, albeit one that eschews bold claims, and there are some delightful lines. “Back in 1996,” she tells us, “The Spice Girls invented Girl Power, which was to feminism what Dairylea is to a strong, mature Cheddar.” Some bits are very accessible, while others are more challenging; it’s a good balance and we’re laughing throughout. She’s right, it’s not really a two-in-the-afternoon show, but I can’t think of many better ways to spend an hour at any time. Today’s show was close to sold out, so don’t wait too long to book a ticket for this one!

4.6 stars

Susan Singfield

 

Holly Burn: I Am Special

2016HOLLYBU_AXD

05/08/16

Underbelly, Med Quad, Edinburgh

Shirley Bassey is bellowing My Life as Holly Burn slinks onto the stage, clad in a red jumpsuit. She’s clutching a stuffed parrot and exudes enough confidence to light up the Royal Mile. Back in the 80s, growing up in Newcastle, she was told by just about everybody she knew that she was ‘special.’ But now it’s 2016 and she’s finding it difficult to admit that things haven’t worked out as well as she might have hoped. This show is essentially about the yawning chasm that lies between our childhood ambitions and what most of us have to settle for as grown ups.

Holly sings a bit of Barbara Streisand (very well, I might add) and she interacts effortlessly with her audience. I am dubbed ‘Spaghetti Phil’ (largely because of what I had to eat before attending the show) while three young girls off to one side of the performance space are adopted as Holly’s posse. There are some genuinely funny lines here. ‘What do you want to do with your life, Holly?’ ‘I want everything but I don’t want to do anything to get it. I just want to faff around until somebody notices me.’

Well, we’ve all been there, haven’t we?

She cuts back and forth between scenes from her childhood and some of the outlandish fantasies she indulged in back then. An extended sequence that has her riding a scooter naked through Sienna is a highlight. Occasionally the piece loses its focus, and she has to work hard to get the audience back again, but she largely succeeds. It’s a diverting hour spent in her company and while it may not be the most memorable performance we’ve seen, it’s nonetheless enjoyable. Hearing Holly sing makes me wonder if that’s a part of the show she might want to develop more in the future.

I for one would be interested to see where she takes this next.

3.6 stars

(Spaghetti) Philip Caveney

24 Hours with Mary Lynn Rajskub

201624HOURT_AAV

04/08/16

Assembly George Square Studios, Edinburgh

Mary Lynn Rajskub is best known for her role in hit American TV series 24, and that notoriety is certainly helping her to draw in a crowd. As a comedian, she has little presence in the UK, but she seems set to have a successful debut at the fringe. But, while it might be her fame as an actor that brings the punters in, they’re unlikley to leave disappointed if tonight’s performance is anything to go by. Because she’s really very good.

She seems a little tired, and needs to refer to her set-list on occasion, but this is the first show, and she’s jet-lagged, so we can forgive her that. She’s a strong, engaging performer, with an easy confidence and an attractive persona: she’s self-deprecating but not too much; she knows how good she is.

There’s a confessional tone to the show, and what seems like genuine emotion behind the stories she tells (although she is, of course, an actress…); she’s relatable despite being an international star. Her account of attending the Golden Globes, for example, is less a starry tale of showbiz glamour than an everywoman howl at how awkward life can be.

There are a couple of hack moments (slagging off man-buns just seems too easy, really), but overall this is a delightful show. Mary Lynn is an interesting woman, and it’s worth hearing what she has to say.

4 stars

Susan Singfield

Gratiano

Unknown

04/08/16

Spotlites, Edinburgh

There’s a fascinating idea behind Gratiano.

Take one of the minor players from The Merchant of Venice, (the comedy sidekick who no-one quite remembers), transport him forward in time to 1940s Italy during the rise of Mussolini, and have him re-examine his role in the events of one of Shakespeare’s most enduring plays. A monologue, written and performed by Ross Ericson, this opening night show is somewhat marred by the fact that only a few people have actually turned out to see it – but it’s early days at the Fringe and there’s plenty of time for this to find the right audience. The play is beautifully scripted and gamely performed – and it offers views about fascism and racism that seem powerfully prescient given what’s happening in the world right now.

Ericson’s tale imagines the consequences of the original play’s events: something terrible has happened to Gratiano’s old friend, Bassanio. He’s been found murdered and the police are wondering if his former best friend might have been involved. Gratiano, of course, is quick to dispel such notions. After all, he and Bassanio parted ways years ago. So where’s the motive?

Spoken in contemporary language, this is compelling stuff and some passages – particularly the observations about the concentration camps spill over from prose into sheer poetry. Those who are looking to find a new approach to a time-honoured classic could do a lot worse than investigate this.

4 stars

Philip Caveney

John Robertson: Arena Spectacular

_MG_4112_160129

04/08/16

The Stand 2, Edinburgh

We first chanced on John Robertson at last year’s fringe when we reviewed his Dark Room game show, in which I managed to be ‘out’ in a spectacularly short time. (Go me!) This year, we had the chance to see his Arena Spectacular, something we jumped at. The title is of course, ironic. The room in which he performs seats 45 punters tops, but you have to admire the chutzpah of a man who enters  to booming rock music and then proceeds to hurl a barrage of excoriating criticism at virtually every member of the audience. One young man who bears a passing resemblance to Christopher Reeves suffers a whole series of Superman jokes – another guy, in Robertson’s opinion, looks like a member of the Hitler Youth. Our reviewer’s lanyards make us the butt of a whole string of running remarks, where he pretty much advises us how many stars to award his act. He gets away with it all largely by dint of an angelic grin, that would charm the birds from the trees.

Robertson seems to be fuelled by equal parts anger, contempt and perversity. He’s a brilliantly funny comedian, an inspired improviser and he looks like (in his own estimation) ‘a dead Nick Cave.’ From his opening line he has pretty much the entire audience laughing raucously, a condition he keeps them in pretty much until his flamboyant exit where he gets in a genuine plug for some T-shirts he’s had made to mark the death of his pet dog. (Death figures quite prominently in this set and if you don’t think that’s a suitable subject to be laughing at, trust me, you won’t be able to stop yourself.)

Robertson’s a true original. I can’t think of another comedian who works in quite the same way as this. Do yourself an immense favour. Grab a ticket for this before they’re gone.

4.4 stars

Philip Caveney

If There’s Not Dancing at the Revolution, I’m Not Coming

2016IFTHERE_9S

04/08/16

Summerhall, Edinburgh

Julia Croft’s ‘performance collage’ is an unconventional piece of theatre, laying bare  -quite literally – the representation of women’s bodies in contemporary popular (western) culture. Swathed in an extraordinary number of layers, Croft’s exploration evokes the shedding of skins, as she sloughs off costume after costume to reveal yet another unpalatable image of womanhood. Finally, she stands before us, naked and silent. The preposterous outfits are now heaped on her head, disguising her face, but exposing the truth: this is a female body.

It’s a serious, disturbing and thought-provoking production, but there is laughter here too: Croft is an engaging performer, interacting with the audience, prolonging eye contact and forcing us from our comfort zones. But the apparent simplicity is deceptive; our expectations are subverted here. The familiar is exposed as absurd; what we have come to accept is clearly unacceptable. The juxtaposition of The Ying Yang Twins’ The Whisper Song with Taylor Swift’s Love Story makes for a particularly discomfiting vignette, as does a mirroring of a scene from horror movie House of Wax: while Paris Hilton, clad improbably in underwear, flees a serial killer on screen, Croft, similarly dressed, crawls around the small performance space, climbing over and under the audience, bringing the horror far too close for comfort, showing how brutal the scene really is.

This is an important piece, I think, that a lot of people should see. Be one of them. You won’t regret it.

4.2 stars

Susan Singfield

Maggie’s Plan

1-maggies-plan

03/08/16

It’s ironic that before the screening of Maggie’s Plan, we’re shown a trailer for Cafe Society, the kind of film that Woody Allen makes now – ironic, because the main feature is the kind of film that he used to make, back at the height of his powers. Greta Gerwig stars as the titular heroine, a self-confessed control freak who believes she has her whole life planned out in advance. Having failed to sustain a meaningful relationship for more than a few months, but deeply addicted to the idea of becoming a mother, she decides to go ahead and have a baby via insemination by Guy (Travis Fimmel) a ‘pickle entrepreneur’ who readily agrees to eschew any notion of parental responsibility. But matters become a bit more complicated when Maggie’s fellow university lecturer, John (Ethan Hawke) asks her if she wouldn’t mind reading some chapters from his novel, a thinly veiled account of his own life and marriage to the highly successful, but  extremely neurotic Georgette (Julianne Moore).

As Maggie and John’s friendship develops, it soon becomes apparent that they are falling for each other and matters are compounded when, inevitably, they sleep together

Three years later, they are a couple with a toddler to look after but Maggie is beginning to realise that this isn’t anything like the kind of rosy future she’d envisaged. As well as her own child, she’s also handling the other kids that John had with Georgette and John is too intent on that blasted novel to pay her any real attention – so Maggie hatches a devious plan to get John and Georgette back together…

The film is a delight, funny, acerbic, beautifully handled by writer/director Rebecca Miller. Gerwig builds on the sterling work she did in Frances Ha and Julianne Moore submits another of her chameleon-like performances, that stays just the right side of caricature. Bill Hader is particularly funny as Maggie’s long-suffering best friend, but to be fair, there’s barely a wrong note anywhere in this movie, which is as light and palatable as a perfectly cooked soufflé. It’s interesting to note that there are no villains in this story, just a collection of people dealing with their own life issues- and there’s a delightful surprise at the film’s conclusion that makes for a truly satisfying ending.

4.2 stars

Philip Caveney