Marcus Brigstocke is a star of the Fringe - without even appearing onstage.

For in making his debut as a playwright and director the comedian and actor lays bare his years as a recovering addict and produces a show which is revealing, funny, tender and informative.

Like Ian Shaw’s The Shark is Broken, Brigstocke writes from experience. This means it feels real, and adding to the magic mix are father and son Bruce and Sam Alexander, who play... father and son.

Both are heavyweight actors and casting them is a mark of genius. There is a deep understanding between them; they are easy with each other, and their relationship brought tears to my eyes.

John (Bruce) has died and Benedict (Sam) has left his wake to go down to his father’s wine cellar and read a letter his father has left for him. In it John tells his son he has left him a special bottle of wine he wants him to drink it. Trouble is, Benedict is a recovering alcoholic. He has been dry for 23 years, and the dialogue consists of the two men (the father comes back from the dead for this conversation) discussing if and why Benedict should drink the wine.

Along the way, we hear about life, loves, addiction and the pros and cons of drinking wine.

It’s obviously a very personal piece of work for Brigstocke and he’s done an amazing job.

Dare I say...cheers!

The Red is at the Pleasance Dome until Aug 26 at 4pm. Tickets from £11 with concessions.
Box Office: 0131 226 0000 edfringe.com

What a privilege it was to be in the audience for The Shark is Broken.

The director is no less than Richard Burton’s nephew Guy Masterson, this year taking part in his 26th Fringe. But the real coup is the co-writer and star of the play, Ian Shaw.

For the show is set on the film set of Jaws, which starred Shaw’s father, Robert Shaw.

Earlier in the week I had heard him talking about how he penned, with Joseph Nixon, the play based on his father’s diaries. “He struggled with alcohol and his diaries were quite a hard read,” he had said.

This, of course, comes out in the story as the three stars of the film, Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss and Roy Scheider, are stuck on a boat in (if the sound effects are anything to go by) rough seas, because of problems with ‘the shark’.

Shaw - who had described his father as ‘old school’, Dreyfuss was more neurotic and brash, while Scheider was the mother figure trying to keep everybody happy - was, of course, in a unique position to write this play and the air of authenticity really comes across, especially as he, playing his father, looks so like him (a gasp went through the audience as he made his entrance). Duncan Henderson is also a double for Scheider both in looks and demeanour, and Liam Murray Scott, another lookalike, is certainly neurotic and brash as Dreyfuss!

This is a hugely enjoyable insight into the making of one of the most iconic of films and its stars. It’s almost like eavesdropping as they discuss Steven Speilberg (‘he may be just a kid but he’s crazy’) and the film (‘a retarded offspring of Moby Dick’), while opinions are aired and egos clash. Fascinating, not only for film fans but for those who appreciate fine acting, there is talk of a full version going to London and on tour. Don’t miss it!

The Shark is Broken is at the Assembly George Square Studios, Studio Three on alternate days until Aug 25 at 11am. Tickets are priced from £13 with concessions. 
Box Office: 0131 226 0000 edfringe.com
Image: Nick Driftwood

I don’t know what I was doing in 1999 but it wasn’t watching an American teen flick adapted from Les Liaisons Dangereuses.

However, the rest of the audience obviously knew of it. It was, apparently, a cult film, and everyone around me loved this new musical version premiering at the Fringe.

The Spiegeltent isn’t the best place for sound but, nevertheless, an enthusiastic and talented cast belted out 90s classics as evil step-siblings Kathryn and Sebastian set out to corrupt the naive Cecile.

They are all rich kids, doing everything, especially sex, to excess, and some scenes are pretty explicit but, despite its content, or because of it, the audience thought it was a lot of fun. 

I’m not a great fan of American teen flicks but I did warm to the performances, especially Evelyn Hoskins. As Cecile she starts out a little child but when she discovers sex she is delightful in a different way. Scott Hunter is also a firm favourite, camping it up for all he is worth as macho Gary’s secret lover.

Cruel Intentions: The 90s Musical is at the Assembly George Square Gardens until Aug 25. Tickets are priced from £14 with concessions.
Box Office: 0131 226 0000 edfringe.com

If the EastEnders’ Fox family want to know where Kim’s errant husband is, he’s at the Edinburgh Fringe!

But in Ryan Calais Cameron’s powerful new play actor Richard Blackwood is no wide boy, just a British ex-serviceman going about his business - until he is assaulted, and then set upon by police, with tragic consequences. Just because of the colour of his skin.

Based on true events surrounding the death of Christopher Alder in 1998, it’s very much a play of two halves.

It starts out with Alder preparing for a night on the town. Here, Blackwood gets to practice all his skills - as a singer, presenter and, occasionally when his quick-fire delivery is a little too fast, a rapper! He is also a consummate actor, strutting his stuff as he delivers Cameron’s comic lines with great timing, playing an assortment of characters, including women, and engaging with the audience.

The mood changes dramatically in the second half; the dialogue is dark; Blackwood throws himself about the stage as if being beaten by unseen hands. It’s painful to watch, as is the actual footage of the police assault on Alder shown on a back screen.

It left us all shaken and stirred.

Typical is at the Pleasance Courtyard (Beneath) until Aug 25 at 4.30pm. Tickets are priced from £10 with concessions. 
Box Office: 0131 226 0000 edfringe.com
Image:Jonny Birch

I found it difficult to get my head round Cleopatra coming back from the dead to be interviewed for a podcast in actress Sheila Atim’s first foray into playwriting.

Not only that but she sings the blues, plays guitar and laughs at the idea that she was killed by an asp - now all those myths are shattered!

Nevertheless, the performances are so strong that I would be happy just for the actors to recite the phone book.

As it is, contemporary immunologist Kate Williams is interviewing Cleo (as she likes to be called) about the things that matter most to her. As time goes on it turns out that each of the women believe in different things and tensions rise. Kate has her own problems and becomes distracted, and the interview turns into a bitter fight which Janet Kumah as Williams, and Paksie Vernon, deliver with conviction and passion.

As for Vernon’s singing, I would happily pay to see her perform in her own music gig.

In sharp contrast, radio producer David provides some light-hearted, down-to-earth moments to lighten the darkness.

Anguis is at the Gilded Balloon Teviot until Aug 26 at 3pm. Tickets are priced from £12 with concessions
Box Office: 0131 226 0000 edfringe.com
Image: David Monteith-Hodge

Apparently, the Mugenkyo Taiko Drummers have been going 25 years - which must be around the time I first saw them, in Slough. I’ve been a  fan ever since.

Their drumming, taken from an ancient Japanese art-form, is hypnotic. There may be no words spoken in this piece of theatre but it is the drum beats which speak to us.

Beat Grrrls is making its premiere at the Fringe. Consisting only of women, who in times gone by were not permitted to play the sacred Taiko drums, this show turns this stereotype on its head and features gentle, more feminine pieces as well as the usual heavy stuff.

Whatever they play, however, it requires a lot of skill, discipline and strength (I bet they don’t have bingo wings!). Their moves are at times balletic and they show great showmanship - or should I say, showwomanship?

Based in Scotland, the drummers are an international lot - from Croatia, Hungary, Scotland, and from Chinese and Japanese parentage, but then the language their drums speak is universal.

Mugenkyo Taiko Drummers: Beat Grrrls is at the Assembly Rooms until Aug 24 at 5.30pm. Tickets £13 with concessions.
Box Office: 0131 623 3030 assemblyfestival.com

It’s no surprise to discover that Joyce Falconer has played Maw Broon in The Broons.

The formidable mother figure swops her home in Auchentogle and her eight children for the household of Monsieur Orgon in Liz Lochhead’s wonderfully irreverent rhyming version of Moliere’s famous comedy.

Falconer retains her pinny and her headscarf to play an expressive Dorine, Orgon’s servant, who goes up against house guest Tartuffe, as the conniving hypocrite uses his clerical collar to charm Orgon while trying to seduce his wife.

Directed by Tony Cownie, it’s performed in Scots (though Sassenachs and the rest of the world attending the Fringe should be able to understand it) by a stellar cast including Outlander regular Andy Clark as Orgon and Nicola Roy as his elegant wife. But it is Grant O’Rourke who steals the show in the title role, his cringeworthy portrayal putting even the best performance of Burns’ Holy Willie to shame.

An hour well spent!

Tartuffe is at the Assembly Rooms until Aug 25 at 5pm. Tickets £10-£14.
assemblyfestival.com /0131 623 3030.

Musik has been described as a cabaret and as a musical (by Jonathan Harvey and Pet shop Boys Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe).

While it can be classed as both, it is really a full-on dramatic performance, a tour de force, with Frances Barber making the show her own.

It may be her solo show debut, but it knocks spots off many other contributions to the Fringe, and deserves its immediate transferral to London’s Leicester Square Theatre in September.

In this hour-long celebration of all things outrageous, Barber reprises the role she played in the 2001 production Closer to Heaven. Now Billie Trix has her very own show, and Marlene Dietrich and Lotte Lenya wouldn’t have had a chance with her around.

Billie may be a dried-up, drug-addled icon and rock star with Barber’s gravelly voice does justice to the Pet Shop Boys’ songs, and her tremendous presence, looking almost like a Goth with her black clothes, Fenella Fielding-style make-up and silver crucifixes, proves Billie is still a force to be reckoned with as she takes us from post-war Berlin through New York to a telephone box in Soho Square, unashamedly name-dropping as she goes, and blaming the likes of Andy Warhol, Madonna, and the Beatles for stealing her ideas.

You never know what she’s coming out with next as she downs a bottle of Jack Daniels and snorts cocaine. Where did ‘I flipped back the flaps of my hijab’come from, for example? It’s anarachic but it’s also raw, gritty and sad.

A curse to her mother, Billie nevertheless declares ‘I am a gift to the world’, and Barber is certainly a gift to the Fringe. As a singer she can also claim the title of one of the songs, Ich bin music – I am music!

Musik is at the Assembly Rooms (Bijou) until Aug 24 at 9.40pm. Tickets from £15 with concessions.
assemblyfestival.com/0131 623 3030Image: TheOtherRichard

I must apologise to Ben Hart for sitting in the front row.

Normally I never sit there for fear my note-taking will distract the performer, but I wanted to get as close as possible to Ben to scrutinise his movements (though I needn’t have worried as his every move was videoed onto a back projection).

My eyes never left his hands and my jaw never stopped dropping! This is one remarkable young man. What a showman! This really is a must see show. Like me, you’ll never get your head round what you are seeing and you’ll leave thinking life can never be the same again.

Although the winner of the Magic Circle’s Young Magician of the Year has been selling out at the Fringe for a few years, the first time I saw him was on the last series of Britain’s Got Talent. I’m not always that bothered about magicians but, even through the small screen – well, I’ve got a bigger telly now – his personality came across.

On stage, and only inches away (be still my beating heart), he is the consummate performer while still retaining that boyish charm, a cheeky grin. But he is enigmatic. Dressed in his distinctive woollen suit and Doc Martens he is of this age but not. And at the end of the show he quickly disappears (not literally, I might add), so he remains a mystery.

To disclose the contents of his mind-blowing show would undoubtedly spoil things for those of you not lucky enough to have yet seen it. But it is impossible to fathom how he does what he does. He uses random members of the audience to help him, and in case you think he has a plant here and there, he’ll give an object to one person and then ask them to pass it on.

In a nutshell, his skill is extraordinary, his theatricality astonishing. He really isn’t of this world – but then he does say that he imagined the show, and all its components, in an out of body experience!

Tickets are hard to come by and he’s now doing an extra show, so if you don’t catch him at the Fringe he’s shortly taking a show called Wonder on tour.

Ben Hart: The Nutshell is at the Gilded Balloon Teviot until Aug 25 at 5.30pm. Tickets from £10.50 with concessions.
edfringe.comBox Office: 0131 226 0000/edfringe.com

I wasn’t expecting to see the North Star when I booked for Hannah Raymond-Cox.

What I did expect was an account of her search to belong, and it does that in spades.

What I didn’t expect was for it to be so educating – but then that’s the Fringe for you!

I didn’t know that polari was a secretive language widely used by the British gay community from the 1900s to the 1970s, based on slang words derived from a variety of different sources. And I wasn’t aware of any such words during Raymond-Cox’s 50-minute story.

What I was aware of was just how engaging, self-aware and self-deprecating she is and though my attention span when it comes to poetry can sometimes be somewhat short, I became fully immersed in her journey from her difficult schooldays, and her first venture into a gay bar at the age of 18, to her male flat mate declaring his love for her.

The show has a good pedigree. It is directed by BBC Slam Champion Sophia Walker and is hot off a sell-out UK tour.

Raymond-Cox’s delivery is seamless, her story compelling, but it says something about our society when so many gays feel they have to publicly declare their sexuality - almost as if they are looking to belong.

Polaris is at the Scottish Poetry Library most days until Aug 24 at 5pm. Tickets £8 plus concessions.
edfringe.com/polaris

Christopher Biggins is Mr Showbiz. With his larger than life personality, broad grin and distinctive laugh he lights up wherever he happens to be.

There aren’t many celebrities of his ilk at the Fringe this year so watching this classical actor turned pantomime dame and presenter is a treat. He’s a natural and generous host, chatting easily with and showing genuine interest in his guests.

To date (Aug 9) he has welcomed 27 surprise guests onto his show. 

Not all are appearing at the Fringe. Philip Henderson,  City Officer to the Lord Provost for the last 25 years, gave us a real and entertaining insight into welcoming to Edinburgh the great and the good (Nelson Mandela, Nancy Sinatra…) - as well as the Royal Family - while also running Scottish nights at The Jam House.

But it was his other guests the day I was there who made me wish I could see this show every day, for Biggins brought out in them so many interesting facts about their Fringe shows that I ended up booking for all. Well, for a start, who could not be drawn to a show about the making of the iconic film Jaws, co-written by engaging actor Ian Shaw, son of one of the film’s stars, Robert Shaw?

Of course, Biggins is first and foremost an entertainer and he’ll have you in stitches as he regales you with anecdotes and gossip, and tales of his time in I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, which he won in 2007.

Late Lunch With Biggins provides a lot of laughs and offers the best of the Fringe’s performers, thus helping you to navigate your way round this gargantuan festival (and don’t we need that!).

And remember, you won’t know who you’ll be seeing, so it’s always going to be… Surprise Surprise!

Late Lunch with Biggins is at the Pleasance Dome most days until Aug 25 at 2.40pm. Tickets from £11.
Box Office: www.pleasance.co.uk

You’re in for a jolly jape if you make your way to the very west end of Rose Street this Fringe.

Gender bending is the order of the day as the all-female cast play a variety of aristocrats plus one cool valet who welcomes audience members as they arrive as if they were gentry.

Lord Wiggins is set to inherit Rhodesia if his marriage to Emily Rhodes goes ahead. But their romance is faltering, and it’s up to Eddie Spangler and his valet Jeffrey to sort things out. 

Benjamin Alborough’s knockabout Edwardian comedy is an absolute hoot, a sort of grown up Famous Five adventure with melodramatic performances and cardboard cut-out props.

The comic timing is superb, the humour anarchic and the energy and enthusiasm infectious.

Cream Tea and Incest is at the Gilded Balloon Rose Theatre until Aug 25 at 12.45pm. Tickets are £9.50 with concessions.
Box Office: 0131 622 6552

The University of Edinburgh’s newest café and lounge may not be as exciting as some of the locations in which the Grid Iron Theatre Company has performed (such as Edinburgh Zoo, a boat builders’ island in a Norwegian fjord or a working cancer hospital in Jordan), but for The Brunch Club it is perfect.

For writer and director Ben Harrison’s latest creation is set in just such a place.

As part of induction week, a group of young people between school and college meet up to make new friends and explore new interests. They each have their own personalities, and fiercely so, but they are stereotypical of certain groups, mainly because of their upbringing, and really want to belong. As they spend time together their insecurities manifest, but ultimately they discover they are not really that different, friendships are made, and The Brunch Club is formed.

Ben Harrison’s new work is drawn from more than 100 young people from across Scotland and performed by The Network Ensemble, a production company for emerging creative talent trained in Scotland and part of the Pleasance Futures programme.

The cast members are drama graduates and so should certainly be able to empathise with their characters. So convincing are they that you would think they are playing themselves, but it is only at the curtain call that their masks fall and you realise they really are acting very well indeed.

There are too many to mention for a Fringe review, but the oldest of the characters (and, I suspect the actors), Jamie McGregor adds gravitas as a knife-wielding bully. As he paced around the performance space I really felt intimidated.

This study of current archetypes also features an all singing, all dancing trip down the years from the 1940s through Teddy boys and hippies, mods and rockers,  punks and emos in a colourful, fast-paced entertainment.

The Brunch Club is at the Pleasance Pop-Up: Levels EH8 8FQ 9 until Aug 24 at 8.15pm. Tickets £12 with concessions.
Box Office: 0131 556 6550/www.pleasance.co.uk
Image: Robin Mitchell

Yet again the Traverse Theatre is breaking new boundaries with innovative entertainment.

The story of Frankenstein’s monster has been around 200 years but, never in her wildest dreams (and she certainly must have had some!) could Mary Shelley have imagined her story being presented in this way.

There is certainly nothing monstrous about this mid-blowing production – except perhaps for the monstrous amount of talent on stage.

Battersea Arts Centre’s Beatbox Academy is a young collective which has performed at the Royal Festival Hall, Latitude Festival and on BBC 2’s Gareth Malone’s The Choir. Now they are making their Scottish debut at the Fringe with a show which is nothing sort of extraordinary, a celebration of the voice in so many guises, from remarkable tongue-twisting vocal gymnastics and soundscapes to singing and rap.

Through a series of chapters they breathe life into the monster – by just breathing, rapping Shelley’s story in language for today. The effects they create with their mouths and microphones are unbelievable. But there is also some beautiful music (Pachelbel Canon is in there!), and superlative singing from Aminita Francis and Nadine Rose Johnson, better known as Glitch, plus some sharp choreography. ABH Beatbox’s vocals are particularly incredible, and sound engineer Marcello Coppola must be congratulated for helping to deliver such a slick show.

There is more. It begins with co-director Conrad Murray teaching the audience to beatbox – kick drum, snare and hi-hat. He has results in no time at all! There’s also a special appearance by the YLT Crew from Leith, four of 300 local youngsters the BAC Beatbox Academy has been working with.

Of course, as with most things these days, the show has a message, such as when ego drives the body it’s bound to crash!

This is a relaxed show, not that anyone would want to come and go or move about, and photos and videos are encouraged. Advertised for 14 years and over, one tiny tot was present when I was there, and in a quiet moment (and there weren’t many. Ear defenders are available, by the way!) he or she shouted 'Wow!' to everyone’s amusement. It certainly has lots of wow moments and deserved it's standing ovation.

Frankenstein: How to Make a Monster is at the Traverse Theatre until Aug 25 at various times. Tickets £22 with concessions.
Box Office: 0131 228 1404/traverse.co.uk
image: Lara Cappelli

Jessye Romeo, Alvaro Fore, Claire Lebowitz King and Lana Joffrey   photo Tomas Turpie

Nominated for the Amnesty International 'Freedom of Expression' Award 2014, Bianca Bagatourian's The Time Of Our Lies explores the personal history of Howard Zinn, considered one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century whose legacy of his time as a serving soldier in the United States army haunted him, in particular the bombing of Royan in Southern France which claimed the lives of near on 3000 innocent civilians. His lifelong regret was not so much his active duty but his blind participation in the belief that by doing so fascism and tyranny would be defeated, his acceptance of lies and his unquestioning obedience. Zinn dedicated his life to researching ethical issues including race, class, war and history and is perhaps best known for his work A People's History of the United States upon which this piece is based.

Presenting songs and stories, using Zinn's own words and recollections, Bagatourian's The Time of Our Lies is a platform for the accounts of individual soldiers and civilians, reminders of the horrors of war, civil rights protests and dissent and the plight of all those innocent victims of political deceit and injustice. Although Zinn's work is more widely studied in the United States, the message is universal. Globally are the effects of the manipulation by those in power who seek their own ideals and exert their influence on a willing and accepting populace who are keen to allow the narrative of political figures to fit their own agenda and give it meaning. Decisions made by those who are uninformed and follow blindly will rebound strongly on future generations. There is no defence in ignorance; dissent is the strongest form of patriotism.

Directed by Che Walker the minimalist set avoids distraction and ensures focus on the harrowing war sounds of Sheila Atim's sound track, the flashing blood scarlet lighting of Arnim Friess and the agony in the performance. The focus is intentionally on the narrative, which is directed at the audience. At times the raw honesty is suffocating and I could not draw my eyes away from the tears of Trang Le as she recounted the horrors of Vietnam. Each account is only a few moments but its effect is intense.

The message is clear. What we believed to be democracy has turned tables. In reality it is exploitative and uses to advantage the reluctance of those who do not challenge.

In total the running time of just over one hour is sufficient to present this scandal. The seven actors in this ensemble piece convincingly present their range of characters. There is no romanticism, no high tech,simply the purity and honesty of the narrative taken first hand by Zinn in his writing. This is realism and it is highly effective. To vote for a government, one must first understand the history and then question.

Daniel Benzali was to have played the role of Howard Zinn but due to his indisposition this is now played by Martina Laird at all evening performances. Despite the very short notice, and perhaps more reliant on the script before her, she was nevertheless convincing in her presentation as lecturer/teacher and her guidance was clear and delivered.The ensemble includes Alvaro Flores, Lanna Joffrey, Trang Le, Claire Lebowitz King and Jessye Romeo. Under the guidance of Maureen Flemming their physical depictions and movement confirm the poignancy which renders you in deep thought as an observer. 

Perhaps not the most comfortable of evenings and knowing very little about Zinn before I arrived, I am now resolute in finding out more about this radical historian who gave selflessly of himself. The Time Of Our Lies is a battle cry for democracy, transparency and inclusion and reaffirms Zinn as a moral compass for the United States. In his own words: 'We don't have to wait for some grand Utopian future. The future is an endless succession of presents and to live now as we think humans should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvellous victory'.


(At matinees the role of Howard Zinn will be taken by Che Walker and Ann Mitchell.)

Listings: The Time Of Our Lies

Venue: Park 200 Theatre, Clifton Terrace, Finsbury Park, N4 3JP
Dates: 30 July - 10 August 2019
Age Guidance: 12+ (but I might suggest older)
Access performances: Audio Described: Friday 9August 19.30; TouchTour 18.00
Performances: Mon-Sat evenings 19.30, Thurs & Sat Matinees 15.00
Prices: Standard £18.50 - £32.50, concessions £16.50-£23.50
Under 16s £15 - £20
Booking:www.parktheatre.co.uk or 020 7870 6876 - 10% telephone booking fee capped at £2.50 per ticket

 

Attending press launches at the Edinburgh Fringe is almost as exciting as actually seeing a show. You get to meet performers from all over the world and they might even win you over to review their shows.

Natalie Wilcox arrived late and didn’t seem too comfortable selling herself – or did I look scary?! What’s more, hers was a show of musical numbers… no acting there, I thought.

But it just goes to show how wrong you can be. An accomplished actor (she’s currently making a film called The Little Poet King), comedy improviser and writer who also teaches tap and works with people with learning disabilities, Natalie is also studying for a degree in French – but in Edinburgh she’s trying out a different show format which she’d like to tour to, and get involved with, rural communities, singing songs she has always wanted to sing but has never had the chance to. Oh, yes, ‘cos she’s an accomplished singer as well!

Her opening number bodes well for the rest of her show… ‘I will do better than my best. I have confidence in me…’ The quiet latecomer at the press launch really shines on stage, bringing the hills alive with the sound of music and using her acting skills to put across a wide range of characters from Annie, Oliver!, Me and My Girl, Company, Jungle Book, Little Shop of Horrors, Mary Poppins…

She also throws in a bit of tap dancing, plays the guitar and encourages her audience to join in – though it’s not compulsory.

It must be hard for someone to perform big numbers in a small room but, ably accompanied by Linda Stewart on keyboard, Natalie is expressive, energetic and obviously enjoys what she does. A good all round entertainer.

Natalie’s Marvellous Mishmash of Musicals is at Sweet Grassmarket 2, Apex Grassmarket Hotel EH1 2HS until Aug 11 at 3 (50 mins). Tickets £10/£8.
Box Office: 0131 243 3596/www.sweetvenues.com
Image:Sukey Parnell

Don’t let the image fool you.

There is no love lost between sisters Fianna and Alannah Devlin in Meghan Tyler’s explosive black comedy.

Crocodile Fever is the most insane production ever. Think Quentin Tarantino crossed with the craziest of comedies. It’s the bloodiest, most violent, and funniest production I think I have seen. And in the hands of the Traverse’s award-winning Gareth Nicholls, director of Ulster American, it’s set to be the talking point of this year’s Edinburgh Fringe.

Lisa Dwyer Hogg and Lucianne McEvoy are dynamite as the warring sisters who have only one thing in common – they both hate their father. And when Fianna returns home to celebrate his death, things occur which you could never, ever imagine – so once you’ve seen it (and you mustn’t miss it) don’t go telling people what happens! Oh, I forgot, it’s going to be a talking point! Well, just don’t give away the ending.

Fianna is a rebel, returning home after 11 years in jail for… well, that would be telling. And Dwyer Hogg is a force to be reckoned with, just like her character, crackling with energy, and both fierce and funny. Alannah, on the other hand, is a beige character who never left home. She’s pious - but don’t they say the quiet ones are the worst? – and it is plain to see why McEvoy won an award for best female performer in Ulster American. Her every move is studied and compelling, and she has a great comic timing.

Believe me, this production is a scream – you’ll be screaming with laughter and in terror!

Crocodile Fever is at the Traverse Theatre until Aug 25 at various times. Tickets £22 with concessions.
Box Office: 0131 228 1404/traverse.co.uk
Image: Lara Cappelli

Performers come to the Edinburgh Fringe for all sorts of reasons: some are hoping to be ‘discovered’, others are here just for the experience and to have fun.

Wrong Tree Theatre belongs to the second category, although alongside the fun is commitment.

For the group of students from Durham University have picked a sombre subject to explore, one that their young minds could never grasp.  And yet in this original play, written and directed by Emily Carter, they do at times manage to convey the horror of being incarcerated in the infamous Victorian asylum, Bedlam.

The venue is not the most ideal for this production. The stage is tiny and a lot of the action takes place on the floor – which makes difficult viewing for the audience other than those sitting in the front row as there is no rake.

The doctor (in a white coat, of course!) is, understandably, too young and lacks authority, yet Sam Draisey’s portrayal is decidedly creepy as he inflicts cruelty on his patients.

At the centre of this psychological drama is Nellie, diagnosed as hysterical when her only ‘affliction’ is speaking up for herself. Refusing to become zombie-like through monotonous routine and medication, she starts a revolution amongst the patients which ends with horrifying consequences.

As Nellie, Liz McGrady gives a sensitive and spirited performance, in complete contrast to Alana Mann’s Eleanor, at all times vacant and hardly ever speaking, and yet she too has great stage presence, while Sammy French steps up to the mark as the jittery, hallucinating Matthew, especially when receiving electric treatment.

This is an historically researched piece about how mental health patients were treated in Victorian times, and how wrongly they were diagnosed. We know, from too many stories, that society has not always moved on as it should, but hopefully this and other productions in the Fringe to do with mental health, will help us all become more aware.

Bedlam is at the Sweet Grassmarket 2, Apex Grassmarket Hotel EH1 2HS until Aug 18 at 4.30pm (50 mins). Tickets £7/£5.
Box Office: 0131 243 3596/www.sweetvenues.com

The Traverse Theatre can always be relied upon for presenting ground-breaking drama.

But Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran may be too innovative for its own good.

With instructions to download and join the Instagram app and then the Traverse Wi-Fi before the production, many of us were baffled and distracted when we couldn’t at first log on. The distraction continued when we were asked to watch and listen live on Instagram as Peyvand Sadeghian spoke her words into her phone: delivery came at different times on different phones so that it sounded almost like a whisper going through the audience and we could neither hear our own phones nor the performer.

As this was a preview, hopefully the technical side will improve as the Fringe continues, because what Sadeghian and her co-performer, co-creator (with Kirsty Housley) and writer Javaad Alipoor had to say was jaw-dropping stuff.

Through a series of images (on our phones but it was easier to follow them on the on-stage screen) we were taken on the journey made by a rich kid in Tehran who was, basically killed by materialism.

A shocking picture of his Porsche, which he smashed, killing himself and his girlfriend, after taking heroine and drinking (only the best) Champagne, the documentary-style presentation takes us back minutes, hours and then years beforehand, charting how wealth came about, how it has changed society and, even more terrifyingly, the legacy it is leaving behind.

This is a well-researched piece, passionately delivered, but maybe the glitches are the universe telling us something.

Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran is at the Traverse Theatre EH1 2ED until Aug 25 at various times. Tickets £21 with concessions.
Box Office: 0131 228 1404/traverse.co.uk

Geppetto and Pinocchio (James Sampson and Ethan Quinn): photo Eliza Wilton

Their second annual summer season takeover at London's Southwark Playhouse 2019 sees the British Theatre Academy's youth production of Disney's My Son Pinocchio JR written by Stephen Schwartz & David Stern, directed by Séimí Campbell and performed entirely by a junior cast comprising both children and young adults.
 
My Son Pinocchio JR  retells the classic and much loved Disney cartoon story but with a spin. This time there is a shift to a focus on toymaker Geppetto. Featuring those beloved classic songs 'When You Wish Upon A Star and I've Got No Strings' (Leigh Harline/Ned Washington) alongside a host of new and exciting songs by Oscar/Grammy award winner, Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Godspell), this production tackles issues about the pressures of being 'the perfect child' and what it means to be a 'real father'.

 Having been granted his wish by the Blue Fairy for a son, Geppetto is discontented with his little wooden puppet Pinocchio, believing him to be difficult and unable to follow instruction. Complaining to the Blue Fairy, who declares herself perfect and is far more feisty than her cartoon counterpart, and with the aid of four delightful trainee fairies, Geppetto is taken back in time to discover where things went awry. On his journey of realization he learns the meaning of family and of being a father, both of which resonated soundly with the adults in the audience.

The stage is filled with brightly primary coloured toy cubes, reflective of those in a children's nursery and sets the tone of this production. There is an innocence but this is deceiving. The staging has been carefully considered. The children are able to move the blocks around to allow for variance of scene and, together with the onstage Narnia type wardrobe to allow for effective costume changes, this is a slick production.

Costumes are likewise brightly coloured, with a funky blue netting skirt worn by the punkish Blue Fairy to the cool street garb of the trainee fairies whose trainers literally sparkle. And let's not forget the Boo Hiss adults whose nastiness is captured through their stooped shaping, shrill and thunderous voices and wearing of masks. Just as in the many musicals of today (think Annie, Matilda) the adults are selfish rotters and it is a wonder that the children can cope.
   
Geppetto has in the past seen many families at his toy shop. True, the children were often precocious and willful but Geppetto was more scathing of the parents, who regarded their offspring as pests. 'Why is it the ones who see children as bothers/Are the ones who get to be fathers?' In his sorrow and frustration, Geppetto believes that if ever he gets the chance to be a father he would behave with more compassion, patience and understanding. But he soon learns that parenting is not quite as he thought.

Children have enquiring minds and are eager to learn. They are like sponges who seek new experiences and soak them up in their development. With endless questions their energy never wanes and despite his good intentions, Geppetto is irritated and snaps at his little wooden son who has a bottomless depth of curiosity. Just like those parents he so criticized, he is short tempered. Overhearing his 'father' complain to the Blue Fairy, the little wooden puppet with the itchy nose (slight change from the cartoon depiction) is deeply saddened and runs away. 

In his anguish and despair, Geppetto will stop at nothing to protect Pinocchio against the cruely of his encounters in the exploitations of Stromboli and Professor Buonragazzo with his Perfect Child-making machine. The effects of Pleasure island with its lost boys/donkeys and the insides of the great whale are achieved through simple props, banners and enthusiastic braying. The pace does not falter. This is a fast moving production that will captivate the younger members of the audience.
 
Fearing this might be a quasi school production, I am delighted to say I was wrong. That is not to say that it could not be performed as such, indeed pupils and parents would be delighted to see it. In this production the cast were endearing, with the younger members having the time of their lives and those a little older defining their roles. My Son Pinocchio Jr was an accomplished company piece which was well rehearsed with its joyful singing and choreography.
 
Directed by by Séimí Campbell with choreography by Holly Hughes, costume design Gregor Donnelly, lighting Andrew Exeter, sound design Andrew Johnson and its talented cast of young performers, My Son Pinocchio Jr is an enchanting production and can be enjoyed by youngsters and those of us who are (er, um) slightly older (oops, nose itching moment).

Well done to this enthusiastic company. As a side note, there is a part of me that would love to see this production performed by a mix of adults and children. I believe it has strong potential with its catchy theatrical store and innocent staging. Who knows, perhaps I can wish upon a star!
 
The British Theatre Academy was set up to give talented young people the opportunity to perform in top venues nationwide for free. This opportunity is celebrated in this production and acknowledged by Stephen Schwartz as an excellent platform to encourage children to engage with the arts.

Note: the roles are shared by separate cast members on different nights.

Listings

Southwark Playhouse

77-85 Newington Causeway 

London 

SE1 6BD

Friday 26 July -
Wednesday 14 August 2019

Box Office: 020 7407 0234
www.southwarkplayhouse.co.uk


Monday - Saturday at 7.00pm

matinees at 3.00pm

Tickets: £22.00/£18.00 concs



Running time: 1 hour with no interval

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Puppetry has come a long way since Sooty and Basil Brush (though he is still entertaining families and is this year performing elsewhere at the Fringe).

War Horse is the biggest and best example of just how sophisticated it can be, but there are many smaller puppet makers producing significant work on a more modest scale, some inspired by methods which go back centuries.

One such is Peter Morton whose company, Half a String, is making a welcome return to Edinburgh after a successful debut in 2017, and this time in a bigger (and air conditioned!) space.

Puppeteers are thin on the ground this year so his show is a rare treat – and for so many reasons. Peter is a master craftsman who is inspired by both Japanese Bunraku puppetry and the Handspring Puppet Company and spent 18 months developing Boulder and making his intricate, mechanical works of art in both wood and steel.

What he and his hardworking team have created is a beautiful piece of entertainment, a multi-dimensional show based on the Greek myth of Sisyphus, who is damned to eternity by pushing a gigantic boulder up a hill, only for it to start rolling back when it nears the top.

Imaginative, ingenious and visually stunning, it not only features the ‘boulder’ and an almost life-size puppet, brought to life by Nicholas Halliwell and Louisa Ashton, but also an exquisite performance by singer/songwriter Avi Simmons, whose husband Caleb provides an animated film of Sisyphus’s journey, while classical cellist Michael Bacon adds extra depth with atmospheric accompaniment and sound effects.

Dark moments make this more suitable for adults, but there are also moments of humour, and the puppet’s life-like movements and responses will often have you smiling.

Boulder is at The Pleasance Courtyard (Forth) EH8 9TJ until Aug 17 at 12.10pm. Tickets £9-£12 (cons £8-£11)
Box Office: 0131 556 6550/www.pleasance.co.uk

        Kate Sumpter and Meaghan Martin: photo Ali Wright

The Actor’s Nightmare comprises six shorts by Tony Award winning playwright and Actor Christopher Durang, best known for his 'outrageous' and often 'absurd' comedy and includes the UK premier of some of his finest works. The specially crafted stand alone piece, presented by 3 hearts canvas and Over Here Theatre Company offers a disturbing but also (occasionally) extremely funny parody that spares nothing and no-one. From Euripides to Tennessee Williams, with some Beckett and Shakespeare thrown into the pot, the barbs are sharp and witty and offer an insight to the eccentricity of the entertainment industry in LA and New York, with occasional digs at HBO.

What is it like to face your audience with a memory gone blank, to feel the daggers of your fellow actors as they await their cue? To offer a carefully scripted monologue only to have forgotten the much needed notes and to then bluster your way through the agony of performance or to find yourself on stage with no clue as to why you are there? These are the experiences of Accountant George Spelvin who is mistaken as an understudy and forced to perform in a play of which he has no knowledge and primly twin-setted Mrs Sorken, complete with dinky handback and pearl necklace, whilst she delivers her monologue in the short of the same name. Desire, Desire, Desire attempts a poke at Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof and A Streetcar Named Desire and there are further allusions to much studied and performed playwrights in Business Lunch At The Russian Tea Rooms, Woman Stand-Up and Medea. Nothing is spared and all genres are parodied. 

Having been welcomed into the intimate space of Park90 to the glorious tones of 'Brush Up Your Shakespeare' and 'Lullaby of Broadway' we are invited to 'step into a nightmare'  and absurd journey. We are onlookers, voyeurs to the shallow and neurotic experiences of the artists who are desperate for fame and glory.

There are particularly striking moments and performances by this committed ensemble. At the start, Mrs Sorken, played by Kate Sumpter with delicious comic timing and comfortable interaction with her audience, set the scene for what was to follow. Strapping ourselves firmly into our seatbelts, we prepared for what promised to be a rocky ride but disappointingly did not always deliver.

There were moments of hilarity, none more so than in 'Medea' where the cast's enactment of the Greek chorus was achingly side splitting. Whilst irreverent in the extreme, it would be nice to think that Euripides offered a wry smile from his distant cloud. Against this was the disturbing portrayal of the stand up comic who relied on her laughter machine at her destitute gigs (Meaghan Martin).

But, disappointingly there were also scenes that just did not hit the mark. Yes, we got the allusions to Tennessee Williams and the repeated cries of 'Stella, Stella, Stella' but these were overplayed and became tedious. Similarly so the parody of Endgame which fell flat. With no interval, the final sections of this 100 minute production were beginning to bore and I found myself wishing for the end. After such a strong beginning, there were too many stilted junctures which lacked lustre and failed to resonate. Such a pity!

Featuring an ensemble cast of Meaghan Martin, Kate Sumpter, Stefan Menaul, Adrian Richards and Layo-Christina Akinlude,under the direction of Over Here Theatre Company's Director Lydia Parker, The Actor's Nightmare was an interesting piece albeit one which offered smug, self congratulation as you identified the different pieces that were parodied.

Note: 3 hearts canvas (founded January 2019 by Meaghan Martin/Oli Higginson),pair each production with a charity - on this occasion The National Autistic Society.

At London's Park90, Clifton Terrace, Finsbury Park, N4 3JP
    

   
Dates: 16 July – 10 Aug 2019  
Age guidance: 12+


Access Performances: 
- Dementia Friendly Performance, Mon 22
July 15.15
- Relaxed Performance, Sat 27 July 13.00


Performances: 
Mon – Sat Evenings 7.45pm, Thu & Sat Matinees
3.15pm


Prices:  
Standard £18,
Concessions £16.50, Child (Under 16) £13,
Park Up members (16 – 23 July) £10,
Groups
– buy 10 tickets, get the 11th free.
Booking: 
www.parktheatre.co.uk  
020 7870 6876


*10% telephone booking fee, capped at £2.50 per ticket.

The Finborough Theatre’s Autumn season features three premieres, all discovered by the Finborough Theatre’s Artistic Director Neil McPherson – a rediscovery from a classic British playwright, written in 1970, but never before seen in London, alongside two European premieres from female playwrights – a hit Off Broadway play from the United States, and a multi-award-winning new play from New Zealand/ Aotearoa.
The season opens with the London premiere of a 1970 touching domestic family drama, Go Bang Your Tambourine by Philip King, playing 6-31 August 2019. Following the death of his mother, devoted Salvation Army member David lives alone in their North Country house. But tongues begin wagging when Bess, a local barmaid, moves in as his lodger…
The season continues with the European premiere of Anahera by Emma Kinane, returning to the Finborough Theatre where it received a staged reading in Vibrant 2018 – A Festival of Finborough Playwrights. Winner of the Most Outstanding New New Zealand Play at the Wellington Theatre Awards, Anahera is a stunning new play on parenting and childhood, following a newly qualified Māori social worker supporting the distraught parents of a missing child. It plays 3-28 September 2019.
Rounding off our Autumn season is another European premiere, The Niceties, an Off Broadway hit by Eleanor Burgess, a new American playwright in her European debut. An ambitious young black student and her esteemed white professor meet to discuss a paper on the American Revolution. But as the question turns to who gets to tell the story of America, and how, the fault lines of racial and generational divides are sharply illuminated. It plays 1-26 October 2019.
Finborough Theatre Artistic Director Neil McPherson says: “Our new season features three richly different plays I have discovered for the Finborough Theatre, including a rediscovery from a classic British playwright, written in 1970 but now seen in London for the very first time, alongside two stunning new plays, both by female playwrights new to the UK, from the United States and New Zealand/ Aotearoa.
The Finborough Arms, our pub home, was taken over by an entirely new management and extensively refurbished at the end of last year, and now offers a wide menu of traditional pub favourites, all cooked on the premises.
I look forward to welcoming you.”
– Neil McPherson, Artistic Director

Performance Times and Prices
Tuesday to Saturday evenings at 7.30pm.
Saturday and Sunday matinees at 3.00pm.

For Go Bang Your Tambourine, Anahera and The NicetiesPrices for Weeks One and Two  – Tickets £18, £16 concessions, except Tuesday evenings £16 all seats, and Friday and Saturday evenings £18 all seats.
Previews £14 all seats.
£10 tickets for Under 30s for performances from Tuesday to Sunday of the first week when booked online only. 
£14 tickets for residents of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea on the first Saturday evening, when booked online only.

For Go Bang Your Tambourine and Anahera
Prices for Weeks Three and Four  – Tickets £20, £18 concessions, except Tuesday evenings £18 all seats, and Friday and Saturday evenings £20 all seats.
For The Niceties Prices from 15-20 October – Tickets £20, £18 concessions, except Tuesday evenings £18 all seats, and Friday and Saturday evenings £20 all seats.Prices from 22-26 October – £25, £20 concessions, except Tuesday Evenings £20 all seats, and Friday and Saturday evenings £25 all seats.

                   The Cast of  FIVER -  photo: Danny_with_a_camera

Have you ever looked at a five pound hote and wondered 'Haven't I seen you somewhere before ....?'

FIVER follows the story of a humble £5 note as it passes through the hands and pockets of several people in London, each in a significant moment of their lives. One is a busker, another is homeless and living on the streets, a further is a bereaved son and his father, there is a teacher, bullied students, an impending birth and romantic duos, to name but a few. These are the various scenarios performed as an ensemble piece by a talented and exciting cast of five who embrace each cameo with conviction, energy and empathy.

FIVER is the creation of Alex James Ellison (Writer/Producer/Actor/Guitarist) and Tom Lees (Writer/Musical Director/Producer)) who was nominated for a Broadway World award for Best Musical Director and who has been MD for several productions including the Sondheim revue, 'Just Another Story'.

At times reminiscent of 'Rent' and with shades of Sondheim, Lees has created an exciting score of ballads, duets and street rap, performed with superb harmony and energy by the committed 5-person cast. Accompanying them on guitar is Ellison who from the start engages with the audience and spends much of the time sitting amongst them whilst he strums along to the numbers, Lees on piano, Matt Billups on drums, Florian Belbeoch/Will Robertson on cello and Sam Pegg on bass. And this score certainly hit the right note. Unlike many musicals that carry one or two 'dud' numbers, there were no disappointments. Each of the songs mirrored exactly the mood of the moment and was strong in structure. Of course I had my favourites but in truth all were deserving of merit and it would be difficult to single out any one number. 

In 2017 a workshop of FIVER ran at London's Crazy Coqs. Since then, Ellison and Lees have expanded the show both in terms of length (now 2 hours 10 minutes including an interval) and complexity. 'We are massively excited to see the changes come to life on the stage'. And they have every right to rejoice in their success. 

The series of sketches explore the connection and relationships between the various characters who all share the common denominator of the £5 note. Would this fiver change the life of the homeless man, could it offer hope and joy even for a few moments to those who possess it? With the high energy of the opening number 'Change Is Bringing Me Down' to the hope and joy of 'My Day', the yearning plea of 'Whisper It To Me' and the punch of 'Gotta Keep My Head Down', the pace did not falter and subtly the disconnection linked. 

The 'Little Studio' of the Southwark Playhouse is an intimate space seating approximately 120 people. This offers an intimacy and involvement in the characters and the audience were entirely invested in the piece. The tiny stage allows only for a minimum of props and it is down to the performance of the cast that each scenario took on a life of its own. Yes, the audience took to their hearts this likeable bunch who were well deserving of the rapturous applause and standing ovation given at the close of the production. 

Full credit must be given to the outstanding cast, whose voices soared and whose versatility was convincing.  Played by Luke Bayer, Aoife lesham, Dan Buckley, Hiba Elchikhe and Alex James Ellison, FIVER is playing in the Southwark Playhouse Little Studio from 3-20 July 2019 and is a veritable treat. 

Listings: 

photographs: Danny_with_a_camera 

Southwark Playhouse, 77-85 Newington Causeway, London SE1 6B  

Wednesday 3 July - Saturday 20 July  2019  

Monday - Saturday 20.00 hrs  Matinees Tuesday and Saturday 15.30hrs  

Running Time 2 hours 10 minutes including the interval  

Box Office 020 7407 0234  www.southwarkplayhouse.co.uk 

Tickets £22 and concs £18   

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