Hag

Underbelly, Cowgate

1-25 Aug

15.30

10-11 pounds

The cavernous Underbelly is the perfect setting for this macabre tale of a girl and a child-eating hag called Baba Yaga: “I only eat the ones who deserve to be eaten”.  The story has its roots in Slavic folklore but  theatre group The Wrong Crowd (www.wrongcrowdtheatre.co.uk) have skilfully brought it to the stage instilled with flair and wit.  The Wrong Crowd has a festival hit in 2011 with “The Girl with the Iron Claws” and on this evidence they may have another good year this year.

The theatre company was only formed that year by writer/director Hannah Mulder and designer/puppet director Rachel Canning.  The whole production from the acting, puppetry, lighting, set design and costume is top notch.  The story of a girl trying to find something that was given to her by her dying mother, along the way encountering and eventually defeating the previously undefeated Hag.  Accessible, polished production  and delivery.  The best play I have yet seen at this year’s Fringe.

Reviewer – David McMenemy

Goose

Venue 13

3-24 Aug

10.30 AM

£6-£8

,

Goose is an unusual piece of theater, which takes the form of a monalogue performed by a boy upon his 13th birthday. Using digital projections he unleashes the full force of a teenage mind opening itself to the wonders of the universe, while at the same time ruminating on life’s disappointments. The monologue was delivered with a sure & confident diction, & though recited with much maturity, the piece seemed more like a performance of science poetry, than theatre.

Then came the twist, & the arrival of the boy’s imaginary goose, pinned to the body of a ballet-dancing teenager. Now the backdrop becomes blue skies & white clouds & we are borne into the air with boy & goose on the same flight that helped the play win first prize at the Kennedy Center American Colleges Theater Festival. Goose is a unique & rewarding piece, & its early slot could provide a lovely foundation stone to a day at the fringe. THREE STARS.

Reviewer – Damo Bullen

Grounded

Traverse

 Friday 2nd to Sunday 25th August, times vary

£14-£19

Safe

Space @ North Bridge

2-10 / 12-17 / 19-23 Aug

 

Double Booked

Pleasance Courtyard

1,3,5,7,9,11,13,15,17,19,21,23,25 August

(other days are the sequel to this production)

12.40

£8-10

Double Booked is written and performed by Ginny Davis (http://ginnydavis.com) and is the first play in a 4 part saga charting the rather banal goings on of Ruth Rich and her family.  Ruth is a housewife mother of three and all the characters from the ageing granny to the teenage son are played by Ginny Davis in this solo performance.  Her acting is better for some of the characters than for others but I have no complaints over the standard of her performance – her delivery of lines is excellent and the script is well produced.  It’s the subject matter that bores me.

I don’t really find the humdrum of a middle class family life (and a rather dull family at that) are the stuff to excite festival fans.  There are a few laughs in there that tickled some in the crowd but not me.  I understand that Ginny likes to specialise in plays about family life but maybe she could inject some excitement into the storyline keep the paying public awake in this attic hotbox.  For those who do the sequel to this play in on alternate days. TWO STARS

Reviewer –  David McMenemy

All That Malarkey Presents…

Venue 13

Specie

Pleasance Dome

Jul 31-Aug 12, 14-26

12.10pm-1.10pm

£6

           Despite picking it personally from the Mumble selection, I had mixed feelings about the latest offering from Fat Git Theatre,  A show about a future where men and women could swap sexes at will? Would I be in for an overly worthy diatribe about gender politics? A question I’m sure I wasn’t the first to ask and could possibly have put much of the audience, particularly the male half, off. But no, maybe it was about time my inherent misogyny got a little ticking off. And besides, I was kind of attracted to the sci-fi element. What I got was none of this and instead a highly moving and sweet comment on faith and identity.

The play opens in a group session for people trying to come to terms with their fluctuating gender. It’s a little bit hammy and the impromptu dance routines give it a slightly pompous feel but stick with it and the show delicately opens up like a new flower, or possibly a newly formed vagina. New ageism gets a healthy kick in the teeth and at one point I thought it might veer into the controversial but not insensible notion that we should all just learn to be comfortable in our own skins. But in the end an all together more subtle and spiritual message shone through. I don’t know whether it was the hangover from the night before but I even felt myself well up a touch in the closing minutes. And I didn’t even cry at the Royal baby.

I can’t finish the review without mentioning the live bassist and guitarist who are kind of like additional actors, and at one point, even props. Who give the show a light funky score made up of arrangements of various underground pop hits. Walk on the Wild Side is obviously featured.

To sum up I ask you to be brave, don’t be put off by the apparent worthiness, and embrace this delight of metaphysical pondering.

Reviewer – Steve Vickers

THE BALLAD OF THE BURNING STAR

Pleasance Dome

31st-26th July

17.15

£10.50-£12.50

It is the nature of the Fringe, that its chief exponents are often at the edge of artistic evolution. Take the Ballad of the Burning Star, for instance, the creation of Theatre Ad Infinitum’s Nir Paldi. He looked pretty damn hot in drag, a cabaret queen with a serious story to tell. His subject was Israel & the struggle of its collective social conscience over being at both times the persecuted & the persecutors. As he half chants his ballad, five young dancer-actresses float & skip about him like nymphs at a Bacchanalian feast. Prancing & dancing around the stage, there is a certain synchronicity in the physical movement of the troupe that is at times more than stunning.

Every nuance of movement bounces in time to the heart-beat pulse of the musical aside, provided by a young talented one-man-band called ‘Camp David.‘ I was reminded of Shakesperian actors as I watched them, memorizing reams of obscure Elizabethan verse, but in this context the lines became dance moves, unleashed at an often breath-taking speed. This absolute thrill of a show expresses the deep-seated essence of modern Israel through a magical medium, & for those wanting something more cutting-edge this year, it would be a worthy choice.

Reviewer – Damo Bullen