| 
Feature by Hannah Powell
WE'RE here! We’re here!! No no, I don’t mean inside
your computer -I’m referring to the one and only Edinburgh
Fringe!
We got here last Wednesday and it's been a rollercoaster ride
of attacking people to take our flyers for SEX AID Sweet
on the Grassmarket 9.30 (shameless promotion here, but
seriously worth seeing), trying to pack in seeing something at
least once a day and getting round to writing the reviews- and
sleeping. (Guess which one has gone to the wayside!?)
The actual festival started on Sunday evening with a massive
party hosted by Cargo.
I would attempt to tell you something about it , but I can't
remember an awful lot due to the lovely waitress making me an
extremely alcohol cocktail –but I’ve been assured
it was damm good and, more importantly, I’ve been assured
that I didn’t fall over.
So, stuff to see...
BBC Comedy Night at the Pleasance gave us a
little taste of what’s to come in the following weeks from
five comedians.
Andrew Maxwell compered and was eloquently
charming, building a confident rapport with the audience.
It’s so nice to see a comedian who looks genuinely pleased
to be on stage.
Henning Wehn was next up and is a wild-eyed
German whose style tends to grate on the audience.
His over-simplification of his set works well at first, but my
attention started to wander to the extent that I wanted to ask
the woman sitting next to me where she got her shoes from.
Entering with a leap and a bound next was the wonderful Lucy
Porter.
Teasing us with snippets of her new show, Happiness,
she cheekily informs us that just because she is a female comedienne,
doesn’t mean she hates men, and is, in fact, a great fan
of their 'work' - quickly following the laughter she injects with
“Oh look - it's all the men and slappers laughing”.
|
 |
The set is devilishly charming and
so funny, a little bit of wee (almost) came out.
Andrew Lawrence delivers a fast paced and energetic
set, which relies heavily on voice delivery but works.
His bewildering set could easily collapse due to it surreal narrative,
but he exerts the right amount of control to keep the audience
hooked.
Last on the bill was Simon Munnery, with a
long-winded, laborious narrative. Though not unfunny, he didn’t
really match up to the standards one expects from the final act.
Being Charlie Kaufman at Sweet on the Grassmarket
(3PM daily) is a fine example of good fringe theatre.
Not being a Kaufman buff I did fail to grasp all of the jokes,
but my date for the afternoon assured me that they were spot on.
Although the acting lacks control at points, the energy surrounding
the play is fantastic. The surrealist nature of it was welcoming,
despite the fact that I went to see it having had two hours sleep
the night before, which only goes to prove that it must have been
good to keep me awake.
Tangled Feet seem to swiftly be becoming the
darlings of the Fringe, and with good reason. Lost Property
@ 2.45PM Gilded balloon, examines where lost things go - a watch,
a wallet, love and things we don’t have yet already miss.
It's been so long since I’ve seen a piece of theatre that
made me well up with emotion and although at times the overlong
pauses can be slightly self indulgent, I left trying to hold back
the tears.
Although all of the company create characters who we can identify
with (in fact, as I left, I overheard one man say he felt like
the characters were the people he spent every night down the pub
with, i.e. his best friends) it is Alex Ramsden and Leon Smith
who really stand out.
Ramsden's clarity of voice and movement is bewitchingly honest
and Smith's comic precision is a joy to behold.
That’s all for now.
If anyone is up at the fringe and reading this, stop by the SEX
AID bed at some point on the royal mile and take a load
off!
Related stories:
Edinburgh Fringe Report 3 (Greek and The Lost and Lonely Rebels)
Edinburgh Fringe
Report 2 (Hospitals and Other Things That Catch Fire and Beastly
Beauties)
|
