Aug 12

MANUAL CINEMA’S FRANKENSTEIN – Underbelly – 4K

By Peter Maddern

While the viewing screen up front at the impressive McEwan Hall is relatively quite small, all the stage is required to produce and present this terrific work.

Combining the classic story of Frankenstein with Mary Shelley’s own biography, this internationally acclaimed multi-media company lets its audience in on the creation of the creation. The all female cast work their silhouettes, their screens, their poses for the camera while their musicians biff and bangle their way through the accompanying score, a mobile camera makes big the small work at the front while lighting and thunder cracks keep their audience well wedded in the Gothic theme.

The finished product on the screen is only half the thrill of seeing this production; how it is done is the other. 

Something different and worthwhile with both aspects of the show riveting entertainment.

Kryztoff Rating.  4K

Aug 12

COMFORT FOOD CABARET – Imagination Workshop – 4K

By Peter Maddern

It’s an unfortunate side effect of Festival season in Edinburgh that one’s eating experiences, even at the best restaurants, are pretty much defined by meals being delivered within moments of giving up one’s menus. 

No such problem exists when Michelle Pearson takes up the challenge with her delightful Comfort Food Cabaret delivered in the Kings Hall at the George St Intercontinental Hotel. For not only does one get a delicious three course meal cooked before you, Michelle adds to the delight by describing not only the influences on the ingredients chosen but also the influences on her course selections – a first date, a lost loved one and so on – and I need to mention Michelle can sing.

For this girl from Adelaide, Australia, this is a gift to the world and what a gift; for this Fringe season, arancini balls, pasta ragu and choccy mousse. While you eat, her band, brought with her, plays, giving the event a feel that mixes a wedding reception with a private concert, and oh, did I mention Michelle can sing. 

Food warriors may squeal at the menu choices but the name of the show gives you forewarning – this is no place for vegan and vegetarian vultures (though nor is it exactly a recasting of Two Fat Ladies dishing up the bowls of whipped cream as they whirled their way across the English country side.) 

So, give yourself a break from hurried curries, bashed up burgers or limp lentils and sit back and savour a show that will embrace all your senses, not forgetting to mention that Michelle can really sing.

Kryztoff Rating.  4K 

Aug 10

FEMME by ERIN FOWLER – Imagination Workshop – 4K

By Peter Maddern

Erin Fowler is a most attractive woman, her model looks matched by a sports girl’s physique. But coming from an older white male this type of portrayal is pretty much exactly what this work is aimed to counter. So, let me explain why such a view may assist you in buying a ticket to her next and last show but also why this work will have you talking about it after.

As Fowler explains, being spoken to and not allowed to have a discussion with is what drove her disillusionment with the fashion promotion industry. In Femme, she tackles not just this but the seemingly ingrained perceptions of people about others in various stages of life and roles held. 

Through numerous costume changes, Fowler performs down what is otherwise a fashion show’s catwalk, her persona changing from school girl, to wedding belle, pole dancer to one climbing the corporate ladder. Throughout her audience hears testimonies, reflections and instinctual commentary from those who judge and who have been judged in those roles.

As such, all the elements together make for a powerful message and commentary on identity, lived and perceived, leaving audience members to discuss from their various perspectives, defined by their gender, age and own lives as to the merits of the issue and solutions to the problem.

Kryztoff Rating.    4K 

Aug 10

NIGHTS BY HENRY NAYLOR – Gilded Balloon Teviot – 4K

By Peter Maddern

For 2019’s edition of Henry Naylor’s work, again held in the Dining Room of Gilded Balloon’s HQ, Naylor returns to the desert or at least a work themed from there. On Valentine’s Day this year the press reported that an ISIS bride had decided she wanted to return to England, a right enshrined in law to her as a UK citizen but otherwise a proposition many would find abhorrent.

Carter (Caitlin Thorburn) is a reporter at The Times who is sent to Leeds by her pressing editor to get a reaction from Kane (Henry Naylor), a former soldier in Syria who has recently been cleared of war crime charges. What starts out as the search for a seemingly obvious marriage of viewpoints gets lost as the realities of both characters get revealed and start to cloud the path. 

Thorburn does an excellent job – ripe for her character and more than capable of not only sustaining her at times lengthy monologues but also her push back and counters to the force conveyed in Kane’s character. I have not previously seen Naylor on stage and it may well be he was chosen for his imposing physique, one not necessarily easily found at Central casting. In that dimension he fits the bill for if I felt intimidated by his performance and presence in Row 7, goodness knows how he must have come across for those along the front.

Notwithstanding, the two players combine well, the development of their views credible and balanced. 

Another powerful work from Henry Naylor.      

Kryztoff Rating.  4K

Aug 08

JUDAS – Assembly Blue Room – 4.5K

By Peter Maddern

The role and justification of violence and torture, especially to political ends, has taken on greater poignancy in the past twenty years, especially in and in response to conflicts in the Middle East. This production neutralises resolving those debates from seeing it all through the prism of which side you are on and, as its title suggests, makes increasingly plain these issues are not all that new.

Tim Marriott, presenting as an Englishman, is Yosef, a lecturer, who is taken in by two interrogators, one an American (David Calvitto), the other an Australian (Stef Rossi). Together they do Yousef over in endeavours to get him to give up the location of his leader. While set in the desert and with overtones of Muslim strife, the characters presented as they are bring it all for their audiences into a geographically proximite setting.

All three do excellent jobs, Marriott in particular takes it and verbally at least dishes it out as well with power and confidence. Calvitto is the consummate war-weary mercenary while Rossi mixes her perfume with her punches delightfully; certainly she is not subordinate to the others, neither in role nor performance.

This production combines both fine writing and performances and should be must seeing for those interested in well developed work around the major political issues of our age.

Kryztoff Rating.    4.5K

Aug 08

CICADA 3301 – Underbelly – 2.5K

By Peter Maddern

In 2012, some intense cyber dude posted about looking for ‘highly intelligent individuals’, a post that sent geeks into a hide and seek frenzy. This play is about that message and four individuals, Ash, Billy, Olivia and Hannah, who take up the anonymous post’s challenge.

To the extent that the most arcane workings of the internet and the minds of those who love living in it can be made relatable, our team do a nice job, with some fine visual puns that are delivered well. No doubt younger, dark pool savvy misfits will get more fun of these than I could.

However, Cicada struggles for want of character development with ‘Ash’, who delivers a good opening monologue, the only one who gathers and creates substance. Perhaps, this production would work better for two players, wrestling intellectually and morally from their personal history viewpoints, but like this it begs the question – who cares?

Kryztoff Rating.  2.5K

Aug 08

CIRQUE DU SLAY – inSpace Niddry St – 4K

By Peter Maddern

This reviewer is not ordinarily a fan of drag shows – he just wonders why an audience would bother – but Cambridge Uni’s Dragtime presents something worth watching. From the moment the show’s MC, Persephone Porcelynn started her sharp-edged patter we are taken into a better world than the usual over sexualised gender bending. With cast names like Ding Frisbee, Velvet Caveat and Maria Von Snatch what wasn’t going to be enjoyed; some nice lip synced songs, some lovely self deprecations and the occasional serious message delivered great entertainment, sure to bring a smile and a laugh at the end of perhaps a long Fringe day.

Not sure where all this sits in the current world where attention is focused on CIS males and non binary whatevers but perhaps this is Cirque Du Slays’s true charm – everyone can just have fun with the whole performance without some very important overriding social statement, other than the one that needs to be acknowledged; that being, it takes no small amount of courage to do what these performers do. 

Leave your judgements and preconceptions about drag at the door and let Ms Porcelynn take control of your life for a terrific hour of entertainment.  I did and I was enriched for the experience.

Kryztoff Rating. 4K

Aug 08

EINSTEIN – Pleasance Courtyard – 3.5K

By Peter Maddern

Pip Utton is an institution at the Edinburgh Fringe and his portrayals have been hailed worldwide (think in his Adolf.) For 2019, Utton takes on one of the great figures of the 20th century, his life and his work. 

It is the mark of a performer that he can so effortlessly go for his audience from being seen as an older actor wearing make-up to seemingly being in the presence of the very man he is representing. In this regard Utton remains on top of his game.

His breaking of the fourth wall, even his deprecation of his stage props, further speaks to a confidence that few others could emulate let alone successfully deliver. 

However, as the average age of his audience at this show suggested, theatre in the Ed Fringe cauldron has moved on, with violence of so many origins now integral to the most highly regarded contemporary words (my next visit to Nights by Henry Naylor could not speak more to this point.)

This is not to criticise the writing or the performance, just a note that seeing Pip Utton remains a most rewarding experience but perhaps not one that will top ‘must see’ lists, other than perhaps for those who have previously revelled in his mastery.

Kryztoff Rating.  3.5K

Aug 05

EDINBURGH FRINGE – CHOIR OF MAN – Assembly Hall – 4K

By Peter Maddern

They claim it’s a dying scene; the corner pub hosting a bunch of men looking for a drink, some solace and the chance to bellow out a good song. When these nine talented singers and musicians constitute that bunch you have a rollicking good hour on your hands, an act that has grown from its first appearance here three years ago to what is now a global hit, including a sell out season at the most re Choir of Man – Assembly Hall – 4K

They claim it’s a dying scene; the corner pub hosting a bunch of men looking for a drink, some solace and the chance to bellow out a good song. When these nine talented singers and musicians constitute that bunch you have a rollicking good hour on your hands, an act that has grown from its first appearance here three years ago to what is now a global hit, including a sell out season at the most recent Adelaide Fringe.

That bunch – the Choir of Man – includes some cute ones and some grotesque ones, some hirsute and some not so hirsute, some fine tap dancers and all more than still capable of delivering on their a cappella roots. Their song list did’t risk challenging their audience; from Paul Simon to the Pina Colada Song to the Proclaimers, not really 1,000 miles and back again, but they hit their mark, the occasional audience participation bolstering the effect.

In the packed Assembly Hall the predominately female audience lapped it up, maybe fantasising about which of the men of the Choir they wished was their own. If an hour wasn’t long enough to work it out then certainly this revelry could have gone another and no one would have noticed the additional passage of time.

In what is a rarity nowadays at Fringes – a boys night out – the Choir of Man delivers great entertainment in a forum that hopefully can survive the seemingly relentless construction of modern luxury apartments and the false hopes that social media and on-line messaging can replace this sort of sense of community. cent Adelaide Fringe.

That bunch – the Choir of Man – includes some cute ones and some grotesque ones, some hirsute and some not so hirsute, some fine tap dancers and all more than still capable of delivering on their a cappella roots. Their song list did’t risk challenging their audience; from Paul Simon to the Pina Colada Song to the Proclaimers, not really 1,000 miles and back again, but they hit their mark, the occasional audience participation bolstering the effect.

In the packed Assembly Hall the predominately female audience lapped it up, maybe fantasising about which of the men of the Choir they wished was their own. If an hour wasn’t long enough to work it out then certainly this revelry could have gone another and no one would have noticed the additional passage of time.

In what is a rarity nowadays at Fringes – a boys night out – the Choir of Man delivers great entertainment in a forum that hopefully can survive the seemingly relentless construction of modern luxury apartments and the false hopes that social media and on-line messaging can replace this sort of sense of community.

Kryztoff Rating. 4K

Aug 05

Edinburgh Fringe – BEAT – Pleasance Dome – 4K

By Peter Maddern

While this show has been around in Europe for eight years, this is its first UK season. Alfie (Daniel Bellus) is not like most kids his age and is little better understood by his parents and his schoolteachers. But when he first hears a rhythmic beat, his life changes.

To say a one-man show hinges on its actor is not exactly a trade secret and here capturing child like delight is not what makes this particular show work. Rather what counts in Beat is for its player to convey that insight, the delight that comes from the epiphany of knowing what makes you tick, what will forever determine why you move to beat of your own, different drum – pun not necessarily intended. In pursuit of that Daniel Bellus is simply superb. 

As far out in the darker hues of the autistic spectrum as his character may be, Bellus beautifully sustains that child like wonder of his discovery across the 70 minute show, through confrontations with George (his father) to confusions of his first kisses with a girl to the wonders of drum kits, old and new.

With memories of Whiplash returning and echoes of the fantasies of Rocket Man playing, this show is a delight as another up-lifting voyage of youthful discovery – maybe a tad too long, maybe with a problematic ending – but these are small gripes up against a classy performance and story.

Kryztoff Rating. 4K