by Anne-Louise Fortune
Aca-Sino Royale is an a-cappella show, which takes the premise of the James Bond novel/film, and uses this to weave a story, through song, that broadly takes place within the world of Ian Fleming’s narrative.
There’s a real opportunity here – the performers, The Rolling Tones – are a female-identifying group from Kings College, London, and so therefore there was a possibility that Bond’s misogyny and outdated attitudes, which are often deeply problematic, would be dissected and critiqued. As it is, the show actually focuses on, broadly, a collection of original female characters. This is interesting, but the one character who even attempts to talk about Bond is repeatedly silenced, and perhaps it would have been nice for her to finish her thoughts about him and his behaviour.
We saw the first performance of this production at the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe, and it’s fair to say that there were considerable technical problems. We also think that these may have helped to stoke any nerves already being felt, leading to a lack of confidence to try to deal with the technical issues. These should settle down over the run, which will allow the group the chance to shine that they really deserve.
Generally, we felt there was a strong story here, and tightening the script would allow the narrative to feel pacier and more satisfying. Again, getting into the flow of being at the Fringe should allow for some moments that currently feel slow in pacing terms to be more pleasing delivered. It’s also not clear to us how large the creative team was, but this is a student group, and bringing in assistance from the relevant Theatre Society to assist in some aspects of the acting required in this show would also help to make the production stronger.
There is a strong opening here, with the group delivering Chris Cornell’s opening title track from the 2006 Daniel Craig version of the story acting as an upbeat introduction. It’s from here that the narrative veers off into Original Characters territory, and you should absolutely not expect to see a faithful adaptation of the source material – either novel or either of the film adaptations. This is broadly located within the world of Craig’s Bond, with the poker motif established within that film being an important aspect of the narrative here.
This is an interesting approach to expanding the world of James Bond, at the ‘affectionate homage’ end of the adaptation spectrum. We hope that the group feels confident enough to develop this show, and give it a further life after the 2023 Fringe has concluded.
Aca-sino Royale continues at the Edinburgh Fringe until 26th August
