Review Category: Events

Tall, ginger, and surprisingly English comedian Alasdair Beckett-King has made a name for himself thanks to some perfectly formed short pieces of comedy on social media platforms such as Instagram and YouTube. His material is the sort that will delight STARBURST readers: a mix of pop-culture observation, quick wit, and an awkward and geeky persona that is incredibly charming.

 

His current stand-up act, Nevermore, is a tight sixty minutes of extremely well-timed and energetic humour. These are short bursts of intensely silly and extremely accessible comedy that bring a gentle smile to the face. Beckett-King then uses short video clips to alter the pace of the show and turn that smile into a deep belly laugh. The videos are often integral to the routine, allowing the comedians to talk to themselves without seeming too indulgent. 

 

The routine is semi-autobiographical, like a lot of comedy, without being too personal. We learn that Alasdair is a Geordie (he grew up near Newcastle) with both Scottish and English parents, and he’s able to tap this regional distinctiveness into something unique and funny. 

 

The show feels incredibly short (despite being a solid hour) and this is because it’s so well-packed. No prop is wasted, no aside or simple observation isn’t wrapped up. The content is pure fun; there are no politics here, nor does Beckett-King ever feel the need to punch down to get a laugh; this is wholesome and entertaining stuff.

 

If you are familiar with the artist’s social media, you may recognise a joke or two, but given that the show is full of original and clever material, you’ll barely notice between guffaws. It is incredibly daft in the most brilliant way. 

 

Alasdair Beckett-King is an amazing chortle-merchant; see this exciting young talent while they are still doing smaller, intimate venues if you can.  

You can find out more about Alasdair Beckett King and his current tour, here. And book here. 

 

One of the criticisms often levelled at musicals is that they are too lightweight and joyful to convey any real human emotions. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street offers the counterpoint to these arguments with its gore, grit, and gruesome storyline.

The 2023 Broadway Revival of Stephen Sondheim’s (A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, Merrily We Roll Along) revered 1979 production has recently had a change of cast in several of the leading roles, and STARBURST went along to see if this most infamous tale has been carefully reconstituted, or made mincemeat of.

Even if you’ve never seen any of the previous versions of this story, the tale, which originated in a Penny Dreadful in the Victorian era, has seeped into the cultural consciousness. Broadly, Sweeney Todd is a barber, and from his shop on Fleet Street, he begins murdering his clients, whilst his downstairs neighbour, Mrs Lovett, turns said victims into pies. So far, so standard horror.

Sondheim’s skill was taking this tale and, working with Hugh Wheeler, who wrote the ‘book’ – the linking dialogue between scenes – adapting Christopher Bond’s version into this musical, now over forty years old, and itself adapted into the 2007 Tim Burton film. Together, Sondheim and Wheeler have elevated the kitschiness and melodrama of the original and created a musical that is notorious for the demands placed upon the performers in the cast.

Here, Sweeney is played by Aaron Tveit (Wicked; American Horror Stories), who plays the character as a man betrayed by a corrupt system. Ultimately, he is driven to his actions by a world that refuses to give him an opportunity for redemption and treats him as the criminal he never was.

Tveit’s performance is measured and rational until Todd’s need for vengeance overtakes his previous grief. Tveit balances the dark and the light with aplomb, offering a Todd who is trying to rescue his daughter, Johanna (Maria Bilbao), and act as a confidant to Daniel Yearwood’s Anthony.

Tveit’s foil is Sutton Foster’s (Young Frankenstein, Elementary) Mrs Lovett, proprietor of the pie shop, which gains in popularity as London’s supply of meat miraculously improves. In a role originated by Angela Lansbury, Foster is definitely channelling the late Dame’s spirit and leans into the comedy offered by the script with both sincerity and gusto.

In taking the role seriously and the situation non-seriously, Foster manages to exploit the ridiculousness of the overall premise whilst delivering a performance which often tugs at the heartstrings.

When appearing in scenes together, Tveit and Foster excel. Their creative decision to play Todd and Lovett as lovers whose exploits spiral brings a lightness of touch to what could otherwise be an increasingly and irredeemably dark descent into madness. The musical numbers, A Little Priest and By the Sea, demonstrate this playfulness and lightness of tone, as Todd and Lovett first compare the potential ‘ingredients’ for Lovett’s pies and, later, debate Lovett’s desire to relocate to the coast with Todd, as a married couple.

Also appearing in this production is Joe Locke (Marvel’s Agatha – Darkhold Diaries), best known for his role as schoolboy Charlie Spring in Netflix’s fantasy British high school drama Heartstopper. This is his Broadway debut, and we were pleasantly pleased to discover that the Emmy-nominated Locke can sing as well as he can act.

Here, Locke, as Tobias Rigg, serves as an abandoned, abused Victorian Orphan in a performance that requires him to sing almost operatic songs whilst being manhandled and dragged across the stage. That he does so while holding the often incredibly high notes perfectly and fully embracing the complex choreography at times indicates that Locke is truly a talent to watch as he continues to build his career.

Locke’s two highlights include the comedic Pirelli’s Miracle Elixir and the much more serious Not While I’m Around. If we hadn’t known it was his Broadway and professional musical debut, then we would have believed he had been doing this for years.

Amongst the smaller roles are the subplot of Anthony and Johanna, which is perhaps where the piece delivers its darkest, and unfortunately still most relatable element. As his ward, Judge Turpin (Jamie Jackson – The 39 Steps; Flight of the Conchords) seeks to force Johanna into marriage with him. After Anthony’s attempts at rescue fail, Johanna is incarcerated in an asylum, abandoned by the man who was supposed to protect her after she refused to give in to his demands and prevented from making her own decisions regarding her future.

The narrative that Johanna has no ability to control her own destiny or to make her own life choices is one still relevant in many parts of the world today. It is becoming increasingly relevant even in the modern USA, as some states seek to curtail women’s rights and return them to being reliant on men, to the exclusion of their own autonomy. That we can recognise modern parallels in a story set in the Victorian era should give us pause to consider whether much has truly changed at all for those without power in almost 150 years.

When combined, the leading performances, the able and adept support given by performers in smaller roles, and an ensemble giving enthusiasm and respect to Sondheim’s creation lead to a production, which encourages us to question the corruption of authority and the iniquity of a society designed to punish the poor and those deemed to be outcasts.

Balancing the ambition of the performances is the setting within Lunt-Fontanne’s barn, a building located just off New York’s Times Square. The auditorium is huge, and the decision to make the set occupy the full expanse of the stage gives a sense of epicness to the production, allowing the story to be told in multiple parts of the performance space simultaneously.

Dominating one side of the stage is a huge crane, which transforms into a staircase, the asylum, and even part of Mrs Lovett’s Bakehouse. The crane is practical too, with a lovely coup de theatre early in act two, that is easy to miss as Foster and Locke entice Mrs Lovett’s customers with their sales patter during God That’s Good.

The mechanism by which Todd’s customers are murdered and then dispatched to the bakehouse is ingenious and becomes no less terrifying the more times you watch it.

Indeed, as a note of caution, there is a lot of (fake) blood in this production as Todd’s murder spree begins and then, somewhat rapidly, escalates. As a whole, this show is not suitable for younger audiences. However, teenagers may be able to deal with the gore and the heavier themes depending on their individual maturity levels.

This is an immensely well-conceived revival of a show that is beloved by the musical theatre community. Perhaps more operatic in tone than other Sondheim pieces, this production’s careful choices mean that all the disparate elements and sometimes challenging narrative combine to produce a show that delights and satisfies. If you enjoy musical theatre and the kind of stories contained within Penny Dreadfuls, then this show will not disappoint. Highly recommended.

SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET continues at The Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, on West 46th Street, New York, until May 5th. Tickets available here

Everyone loves a good villain, and many fantasy stories feature an antagonist who is more interesting than the actual story or the supposed heroes. Unfortunate – The Untold Story of Ursula the Sea Witch is a decidedly adult parody of Hans Christian Anderson’s The Little Mermaid, focusing on the trials and tribulations of the ‘evil’ Ursula. It’s a musical filled with bawdy humour and a decidedly queer sensibility throughout and owes something of a debt to Disney’s 1989 musical adaptation.

We meet Ursula (Shawna Hamic, The Time Traveller’s Wife) when she is just a teenager with the unfortunate surname of Squirt. Bullied, marginalised and scared of showing off what she can really do, the plus-sized Octo-lady still manages to charm and outwit her way into the affections of ‘nice but dim’ young Prince Triton (Thomas Lowe). It all goes horribly wrong, of course, and eventually, we make it to the plot of The Little Mermaid, but in a way that’s nothing like the cartoon of your youth.

 

This is very much not the Disney show. Songs such as Female Role Models, Ask The Girl, and We Didn’t Make It to Disney push this firmly into adult parody territory. It has all the crass silliness of a good drag show, with dafter songs and better costumes. The staging is clever and showy; this is a show where a stunt can be a punchline or a cue for a song.

STARBURST first saw this show at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2022, and like many things at the Fringe, it was clearly still a work in progress. We had faith though – the creatives here are the powerhouse behind former audience favourites Buzz, a musical about the history of the vibrator, and Vulvarine! a pastiche and homage to all things superhero. With Unfortunate, their wit, skill and creativity have all come together, and are perfectly timed thanks to the release of Disney’s live-action version of the same story in 2023.

This new version of Unfortunate is longer, tighter, and has some absolutely banging tunes, courtesy of composer Tim Gilvin. Some of the more problematic elements of previous adaptations have been resolved – yes, we’re looking askance at the cartoon version of Sebastian, here transformed into an Irish crab from County Cork.

Unfortunate’s second act is particularly strong, grabbing the audience and not letting go until the end. Writers Daniel Foxx and Robyn Grant have fine-tuned this into a solid and unique show. It still spends a little too much time trying to cram in as many cheap and vulgar gags as it can, but that’s part of the point. This is the show to bring your friends to, as well as a bottle of wine.

Hamic is solidly cast, handling the rapid switch from host to main singer to stand-up comedian with ease. Lowe is understated as the handsome Triton, providing strong vocals and adding impressive abs to the show’s appeal.

RuPaul’s Drag Race UK star River Medway nails it as Ariel, the bratty teenage mermaid who’s obsessed with size. Given that a chunk of the performance is either spent singing or miming, she remains consistently funny throughout.

 

Allie Dart is especially fabulous within the supporting cast. The chameleonic Dart plays multiple roles, from the Chef to Sebastian the Crab, and is distinct and fantastic throughout, performing some stunning costume changes as the story demands. Her work in the tune Les Poissons is especially worthy of note, with its reliance on split-second timing and exceptionally tightly timed costume changes. Julian Capolei is also brilliant as Grimsby.

Rude, silly, vulgar, very purple and spectacular in all the right ways, this is not a show for everyone; if you’re the sort of person who tuts when someone swears or who can’t watch an episode of Doctor Who without writing to the BBC because you think it’s ‘too woke’, then you should avoid this. For the rest of us, though, it’s glorious fun.

Unfortunate? More like Unmissable.

Unfortunate is on at the Southwark Elephant until February 17th and then tours nationally to venues across the UK including Salford, Glasgow, Oxford, Exeter and Cardiff.  Check out unfortunatemusical.com for booking information.

Stranger Things: The First Shadow brings the hit Netflix TV series to the stage in the form of a West End show. It’s an almost three-hour-long spectacle that grabs its audience from the first moments and drags theatregoers into the world of the Upside Down.

This is an effects-heavy show; there are some utterly stunning set pieces from the very start as the production does everything it can to remind you that this is Stranger Things and you should expect the unexpected. Directors Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin are skilled at spectacle and suspense, and the result is a thrilling, immersive experience that uses every trick unique to the stage to keep its audience gripped. 

First Shadow is a prequel; we see the teenagers of Hawkin’s Indiana back in the 1950s, and the story leans into that familiar Grease-like high school vibe to draw us in. Being a Stranger Things story, the self-awareness runs deep. One of the main protagonists is a comic-book fan, so we get references to decoder rings, Wonder Woman, and Captain Midnight, which could go over the heads of most modern geeks, but it sets the mood of isolation, strangeness, and teenage angst early.

It’s also an origin story of sorts. Relative newcomer Louis McCartney takes on the role of Henry Creel, who will become a major villain in the TV series. We meet him as a haunted, timid boy trying to hold back a genuine darkness. The performance is pretty much perfect, with Louis nailing the difficult balance between sympathetic and monstrous. The rest of the Creel family is brilliantly yet subtly presented. Michael Jibson is iconic as the misunderstood and damaged Victor Creel, and Lauren Ward is powerful as the well-intentioned mother who does everything wrong.

Ella Williams is mesmerising as Patty Newby, someone also regarded as a bit of an outsider by her classmates and who’s drawn to the shy but powerful Creel. Williams has the most demanding role, as they take on various challenges throughout the story. They are superb throughout.

As you may have gathered, our main protagonists are high school kids. Though this is the ’50s, those kids will grow up to be recognisable adults from the main show. We meet the teenage Joyce early on, and Isabella Pappas does brilliantly to channel the spirit of an optimistic and fiery Winona Ryder throughout. Oscar Lloyd embodies a young Jim Hopper, emulating David Harbour’s famous swagger whilst making the role his own. Rounding out our curious heroes is Christopher Buckley as the poor, ill-fated Bob Newby. Buckley is great as a magnetic but shy nerd who is both the comic foil and vital to moving the plot forward. 

There are some clever and interesting reflections. Obviously, there’s no game of Dungeons & Dragons to present a mirror to the plot (it won’t be invented till 1974), but a terrible stage play being planned by the kids (yes, there’s a play within the play), fills that role quite nicely. 

The supporting cast is also littered with nods to the future. Max Harwood is particularly fun as the over-dramatic Alan Munson, the father of Dungeon Master Eddie Munson. You can easily point at the cast and figure out who’s going to be to who’s parent, and though this does make the world of Stranger Things a little bit smaller than expected, it fits the claustrophobic and tight vibe of First Shadow perfectly. 

The other star of the show is, of course, the special effects. One of Stranger Things’ notable tricks is to bring terror to the every day, and there are some extremely well-done effects. The stage is used to full effect; rooms zoom in and out, things lurk in the wings, and the stage itself crackles thanks to the magic of back projection. Things levitate, crawl, bleed, or explode. 

As a prequel, we’d say this is not essential viewing if your goal is to understand the world of Stranger Things thoroughly. If, however, you’re a fan of the show, we strongly recommend that you see the show. 

Stranger Things: The First Shadow is a mesmerising, essential West End experience. Simply brilliant.

Issue 484 of STARBURST Magazine features cast interviews with the Creel Family and is out now. 

Tickets for the show can be booked here. 

The Time Machine: A Comedy, currently playing at the Park Theatre in north London, is a loose adaptation of H.G. Wells’ seminal science fiction text. How loose that adaptation may be is lampshaded by leading man Dave Wells (Dave Hearn, Star Wars – The Rise of Skywalker), late in Act Two, when he notes that “fans of the original novel may think that this adaptation is not faithful to the source material”. To a very great extent, he’s right, but the story being told here, using the Time Machine device, is more intimate than Wells’ original and all the stronger for that.

What, then, is the story? Dave, the leading man here, is the great-great-grandson of H.G. Wells himself, and he’s made a tremendous discovery! It turns out the story written by his ancestor is all true! Dave has found the Time Machine used and has zipped back and forth to the future and back, to confirm that everything H.G. wrote will actually happen. Now he wants to recreate what’s happened in the last few weeks as a form of verbatim theatre with the other members of his theatre company. So far, it’s relatively straightforward.

Michael (Michael Dylan, Outlander) is one of the co-founders of the theatre company, whose efforts to stage a production of The Importance of Being Earnest operate as a sort of framing device/point of reference throughout the show. He’s somewhat nervy but also knows his sci-fi and explains, in a hilarious early sequence, the ‘rules’ they have been added to time travel since H.G. invented it, referencing the Grandad paradox, the Hitler paradox, and the Timeline Protection paradox. The latter features a very funny bit about Prince Harry and Meghan, which isn’t sci-fi but is very well observed. Michael, along with Amy (Amy Revelle), really wants to continue the planned tour of Earnest, but Dave is insisting that his recreation of The Time Machine is a much better story.

Amy is an actor-musician with an enthusiasm for Cher songs, and a deep regret regarding a past intimate relationship with Michael. She’s also probably the most sceptical of the trio about the prospect of time travel being real. Any would prefer the group to continue their proposed Wilde production because H.G. didn’t really write any decent roles for women. But Dave’s enthusiasm cannot be contained, and so, with some reluctance, the trio launches into a recap of their recent past.

Rules, boundaries and, to an extent, plot, established, Dave, Michael, and Amy begin to lead us through a verbatim retelling of the last few weeks of their recent rehearsal period. And then, as they reach the end of Act One, tragedy strikes, and The Time Machine can only serve to show that, ultimately, that tragedy must always happen.

The second act begins as the first did but quickly deviates into a very funny series of character crises as Dave, Amy, and Michael all come to realise that they are trapped in a time loop from which there is no escape. Here, there is some audience participation, and the size of the venue at the Park means that anyone could potentially be called upon. However, they only pick people who volunteer with enthusiasm, so don’t worry if that prospect terrifies you.

There’s a series of very funny visual jokes as we build towards the frantic resolution. And it’s as we get closer to that ending that the more serious message behind all the tomfoolery starts to become clear. With a time machine, you could travel anywhere – future or past – and see anything. But your own time would still be finite. If you didn’t have such a device and you knew your time was limited – what would you do? Who would you spend your time with? What are the things you would want to be remembered for? What is the legacy you are leaving behind? The questions are asked here if one specific character, but it’s a deeper question we all perhaps should ask ourselves. Our time here is finite – are we doing with that time the things we truly want to?

Somehow, in the midst of these incredibly deep questions, the comedy keeps on ramping up, and a superb moment of theatrical japery right at the end marks the perfect conclusion to the show. Profoundly funny while also profoundly thought-provoking, this is a perfect way to spend a chilly winter evening.

Silly, funny, well-honed comedy is incredibly difficult to make, and the company here makes it look easy. Whilst the first act sets up a lot of what will happen in the second, and has a lot of funny moments, overall, it occasionally felt a little flabby and could perhaps do with being pacier at points. The second act however raises the entire endeavour, from something potentially silly and slight, to a much more considered examination of how humanity lives and dies. And that is entirely in the spirit of HG Wells’ original novella.

The Time Machine: A Comedy continues at the Park Theatre in Finsbury Park, London, until December 30th. You can book tickets via the Park Theatre Website.

 

Combining the aesthetic of late 12th Century Japan, Shakespeare’s classic teen drama Romeo and Juliet and the music of classic rock band Queen is something that really shouldn’t work, but Hideki Noda’s A Night At The Kabuki somehow welds all of these very different together into something memorable and unique.

The show originally came to Sadler’s Wells Theatre last year, but a recording of the show can be found online for a limited time only at anightatthekabuki.com. At the time of writing, it is running till the 30th of November 2023. 

It is a gloriously weird affair. The elements glide perfectly into each other in a way that really shouldn’t work, and completely reimagines various parts of the narrative to not only make the inclusion of Queen’s A Night At The Opera make sense as a soundtrack but also to make Romeo and Juliet less of a tragedy and more of a straight-up drama.

It’s not just that the Montagues and Capulets are renamed Minamoto and Taira; it’s more that the entire reason for the events of the drama are flipped on their head, and we quickly learn that this is more a feudal conspiracy than simply two star-crossed lovers being stupid.  

This sort of strange mash-up is what we’ve come to expect from Hideki Noda, whose previous projects include the darkly comedic tale of xenophobic hysteria Red Demon and the stage adaptation of the manga Hanshin: Half-God, a surreal tale about conjoined twins. A Night At The Kabuki plays things a little safer in terms of story, drawing on Shakespeare’s classic teen drama as its model, but only just.

The staging is bold in the sense that it is stark and simple most of the time, with stunning displays of motion and timing that send the entire thing into unique and memorable territory.

 A Night At The Kabuki is something special, a delicious blend of rock music, Samurai nostalgia, Eastern style, Western brutality and creative chaos, it should not be missed. Run, don’t walk to anightatthekabuki.com to see it before it’s gone.

 

by Anne-Louise Fortune

Woven is a new musical interpretation of part of the story of Homer’s The Odyssey, focusing here on the female characters who exist in the life of Odysseus.

Odysseus himself is never named, and technically never appears – although what is presumed to be his coffin occupies the performance space for almost the entirety of the performance. The story has also been re-situated to be set in an unspecified modern time, and in what appears to be the United States of America. 

We are therefore at a wake, and Penelope, the widow, is hosting. A series of women enter the scene, and discuss their relationship with the dead Senator. There’s Cerce, the ‘therapist’, Helen, the mistress, and at one point somehow, Aphrodite, who here is a journalist. It’s never quite clear how she doesn’t get removed from the event – after all, we are clearly in Odysseus and Penelope’s house, and, public figure or not, surely Penelope is entitled to privacy in her grief? 

Much like Six, the musical which tells the tale of Henry VIII’s wives, this piece also appears to fail the Bechdel Test – as none of the women here seem to have a conversation that isn’t about either Odysseus, or another man in their respective lives. This musical has been developed by an American creative team, and therefore there is what seems to be a curious choice of language – there seems at times to be a desperate desire to be provocative – but without using what Americans regard as ‘crude language’. It’s a curious artistic choice – these women are angry, and many of them have been betrayed – the occasionally fruity word would be expected. 

Throughout the piece there are moments of humour – but these need developing. The script however does make the point that, even in modern times, much has not changed for women – who still are often not afforded the opportunity to work out, for themselves, what they want from life – and are all too often instead made to be secondary to the men in their lives, and the decisions they make. It’s odd therefore that so many of the women in this piece seem to be secondary to the men – and if Penelope is to start making her own choices, then that needs to become the subject of a second act. Perhaps the longevity of the original myths has hampered the ability to create an alternative story here? 

Using the traits of the characters from the Greek myths and translating them to a modern environment, is a clever way to use tropes and archetypes, without falling into cliche and stereotype. Worryingly however, a lot of the women appear to solely have the character trait of ‘mistress’, with the difference being their degree of personal self-confidence and self-reliance. 

This is a musical, and whilst the songs are fine, the repetitiveness of a character arriving to the wake, introducing themselves, explaining their relationship to Odysseus and then singing about it, becomes predictable, and therefore dull. A song towards the end, sung by Penelope (Jessa Smith Campbell) is by far the stand-out number. For a musical, the gaps between the songs are too long, and this needs attention for the show’s future life – either have more of the story told through song, or significantly tighten the spoken sections, or decide that the show is ‘with songs’ rather than ‘a musical’. At the moment there is also too much tonal dissonance between the various sections of the narrative, and there is a last-moment development between Penelope and Hera that is utterly un-foreshadowed. 

At the current time, this piece feels as if it is a part of a bigger story. If the production is to be developed, the creative team needs to determine what story it is trying to tell, and how long that story needs to be. There is potential here, but work is needed if this is going to be the next big ‘off-Broadway’ musical. 

Currently enjoyable, but without a strong enough ‘USP’, this is a show that potentially has a strong future. 

Woven continues at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe until 26th August

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

by Ed Fortune

Greek Myth continues to serve as a source of inspiration to the arts to this day, and it’s always fascinating to see what it influences throughout the spectrum of modern media. While the folk at the Edinburgh Fringe were radically re-imagining myths, the Edinburgh International Fringe hosted a heady and significant double-bill of two connected performances: Phaedra and Minotaur.

Phaedra is the story of a Cretan princess, the daughter of King Minos. Her desire for her stepson, the asexual Hippolytus, leads to tragedy. It’s also a cantata for mezzo-soprano created by the legendary Benjamin Britten. In this production, the mezzo-soprano is the world-class Christine Rice.

The sublime Richard Hetherington is our pianist for the show, and the piano throws a dark shade on the brightly lit stage. They are minimal props: a minotaur’s head, a chair, and other surprises, all hidden by a stark white cloth until the appropriate moment. The lighting is dramatic and perfectly timed; as Rice performs Phaedra’s decline into madness, the staging accompanies the mood in a precise and incredible way. Rice’s voice is both perfect and powerful. It is unforgettable.

After a strong 25-minute interval, we return to part two, Minotaur. The stage is dark, except for a splash of blood red dashed across the stage, the effect created again due to clever lighting. They are a few props; again, the now iconic minotaur head, but also a bed. The back of the stage is steeped like a climbing wall. Scenes are announced with a short title cast onto the stage; we begin with COMBAT and end with DEUS EX MACHINA. 

Kim Brandstrup’s choreography is simply magical, though the performances feel slightly clinical at points. Tommy Franzen is ethereal in his role, literally dancing up the wall at one point. The entire performance makes more sense if you already know the story of Minos and Theseus, but even if you don’t, the beauty of the performance is undeniable.

Unforgettable.

 

 You can find out more about the Edinburgh International Festival here. 

 

  

 

 

 

by Ed Fortune

“Let’s pretend” is one of the most important games we play as kids. Exploring the world in a safe and friendly environment is vital, and in a way, table-top gaming is a progression of this process, allowing people to add structure to play as they mature and still benefit from the power of imagination. Adventures! Journey Through Dungeons with Dragons is a bold attempt to introduce the stage version of fantasy tabletop gaming to young kids. 

Adventures! is a super-simplified version of a live-action improvised fantasy RPG show. Our dungeon master is Donal Vaughan, a soft-spoken, Dublin-born, award-winning comedian who has a quick sense of humour and beyond legendary patience. He’s assisted each show by two other comedians who take on other D&D roles, as well as a member of the public. In the show, we saw this was a 10-year-old boy who wasn’t shy and was having the time of their life playing a fantasy game.

The game elements are quite simplified – it’s an oversized comedy 6-sided dice instead of a d20, the rules of the game are very stripped down and audience interaction uses a Wheel of Fortune-style tool to slow down audience participation. Children have no inhibitions when it comes to making suggestions to the performers. This does mean, however, that Donal, as Dungeon Master, has to keep the pace very steady, so there’s little room for creative chaos from the other performers, which is the hallmark of this style of show. It’s okay, though; a room full of young minds contains plenty of anarchy for everyone!

Entertaining children can be tough. Kids have a famously short attention span, and it can be a challenge to find something to keep them entertained, especially as the end of summer looms. Donal is incredibly skilled at keeping the littluns distracted for about a blessed hour with fantasy TTRPGs and silly stories.

Adventures! Journey through Dungeons with Dragons is a fun little show and entertaining enough for the adults that come with kids. Fantastic fun for children!

You can find out more about Donal’s work here.