CHARACTER BUILDING EXPERIENCE [Edinburgh Fringe]

Character Building Sasha

by Ed Fortune

A game of Dungeons and Dragons (or, indeed, any fantasy tabletop RPG) needs a good Dungeon Master to be excellent. This is very true when it comes to a stage version of fantasy gaming, as the DM needs to be a host, a comedian, a dungeon master and a master of ceremonies rolled into one. It is a very tough gig for a seemingly simple format.

With all that in mind, it’s with no small amount of praise that we have to say that comedian Sasha Ellen is one of the best Dungeon Masters we’ve ever seen, balancing the creative chaos of her players with audience expectations whilst blending in an actual narrative and actually using dice rolls and rules in a way that’s both fun and fair.

The set-up is pretty standard for a fantasy gaming improv show; similar in format to the likes of Oxventure/Questing Time , we have Sasha as the Dungeon Master and then three guest comedians.

Each one was well briefed with a fun but well-thought-out character. These included fun takes on fantasy tropes, such as a sorcerer who commanded the element of Butter and a cowardly knight who used the power of mansplaining and poorly thought out arguments to fight monsters.

The real magic here is the sense of fun Sasha brings to the whole affair. D&D (and similar games) are fun to play, and a comedian’s talent is to share their joy with the audience. In the TTRPG format, a DM can either amplify or control this anarchic fun and somehow Sasha does both, which makes for a really good show.

The show did suffer a little bit from the venue being quite so crowded. This can’t be helped, and though having plenty of bums on seats is a good thing, it was a little warm, and everyone was flagging toward the end. Credit to the performers for keeping a quite sweaty audience enchanted all the way to the end of the show.

Character Building Experience doesn’t have much in the way of fancy gimmicks or clever stage design; it’s just solid, nerdy fun. A total joy.

 

stars

Character Building Experience runs at the Edinburgh Fringe until August 27th. Get tickets here. And you can find out more about the show itself (and possible tour dates) here.

 

 

 

 

 

HE WEARS IT WELL [Edinburgh Fringe]

by Anne-Louise Fortune

He Wears It Well from Pin Theatre Collective tells the tale of two men from very different worlds. They meet, flirt, form a relationship and have to deal with the implications of their private selves versus their public lives. 

Stephen is a massive geek. He works in video games, enjoys fanfiction, and both plays Dungeons & Dragons, and acts as a Dungeon Master for his friends. Archie is a Premier League Footballer. They meet when Stephen’s company is designing a highly interactive football game, that requires the players to be 3D-scanned. Flirting ensues, but as there are no ‘out’ Premier League footballers, Stephen doesn’t realise that this is what’s happening. 

Eventually, Archie, who has a surprising knowledge of popular culture, manages to get Stephen to realise the truth, and a tentative relationship develops. Archie however is under incredible pressure from his agent to be masculine, successful – and straight. The agent thinks he might be able to help Archie come out, but only very slowly, and in several months’ time – just after this season ends. Not today, but maybe eventually – when it’s more convenient for everyone who has a vested financial interest.

As Archie and Stephen’s relationship develops, they bond over what turns out to be a shared love of fantasy films – they watch the extended versions of all three Lord of the Rings films back-to-back. Later, they get very involved in a D&D campaign. As is often common with D&D, Archie uses the roleplaying as an avenue to explore who he is. Both men achieve happy endings in the story, in their personal stories, as well as within their narrative as a couple. 

This is an important story, touching on how any relationship negotiates the developing bonds between two people, especially when they have external factors pressuring them to behave in ways that prevent them from living truthfully. At one point the script provides an immensely insightful line about how happiness is always portrayed in films, on TV, and in books, as being Straight – queer people have rarely been allowed to observe happiness within popular culture. 

There is an awful lot to admire here – the choreography of the scene changes has obviously been carefully worked through, and the tiny performance space available manages not to feel too cramped due to clever decisions about how to deliver the piece to the audience. As well as being heartfelt, there are also some very funny moments, especially as the character of Stephen has a sense of humour drier than the Gobi Desert. 

We do think that this might be a production which has changed significantly since the information about it would have had to have been submitted to the Fringe Society several months ago – certainly, the programme listing doesn’t seem to quite match what we saw performed. This is however a strong story, well-delivered by Nicky Cooper (Stephen) and Luke Hewitt (Archie), who also excel at the on-stage quick costume change. 

Possibly a further revision of the script, and maybe adding a third actor to play the other roles would lead to a more even pace throughout the piece. Even so, in its current form, this is a delightful, warm piece of theatre, with an important message about embracing your own identity.

stars

A GOOD PANTO DIE HARD [Edinburgh Fringe]

by Ed Fortune

Over-the-top musical comedy theatre is called Panto in the UK, and it’s usually found in and around Christmas time. A Good Panto Die Hard is a new panto, currently on at the Edinburgh Fringe, and as the name suggests, it’s based on the 1988 action film Die Hard.

Which, all things considered, feels like an odd choice of story for a panto, but then so is Dick Whittington. The cast for A Good Panto Die Hard is only four people, with one person mostly taking the lead as John McClane, and everyone else with at least one main character as well as a mix of other roles. This simply adds to the sense of anarchy, as quick changes happen quite a bit.

The pace can best be described as frantic, with a variety of clever props and sight gags used to revoke the more spectacular scenes from the movie. They also make very good use of Panto’s audience participation traditions. If you’re expecting to yell “He’s Behind You” when Hans Gruber approaches John McClane, then you won’t be disappointed.

The performances are good, the actors are fun and charismatic, and they can all sing very well. Because it’s panto, so of course, there’s an ’80s medley. And yes, the audience will sing along. Is Die Hard a Christmas movie? Well, it’s now Christmas enough to have a panto based on it, and yes, the show does ask that question.

It’s a fabulous, hilarious, nostalgia-powered show that will have you chuckling for days. If this is the future of the Die Hard franchise, we’re all in.

stars

A Good Panto Die Hard is showing at the Edinburgh Fringe until the 27th. Tickets can be found here.   Future tour information can be found here.

A SHARK ATE MY PENIS: A HISTORY OF BOYS LIKE ME [Edinburgh Fringe]

Laser The Boy

by Ed Fortune

Laser Webber (aka Laser The Boy) is best known for being one-half of The Doubleclicks, the American Geek-Folk band that sings songs such as Spock Impersonator, Lasers and Feelings, and Clever Girl. Laser is a trans-man, and A Shark Ate My Penis: A History Of Boys Like Me, is a one-person musical about historical trans-men and Laser’s own personal story, accompanied by plenty of jokes and lots of geeky humour.

Laser is a charming and deeply funny chap, and their story is a careful balance of personal journey, interesting examples of trans-men in history and sci-fi tropes (including an LGBTQ+ TARDIS, or as we like to call it, a TARDIS). The show’s fundamental message is a thing that all reasonable and well-informed folk already know; trans people have always been here. 

This is not a TED talk. However, it’s a comedy show/stand-up routine, and like all good comedy, it’s deeply personal and incredibly funny. The intimacy of Laser’s journey is presented in such an everyday way that the show, at times, just feels like a very intense yet hilarious chat with a witty stranger, all be it a one-sided one. 

There are songs, of course, and we open with The Doubleclick’s song No Easy Way To Say This, which is about saying no to boys who ask you out to prom. Which was written and performed many years before Laser’s transition and sets the mood for the show. There are other carefully placed tunes throughout the show, with the musical pieces used sparingly enough so as not to break the flow of the narrative.

A Shark Ate My Penis: A History Of Boys Like Me is a must-watch show and a story that a great many need to really listen to. Simply marvellous. 

stars

A Shark Ate My Penis: A History of Boys Like Me is showing at the Edinburgh Fringe until the 28th. Tickets can be found here. Laser’s Website can be found here.

BATSU! [Edinburgh Fringe]

by Ed Fortune

Batsu is the Japanese word for wrong ( as in wrong answer) and is also a genre of Japanese stage comedy that involves performing various challenges, with the loser having to do some sort of penalty. BATSU! is also the name of an American/Japanese comedy show that follows a similar format and has been part of the New York and Chicago comedy scene for a decade. It’s now come to the Edinburgh Fringe. 

To put it another way, it’s a Japanese concept performed in Scotland by Americans. It’s a late-night show, and drinking is very much encouraged. Proceedings begin with a ‘Sake Ninja’, filling up cups and encouraging toasts. Once everyone settles down and the show’s format is introduced, there’s a big gong which is rung to release the Spirit of Batsu. The silliness begins.

The format is essentially Who’s Line Is It Anyway meets Jackass. Comedians are given prompts to improv, and if they make a mistake, they get punished. This can be anything from being shot with a paintball gun, hit with a fan, having to eat sushi from a hairy person’s tummy or even more elaborate punishments. The audience is encouraged to chant and drink while all this goes on. 

What elevates this show is the superb stagecraft. Every effort is made to involve the audience, and audience members can consent to be involved in the games if they wish. Sound and lighting are very well done, and the whole affair has a high-energy game show vibe that falls just short of crossing a line somewhere. 

BATSU! is a show best enjoyed with friends and alcohol. Go early so you can stock up at the bar, and don’t forget to look after your designated driver. It’s rather fun sober but even more fun while having a drink with friends. It’s also about two hours long and potentially very messy, so plan ahead and get home safely. Outrageous party-style fun for those who like their comedy loud. 

stars 

 BATSU! is showing at the Edinburgh Fringe until the 27th. Tickets can be found here. Details on BATSU elsewhere can be found here.

 

SHAMILTON [Edinburgh Fringe]

by Ed Fortune

Shamilton is an improvised musical that uses the rough style and structure of the sung/rapped biographicamusical Hamilton,  produced and performed by renowned musical improv company Baby Wants Candy. 

The set-up is pretty much like every improv show you’ve ever seen, with the team introducing themselves and then asking the audience to contribute ideas. Specifically, which celebrity they’re going to create a musical about today? It could be Chris Pratt, Nicolas Cage, Taylor Swift or pretty much anyone else the audience can think of, but the law of averages says it’s going to be some famous pop-culture figure. This is done swiftly and with good humour; the team are very good at herding an audience into something that they can actually use (and will be fun to do.)

Our performers then get into it, hitting the usual beats one expects from both an improvised show and Hamilton. Prior knowledge of the celebrity being mocked is not required for either the audience or the performers; we’re going to hit to broadest notes we can and make as much fun out of the celebrity as possible.

Shamilton’s biggest flaw is also the main draw. By using Hamilton as the base, everything created is hamstrung by this structure. This dissonance can be funny; this is a faux-biographical show, so there are a lot of gags to be had by getting the life story wrong. But it also knows that you know what to expect both in terms of story and humour. 

Shamilton is a fun show and absolutely one to add to a list of shows to see in order to laugh so hard you’ll turn red. It’s nothing special, but it is very well done.

stars

 Shamilton is showing at the Edinburgh Fringe until the 28th. Tickets can be found here. Find out more here.

 

THE THREEPENNY OPERA [Edinburgh International Festival]

by Anne-Louise Fortune

Bertolt Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera is probably best known within the wider culture for introducing the jazz standard Mack the Knife to the world. The song’s enduring popularity has led to it being used across a wide range of genre projects, including in Alan Moore and Kevin’ O’Neill’s The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, as well as countless parodies. Even without this cross-medium proliferation, the plot alone of the original piece has a very strong fantasy element, especially in the closing scenes.

Written by Brecht from an adaptation of The Beggar’s Opera being prepared by Elisabeth Hauptmann, and with music by Kurt Weill, the use of the word ‘opera’ is a deliberate mislabelling for what is actually much more a work of Musical Theatre. This is just one of the contradictions inherent throughout the work, which here, at the Edinburgh International Festival, is presented by the Berliner Ensemble – Brecht’s own theatre company. 

Slightly reimagined here by director Barrie Kosky, the broad strokes of the story remain the same, albeit it appears that the time setting for this production has been shifted to the 1950s. The female characters are strong, and the choices made when refocusing the story mean that we mostly avoid seeing women attacking women because of the actions of a man. Rather, here, the women both come to the realisation that it is the man who has behaved poorly. 

Presented in German, with English supertitles, the production messes with our understanding of traditional theatre in a manner that reflects Brecht’s ideas of maintaining a distance between the audience, the actors, and the characters they portray. Brecht also embraced his friend Erwin Piscator’s notion of Epic Theatre, which continues here. The set consists of a number of enormous metal structures, each containing steps and platforms which become a set of stables, a bar, a bed, and a prison, as well as the various other locations and items of furniture required in this narrative. The actors climb, scramble, slide and balance on various parts of these moving, sliding behemoths. It’s disconcerting but brilliantly done. 

To add to the epic scale, the huge stage of Edinburgh’s Festival Theatre is draped in a glittery curtain, plunged into darkness, and flooded with light to convey both moods and locations. Bridging the space between the audience and the actors is the small band of seven musicians, who are often incorporated into the storytelling. 

Within the narrative, Gabriel Schneider has the difficult task of making the criminal philanderer Macheath into a sympathetic character. It’s a feat he manages to achieve, with the audience hoping for him to escape from prison and cheering him on when he does. The entire cast is superb, even as some of the characters embody the role of Fagan, rather than Oliver Twist, within this Dickens-esque world. This may make it sound as if this production is serious and worthy – it’s actually remarkably funny in a way that perhaps Brecht is not usually imagined to be.

This was a gloriously epic piece of musical theatre, with the familiar tune of Mack the Knife both incorporated and subverted throughout. If you have an opportunity to see this production, which was only here in Edinburgh for three performances, then it is highly recommended.

stars

 

POLICE COPS [Edinburgh Fringe]

by Ed Fortune

On the face of it, Police Cops should be an easy sell; a madcap musical comedy that pokes as much fun as it can at 1980s-style American action movies. It’s a rapid, slapstick-style affair decided to cram as many sight gags and puns into about an hour as possible.

Alas, it is not The Naked Gun, even though that’s a clear influence, preferring to either yell out punchlines or throw things at the audience rather than actually be funny. This show just feels like it’s exhausted itself; a version of Police Cops has been around since 2016, and there’s a real vibe that the performers are just going through the motions.

This is a shame because the actors themselves are very fun; Zachary Hunt, as the earnest and dumb Jimmy Johnson, for example, sparkles on the stage, and the running gag that he keeps getting his shirt off, revealing his very beach-ready torso, is much appreciated. Nathan Parkinson has an impressive range as all the villains and interim characters. It’s very well cast, but it just lacks a certain sparkle. 

Police Cops is funny, silly and mostly relies on slapstick. But it’s also quite lazy; the jokes rely a little bit too much on prior knowledge or punching down, half the plot involves American attitudes to Mexico in some way, and though this is all clearly intended as a parody of its genre, the jokes are rather hit and miss. This is a real shame as there are some moments of genius here, but just not enough. It’s almost a police-themed panto at times. 

Police Cops is not a bad show; it’s still wildly popular, and you’ll probably get a few laughs from it, but with so many shows out there right now, you have better options. 

stars

 Police Cops is showing at the Edinburgh Fringe until the 28th. Tickets can be found here.  

ALONE [Edinburgh Fringe]

by Ed Fortune

Science Fiction tends to focus on whatever the current greatest existential threat is out there when it’s created. This explains why so many ’80s SF stories are about nuclear war and why modern tales tend to be about climate change. Alone is the story of a desperate mission to find a solution to catastrophic climate change on Earth.

It opens brightly enough with the ship’s captain dancing to Bowie like a no one is watching. We are introduced to the two characters; the light and bold captain and the intense and arrogant scientist. The latter is dismissive of Bowie and prefers Morrissey. They’re also driven to succeed. The entire mission, as it turns out, is underfunded, despite it clearly being something that would save the Earth. 

Much of the narrative is a direct analogy for real-world attitudes to climate change. This mission is underfunded, mocked by the mainstream and so on. Sexism and stupidity have meant that this two-woman mission is perilous and poorly supported. This lends further to the isolation and despair of the piece.

This is a powerful and emotional meditation on self-reliance, strong beliefs, hope and staying true to one’s self. Both characters have sharp and intelligent dialogue, and the conversation ranges from pop music to one’s belief in God. The two characters are very different from each other this is refreshing; it’s nice to see two people with utterly different approaches to the world portrayed so well, the performances are incredibly natural, and the script feels organic.

Ultimately, how much you’ll get out of Alone will depend on how you feel about climate change science fiction, claustrophobia and survival stories. It is brilliantly produced and significant. Recommended.

stars
Alone is on at the Edinburgh Fringe until August 27th, 2023. You can get tickets here. And you can find out more about the people behind the show here. Read our interview with Alone’s creator here.

SUPER [Edinburgh Fringe]

by Ed Fortune

Superheroes have steadily taken over the world over the last couple of decades, and one of the ways you can tell is through the costumed characters that lurk on Hollywood Boulevard.

Inspired by various real-world events, Super is a two-hander about the sort of people who dress up as superheroes and get their pictures taken with tourists. For money.

We open with Batman, real name Rick (performed by a gravelly voiced Max Dowler), telling the story of what went down that fateful day, the one that made him go viral in all the wrong ways. Rick, who prefers to go by Batman, loves his job. He tells himself that it’s just temporary (and he’s auditioning for roles), but he really does love being Batman, even if it’s just on the streets. Which, let’s face it, is where Batman belongs.

His story has some holes, however. 

Then we meet Kathryn (performed by a broadly accented Charlie Vero-Martin), a British tourist with Hollywood dreams who ends up working on the Boulevard as Catwoman, thanks to Rick’s mentorship. Her side of the story, her relationship with both Batman and his side-kick, Robin, fills in the gaps. Gradually the two take turns until a tale of pettiness, jealousy, ego and hope is laid bare.

It’s a nice premise for a comedy-drama, and at about an hour, pretty much the right length. Though it lacks a certain sense of authenticity, it makes up for this with humour and strong performances.

The writing here is quick and funny, with a solid core of bitter-sweet comedy that keeps everyone engaged throughout. Super is essentially a show about relationship trauma that has a thin coating of Hollywood glitter. One for fans of gossip and superheroes. 

stars 

Super on at the Edinburgh Fringe until August 28th, 2023. You can get tickets here and find more details here.