Fringe
Fringe: Going coco-nuts for improvised fun and laughs
I’m not usually a fan of improvised comedy, it can so easily retreat into crudity or banality. Not from this cast of five, they are intelligent, fast, fun to watch and very funny. A word is thrown out from an audience member and they are off. How they manage to navigate from ‘somewhere in Europe’,…
Read MoreFringe: Their talent won’t come Out of the Blue
It is not without a pinch of envy that I watched Out of the Blue, all of the singers are at Oxford, young, fit, enjoying performing, and… oh, I didn’t mention they can all sing well, very well. Out of the Blue is an a cappella troupe. The show opens with the troupe dressed in…
Read MoreFringe: A fascinating dilemma in this gripping play
Marcus Brigstocke, former alcoholic, writer and director of The Red, has done a very good job with this play. The actors Bruce and Sam Alexander are father and son and play father and son in The Red. Benedict (Sam Alexander) is a former teenage alcoholic hasn’t touched a drop for 20 years. On the death…
Read MoreBombard the senses with a show about Chocolate
In this feast for all five senses, New Zealand’s Java Dance spoon-feeds its audience in the best possible way at the Fringe. Following on from the success of its Artisan Series; popular shows about bread (RISE), wine (In the Wine) and cheese (The Creamery), Java turns its attention to everyone’s favourite treat, Chocolate. First, the…
Read MoreFringe: 360 All Stars – loud, exciting and energetic
Hands up anyone over the age of 25 who knows what these are: B-Boy, Basketball free styling, BMX flatlanding, roue cyr wheel, beatbox and looping live? Well, these are all part of this exciting production by 360 All Stars. All stars they are too, each of the above disciplines is represented by a world champion,…
Read MoreFringe: An early show that’s worth getting up for
White Girls is one of the earlier shows of the day and well worth setting your alarm clock to make sure you go. The show tells the tale of naive voluntourism within the Calais Jungle refugee camp. This could have turned into a political rant at the incompetence and uselessness of global governments. It wasn’t,…
Read MoreFringe: True stories of an incredible life well lived
There are some people that can make their lives complicated, there are others for whom life is complicated, then there is Fiona Goodwin. The title of her monologue, A Very British Lesbian, gives it away: she is a lesbian. Everything conspired to keep her in the closet, her religion, her country and her mother’s desire…
Read MoreFringe: To entertain so well is certainly Le Coup
To be super rich would be a wonderful thing, to drift from private yacht and then to soar the heavens in private jets – how nice. But what do you do to entertain your equally rich friends who have seen and done everything before? It’s obvious, you hire the troupe of Le Coup! This production…
Read MoreFringe: Who dictates the news in The Nights
If I were a playwright, I would like to write like Henry Naylor. Henry Naylor has been described, correctly, as ‘one of our best new playwrights’. He writes like Hemingway, not a word is wasted and he has that extraordinary ability to fill up the imagination without verbosity. The story deals with the shambolic fall-out…
Read MoreAngus Munro – for one night only at the Fringe
Scottish chamber pop star and quadruple-octave singer-songwriter Angus Munro is coming to the Fringe for one night only. He will bring his band to The Jazz Bar, Edinburgh on 20 August at 7pm. Angus, who lives in Scotland, was born in Sidcup, in 1987 to an Italian father and Scottish mother, like his contemporary Paolo…
Read More