Writer: Milanka Brooks Producer and Director: Ben Cavey There are a lot of one-person shows at the Fringe, many of which tell of personal histories and family backgrounds. This one is special. Actress Milanka Brooks puts a huge amount of energy into her performance, brilliantly evoking her flamboyant Serbian mother Lela, sometimes in a one-actor dialogue, equally skillfully suggesting her own, very different, personality. Where necessary, she fills in with other characters as well, so this is a very versatile turn. We’re welcomed into the performance space and offered tots of Lela’s favourite tipple, a strong Serbian drink made from…
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Writer: Paul Hendy I approached this show with some apprehension, having once attended a tribute to Morecambe and Wise in which the performers had absolutely no stage presence. There was just a chance, I hoped, that these actors could conjure some of the magic of TV legends Eric Morecambe, Tommy Cooper and Bob Monkhouse. I was not disappointed. In fact, I was delighted. From the moment Tommy Cooper (Damian Williams) appears in his undies, wearing his trademark fez and enormous chicken feet, it’s clear that this show is something very special. The play has been written by Paul Hendy, based…
Writer: John Muggleton Director: Lindsay Laviolette After their excellent, award-winning production of Burn two years ago, Ottawa Little Theatre make a welcome return to the Fringe with another sassy and surprising mystery thriller from the inspired pen of John Muggleton. Or is it a dark comedy? Discuss. The company run their own theatre back home and are all volunteers, but there is nothing amateurish about them. This is world class community theatre. Once again, they have produced an absolute gem of a show, perfect for the Fringe – gripping, intense, edgy, highly amusing – yet comfortably packed into an hour.…
Writer and Director: Darkfield Productions A large grey shipping container in the beer garden outside Pleasance Dome may look fairly anonymous to the casual passer by, but it’s actually the venue for Darkfield’s immersive 360 degree audio simulation of a flight that may or may not have a safe landing. Inside, the container is transformed into a very convincing replica of a small plane with rows of three seats and passengers given allocated places to sit, before being instructed to put on headphones and read the card in the back of the seat in front of them by an anonymous…
Writer: Michael Morpurgo Screenplay: Frank Cottrell Boyce Director: Neil Boyle, Kirk Hendry Directed by Neil Boyle and Kirk Hendry, Kensuke’s Kingdom is an attractive animation which retells Michael Morpurgo’s 1999 children’s book of the same name. It’s an adventure about Michael, a twelve-year-old British boy washed up on a tiny island in the Pacific, having fallen off his parents’ sailing boat. In Frank Cottrell Boyce’s crisp screenplay, much of the book’s contextual detail has been pared away so that the focus is almost entirely on the boy Michael’s island life. A large part of the book, on the other hand,…
Writer: Spring Day Inviting reviewers to the first performance of a Fringe show could be seen as brave, foolish or a combination of the two. Whether it’s a tech problem that delays the start, or a joke that doesn’t quite land how it did in pre-fringe previews, there is a lot that could go wrong. If you’re an anxious person, and, by her own admission, Spring Day most definitely is, you might think twice about doing it, before crossing your fingers and hoped it all went well, which for Day it definitely did. Day joined a Christian cult at the…
Writer: John Mawson Directors: Misha Crosby and John Mawson There seem to be at least two recent movies entitled Unsinkable, one, also released this year, about the aftermath of the inquiry following the sinking of the Titanic, and another from 2020 about someone surviving life’s vicissitudes. This Unsinkable, however, by John Mawson and Misha Crosby, is not a movie after all. It’s billed rather mysteriously as an ‘audio film’ and is basically a radio drama with very good Dolby Atmos sound. It tells the true story of a British merchant ship, the San Demetrio. While crossing the Atlantic carrying vital…
Writer: William Shakespeare Director: Brendan O’Hea It may be cloudy and drizzly, but it takes more than that to dampen the spirit of this year’s Holloway Garden Theatre offering of As You Like It. The mood is set right from the start as the strains of Autumn Leaves from a solo violin begin, which soon turns into a full up-tempo version of the number, getting feet tapping and the audience clapping before the play even begins. Music and song play a major part in As You Like It and here it’s all performed by the cast, complementing the action well,…