Beginning in 1947 with 8 productions performed uninvited on the ‘fringe’ of the first Edinburgh International Festival, today’s annual, 3.5 week Edinburgh Fringe is the world’s largest performing arts festival with 262 venues, 3317 productions, and 51,446 individual performances. And only saw 41 in the nine days we are here … my 6th and Hernan’s 3rd Fringe.
Since this is vacation, I have decided this year not to do full reviews, but I will do short synopses each day to give a flavor of the plays, musicals, and operas we see. Please realize there are also stand-up comic acts, cabarets, music classic and otherwise, dance, circus, children’s shows and more offered each day.
Day 1: Our 2024 Fringe
1. The Last 5 Years
Never-Ending Theatre, a LGBGTQ+, non-binary group from Edinburgh, produces in a tiny space a big-stage-worthy “The Last 5 Years,” Jason Robert Brown’s 2002-premiering story of a 5-year relationship between Cathy and Jamie as told by Jamie from the ecstatic beginning to the bitter end and as told by Cathey in the opposite time and emotional sequence. Alternating in songs, Sarah-Louise Donnelly and Claran Wolsche each give jaw-dropping performances, bringing incredibly powerful voices that display amazing ranges of expression. A stunning beginning to our Fringe.
Rating: 5 E
2. Long Distance
Written, directed and produced by Eli Zuzovsky, this new play tells of the meeting, falling in love, erotic encounters, fights and make-ups, and eventual devastating break-up of two young queers — all through their enacted texts and emoji. Hilarious, sexy, mysterious, and heartbreaking where silences, subtlety, and stares into no where say as much as the poetry of the powerful script. A world premiere for our times and by/for a generation of the internet age.
Rating: 5 E
3. Unseen
Starring on the solo stage in a play she wrote that feels like a memoir, Kimberly Prentice brings to life the hidden stories in “Unseen” of those the Broadway audience never sees … those working behind the curtains to ensure the stars in the spotlights shine. Told from the perspective of a wanna-be chorus-line dancer whose constant rejections lead her to become a dresser of the stars, “Unseen” is funny, enlightening, infuriating, and uplifting in equal measures. Kimberly Prentice not only masterfully demonstrates the acrobatics and magic she performs in the dark as a dresser, she also embodies thirty of those she dresses and those who populate the backstage’s shadows, heights, and depths in roles of a dozen-plus sorts.
Rating: 4 E
4. Three of a Kind
A premier, rock musical with University of Cumbria origins follows the journey of a young diner waitress who is shouldering not only full responsibility for a hospitalized mother but is also carrying vague yet longing memories of a dad long gone. Surrounded by a trio of fun-loving but ever-silly friends, an obsessively nagging boss about to fire her, a handsome new guy in town who immediately wants more than a cup of coffee from her, and an ever-present older customer who shares her passion for banana shakes, Sam travels a journey of a young woman in modern-day America searching for herself, for acceptance and maybe even for love. Book and lyrics by Amy Nic and music by Gregorv Blairr Satti and Rebekah Holly Neilson, “Three of a Kind” compels with its storyline but suffers from lyrics too often full of cliches and forced rhymes. The enthusiastic cast of ten too often over-sing their otherwise talented voices, leading to songs often more screechd than intoned pleasantly .
Rating: 3 E
5. House of Cleopatra
Set to an original pop score, with lyrics by Laura Kleinbaum and Jeff Daye and music by Daye, the new musical dives into the story of one of history’s most famous rulers—and how the all-powerful queen became Egypt’s last pharaoh. Mixing historical drama with visual spectacle, the musical is being produced by Alchemation, the team behind Edinburgh’s breakout hit SIX the Musical. Eye-popping costumes, heart-throbbing choreography, and voices that soar and thrill, the only fault is the setting where the production chooses to have its audience stand like attendees at a dance party, making it very difficult often to see all the action on stage. But look for this premiere to have legs for a future hit to match that of “Six.”
Rating: 4.5 E
Day 2: Our 2024 Fringe
Today we were ecstatic welcome our English, dear friends — Peter and Cristina — who took a train trip from their holiday near Newcastle to come spend the day with us in Edinburgh. And we still had time for three more shows:
6. I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change
This much produced musical , a favorite worldwide (2nd longest off-Broadway run ever, translated into 17 languages), receives some 21st-century updates to its 1996 beginnings (some same-sex couplings mixed in with the original hetero ones, dating via Tinder, a Trump joke, etc.), but the hilarity and ‘truths’ about the lifeline of coupled relationships still reigns forth. Wolverhampton Grand Theatre’s production features four astounding singers/actors whose every number received mighty, heartfelt, and well-deserved applause from the sold-out audience. An afternoon delight!!
Rating: 5 E
7. The Gentleman of Shalott
In his isolated tower on an island in the river, Martuni is besieged by suitors on his dating app, trying to lure him into the outside world. With lines quoted liberally from Tennyson’s “The Lady of Shalott,” Gareth Watkins’ written and performed solo absurdist comedy is strange, surreal, and sensual and sometimes a bit too confusing.
Rating: 3- E
8. Sinatra and Me
Stage, film, and TV veteran Richard Shelton, who has performed in front of audiences from British royalty to Hollywood stardom, returns to the Fringe to walk through his life-long links with Frank Sinatra. With a voice, synchronicities, and even size and looks that mirror in so many ways the Great One, it is no wonder he time and again sells out venues from LA to NYC to London. His songs and his stories are absolutely captivating and divine.
Rating: 5 E
Day 3: Our 2025 Fringe
9. Hamstrung
George Rennie’s solo show is an experience extraordinaire as he brings from the grave Yorick, the poor jester long-dead in “Hamlet” whose only reference is the Prince’s fond memory in Act V of the court clown who entertained him as a boy and whose skull he holds in his hand. The creator/actor exudes contagious enthusiasm in his stories, ditties, and audience interaction while at the same time his Yorick shows increasing awareness of his own condition as both dead and a figment of some writer’s imagination (namely Shakespeare, of course). The sixty minutes pass too quickly as Rennie holds our undivided attention.
Rating: 5 E
10. Love’s a Beach
Gay lovers Cyrus and Ben are on a roll as online influencers. Their promo for adult diapers is a hit, and their followers are in the thousands. But when an offer to promote a luxury hotel in anti-LGBTQ Dubai excites Cyrus while Ben is more inclined to save threatened badgers at home, the sparks of love turn into the fireworks of relationship issues. James Akka and Iain Ferrier command the stage with snark, snap, snide, and sizzle with a script that explodes with lines that draw constant laughter and a story that pulls at the heartstrings. The ending is a cliffhanger leaving us hoping there is a “Love’s a Beach, Part 2” at next year’s Fringe!
Rating: 5 E
11. The Marriage of Fígaro
Offered as part of the Edinburgh International Festival, maybe Mozart’s beloved opera has never had an outing quite like the upstairs/downstairs, boundary-pushing, modern-day version by the world famous Komische Oper Berlin, considered by many as the most innovative opera company on the planet. Brimming with over-the top, near slap-stick comedy; powerful statements about class differences; and the balance of power tilted clearly to the females on the stage, this “Fígaro” is one no audience member will ever forget as scene after scene becomes more and more absurd, eye-popping, and surprising while at the same time voices most superb and an orchestra magnificent never fall short of being sublime.
Rating: 5 E
Day 4: Our 2024 Fringe
12. Wallis
From Jane Bramwell and Michael Brand and the company Bramwellbrand comes a new musical about the love affair that ended an English king’s reign, as told from the perspective of the American bride herself. The musical follows the journey begun when Prince Edward and Wallis Simpson meet at a joint-friend’s party and continues until the night the new King abdicates his thrown for a walk down the aisle. Included is also the perspective of the cuckolded, yet understanding husband, Ernest Simpson. “Wallis” sports catchy, often hummable tunes of the ‘30s with clever, telling lyrics sung by a cast of eight accomplished actors with impressive stage and opera backgrounds. Fast-paced, perfectly timed direction; a wide variety of costumes and hair styles matched to the upper classes of the period; and choreographed movements that recall the recent ‘20s and early ‘30s give this Fringe offering a big-stage feel and a promise of a bright future as the musical heads from Edinburgh to London.
Rating: 5 E
13. The Italians in England
It’s Queen Elizabeth’s birthday; Shakespeare has not yet appeared to entertain in the early years of her reign; and she is bored with English ballad singers. What she wants for her next birthday is the current rage in all other royal courts but hers: the Italians and their Commedia dell’Arte. Action Theatre Italy premieres Rupert Raison’s “The Italians in England,” bringing to the 21st century the 16th century Il Vecchio Geloso (The Jealous Old Man), adapted from an original canovaccio by Flaminio Scala. The ten professional actors who helped Raison develop the production in a workshop three years ago now perform the farcical, laugh-out loud romp of comedy and music, with half the cast in leather half-masks and all in elaborate costumes of the period and genre. The direction is uncannily superb as even something as simple/complicated as heads turning back and forth in rapid and orchestrated succession repeatedly bring the house down in laughter. Raw passions, a jealous husband, horny servants and masters, and attacking wild boars are just a few of the hilarious surprises awaiting the show’s lucky audiences.
Rating: 5 E
14. Tomatoes Tried to Kill Me But Banjos Saved My Life
Keith Alessi has 52 (and counting) banjos in his closet. The celebrated ex-CEO (and CPA by trade) who rescued failing companies also has a life story that includes a near-death encounter with cancer caused by a lifelong love of the tomatoes from his Italian-American mother’s kitchen. As he recovered in the past 8+ years from his cancer, he finally got those banjos out of the closet and got serious not just learning to play, but learning how to feel the music in his soul. His spell bounding, heartwarming, and completely inspiring story (directed by Erika Conway) is related in a friendly, folksy manner peppered with toe-tapping banjo music and a host of hilarious banjo jokes. This is his third, sold out year at the Fringe; and his show has won ‘best of’ awards on both sides of the Atlantic. All proceeds from his performances go to cancer and theatre nonprofits.
Rating: 5 E
15. A Highly Suspect Murder Mystery: The Great British Bloodbath
While it may have sold-out past seasons at the Fringe and was a sellout audience today, the icing drowned murder of a national bake-off finalist was not enough to keep us in our seats for long for this “Bloodbath” … especially when we were soon told we would be broken up into teams, given clues, and told to solve the mystery. We did not buy tickets to be the show, lol; plus the constant puns and groaner jokes were just too much to bear for too long.
Our first 2024 Fringe bomb.
Rating: None
16. The Sun King
Calling on his perspective and early life experiences as a young, Turkish queer growing up under the same, repressive president for the past 21 years, Uğyr Özcan has created a spellbinding, emotionally charged queer coming of age fantasy. The young twenty-something Özcan, who easily can still pass for a young teen, melds difficult national politics, a homophonic environment, and children’s fantasy stories to catalogue his own coming out and his contemplating and imagining a better future for himself. While the pace sometimes falters a bit with imagined sequences that become somewhat repetitive, overall the story’s effect is powerful and lasting.
Rating: 4 E
17. The Good Boy
Written as part of his doctoral dissertation by James Farley, “The Good Boy” — solo performed by its author — tells his true story as a young gay man with a first-love and sexual partnership in which a happenstance discovery ends it all and sends him into a tornado of ever-abusive relationships. That his first same-sex encounter comes with strict boundaries that he agrees to accept in order to be loved by another (he must be bottom, submissive, and always with butt shaved), the ensuing Grindr hook-ups post breakup lead him ever deeper into that locked set of self-definition. This is a difficult-to-watch but extremely important play about deep trauma and one young boy/man’s journey to claw his way to self-acceptance and self-love where true love of and by another is finally possible.
Rating: 4.5 E
18. Sex, Camp, Rock N Roll
After two years of development and initial performances in San Francisco, Ryan Patrick Welsh (aka “The 8th Best Legs in San Francisco”) blasts onto the Fringe stage with a cabaret show brimming with rock song favorites; high-energy, big-move choreography: fabulous leather-and- net costumes that bare a lot here, there, and everywhere; and a plethora of rapid-fire jokes usually of an x-rating nature. But more importantly, the charismatic Welsh (who immediately makes each of us feel we are already their best friend) weaves throughout the 70-minute extravaganza a brutally and beautifully honest story of their past eight years as a queer sex worker and how that journey has led them now to begin finding, knowing, and loving their authentic self. The star performer is wonderfully supported by the exuberance of the diva duo “K*ntz!” and the contagious beats of 3-piece band “Gruntz.”
Rating: 5 E
Day 5: Our 2024 Fringe
Over the years at the Fringe, I have learned to secure months ahead shows staged at the Traverse Theatre, a year-round company with its own building and three stages. The shows are always top quality in every regard. This was our Traverse day, with five full-length plays running from 10 a.m. until late night.
19. The Sound Inside
Nominated in 2020 for six Tony Awards, Adam Rapp’s “The Sound Inside” has its UK premiere in a tense, funny, mysterious, and near-devastating two-hander at the Traverse. Madeleine Potter is breathtakingly magnificent as a Yale professor, Bella, who forms an unconventional, unorthodox, and increasingly emotional relationship with her frosh student, Christopher (Eric Sirakian), an aspiring writer who refuses to follow normal rules of proper etiquette or university norms. With a script that soars with the language and metaphors seemingly right off the pages of the novels Bella teaches and Christopher adores, the play inches and then plunges into the subjects of mortality, morality, and basic ethics and what it means and what it costs to have and leave a literary legacy.
Rating: 5 E
20. A History of Paper
Bits of paper from postcards to tickets, menus, and origami cranes collectively help piece together the hiltarious, quirky, touching, and eventfully heartbreaking love story “A History of Paper,” with script and music by Oliver Emanuel and Gareth Williams premiering at Traverse Theatre in a co-production with Dundee Rep Theatre. Two next-door neighbors played with wonderfully electric sparks, cheeky jabs, and fun-loving spirits by Christopher Jordan-Marshall and Emma Mullen meet over music played too loud followed by pizza, a lost cell phone, and an origami rose that soon lead to a marriage altar. Light and easily pleasing pop songs — ably half-sung, half-spoken often in back-and-forth duets — belies an approaching, turn-of-the-century tragedy with a far worse outcome for the happy couple than the Y2K apocalypse Jordan-Marshall’s character so fears. A delightful and impactful new musical with potential for long legs on future stages.
Rating: 5 E
21. So Young
It’s a catch-up night over wine and Chinese takeout for Davie, Liane, and Milo — three long-time friends — and an opportunity to meet Milo’s new girlfriend, Greta . The only issue is that only three months prior, Milo’s wife and the fourth member of the quartet of friends died alone in the hospital of COVID; and forty-something Milo is now unabashedly sporting with much affection his 20-year-old new love. Comedy abounds amidst increasing tension and inevitable eruptions to match anything Mt. Etna might spew. Liane especially is the source of the igniting, horrified that the woman she loved so much has been seemingly pushed aside. Each cast member terrifically fires on all cylinders under the crackerjack direction of Douglas Maxwell. The quick-paced scenes mount to a climatic and cathartic moment featuring a bottle of aged Japanese whiskey, in many ways the fifth member of this talented cast. This world premiere by Traverse and Raw Material and Citizens Theatre appears destined to populate stages on both sides of the Atlantic.
Rating: 5 E
22. Cyrano
Virginia Gay’s new adaptation of Edmond Rostand’s 1897 “Cyrano” not only is a gender-bending, queer-leaning version of the tale of the classic tragic hero, her “Cyrano” is in the end a joyful rom-com that rewrites the script to avoid what is destined to be yet again a tragedy. The playwright herself shines as the lead character whose nose greatly proceeds her every move and whose wit, spunk, sauciness, and heart fill the otherwise mostly blank stage. Jessica Whitehurst is the beautiful Roxanne to whom Cyrano uses her poetic and deeply felt wooing to win Roxane by proxy through the physically desirable but inarticulate hunk, Yan (Brandon Grace). Unsaid but well understood it is that her sex, not her nose, of Cyrano keeps her from expressing the words on her own behalf. But three minor characters on the stage along with Yan himself refuse to let this be an issue; and with the audience’s help, set about to rewrite an old storyline now way out of date. This European premiere of Melbourne Theatre Company’s recent staging will hopefully cross the Atlantic and land maybe on a San Francisco stage.
Rating: 5 E
23. Natalie Palamides: WEER
With only minutes until the new millennium, Mark pleads with Cristina for a kiss; but she is furious given his obvious flirting all evening with every pretty girl at the party. Facing stage right, she pushes his arm away and shoots arrows from her glaring eyes at a female audience member she’s obviously accusing. Looking stage left, flannel shirted Mark reaches for her while looking to the audience with sheepish eyes for sympathy. A wild back-and-forth argument ensues — face right, face left —with Los Angeles famed clown and stage performer, Natalie Palamides, playing both parts of this rom-dramedy. As voices, demeanors, attire, and personalities change in split-second sequences, the audience howls with each turn in laughter and watches in wide-eyed in amazement.
After a tragic run-in with a deer and its antlers as a drunk Cristina tries to make her escape, the clock turns back three years; and we watch the high-jinks hilarity of their first meeting and their subsequent up-and-down relationship. Palamides reigns when it comes to slapstick antics; and as the lovers’s story progresses, the stage becomes more and more littered with the remnants of used sound effects, an apartment’s furnishings, spilled drinks, mud, confetti, and much more. If the shenanigans had ended after about one hour, this would be a ‘5-E, Must-See’ review. However, Mark’s great-grandfather’s shotgun takes a major role in amidst more and more bizarre and increasingly repulsive sex acts. Blood, semen, and more soon populate the stage; and for the last 15 minutes of too many false endings, I not only stopped laughing, I tried to make an early escape. That is a shame; maybe as this premiere is further worked, Palamides will do some serious editing and reworking .
Rating: 3 E
Day 6: Our 2024 Fringe
24. Did You Mean to Fall Like That?
Charlie’s wife wants a separatism; his job is no more; his mates are all busy; and he’s trying the dating scene, but it’s awkward. Everyone says he should see a therapist, but he says it’s all fine — especially when he downs some drinks or sniffs some coke. Just when his life seems to be falling apart more and more, he meets Ollie; and something inside Charlie begins to change and come alive in ways he could never have imagined.
With a folding chair and three ply boards for setting shifts and props along with subtle shifts of voice and stance to become his ex, his parents, flatmate, hook-ups, Ollie and more, James McGregor excels in relating Charlie’s plunge into a valley and the reawakening in life he discovers by the unlikely meeting with a man who arouses new feelings within him. Charlie’s journey is presented in a completely compelling and authentic manner by a talented actor delivering a tight and engaging script by Stephanie Martin and directed by Scott Le Crass. Bottom line, Charlie and thus we in the audience come to realize nothing in life is fixed and set, especially ourselves.
Rating: 4 E
25. At Home with Will Shakespeare
Famed, veteran, British actor and playwright, Pip Utton, welcomes us into the home of William Shakespeare on the last night of his life. The aged Bard still has much sparkle and spunk as he generously sprinkles into his conversation lines from his plays and verses from his sonnets as well as anecdotes of his life. Along the way he also both entertains and educates us about the world of London and its theatres during the early reigning years of James I. The hour in the presence of both Shakespeare and the venerable Utton passes much too quickly. One leaves feeling having been in the presence of two great masters of the word and the stage.
Rating: 5 E
26. The Importance of Being … Earnest?
Everything is set for a rousing, star-studded production of Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest.” But when the lead actor is a no show, the dominoes all lined up for a perfect show begin one by one to tumble; and the result is wild hilarity that Mr. Wilde himself would definitely approve. Joshua King, Simon Paris, and the team of Say It Again, Sorry have created an “Earnest” that makes “The Play That Goes Wrong” a breeze in comparison. This is a play that is guaranteed to be different each time staged; but in every outing, there is no doubt the audience will be in stitches as everything that can go wrong, does.
Rating: 4 E
27. Pop Off, Michelangelo!
With music full of snap, pizzazz, and attitude sung by a cast of six with full gusto and glamour, “Pop Off, Michelangelo!” by Dylan Marcaurele (music, book, lyrics) is an exciting, engaging, and electrifying new musical about the two greats of the Renaissance who just happen also to be gay. Boyhood pals (who centuries later would be known simply as Beethoven and DaVinci) decide they want to become great artists but are concerned that because they are gay, God — much less the Pope — may not approve. Deciding religious art is the safest route to their stardom and for forgiveness for their desire to hop in bed with other guys, the two set off to wow the Pope with a Last Supper and a David that will lead them to heaven. But the ladder to heaven is hard to climb in heels, and friends — just like Saint Peter himself — sometimes find themselves denying their pal in order to save their own success. With big-kick choreography, lyrics that sizzle, and just enough sexual naughtiness to raise a little hell on stage, “Pop Off, Michelangelo!” is a gay gangbuster of a musical that is devilishly delicious!
Rating: 5 E
Day 7: Our 2024 Fringe
28. Mountebank Comedy Tour of Edinburgh
I am a walking/biking tour junkie when I travel the cities of the world. The Onion Walks through New York neighborhoods, Emperor Norton’s famous tour in San Francisco, and likened tours in Amsterdam, London, Berlin, Barcelona, and more all have their memorable pluses; but none quite compares to that of historian and professional stand-up comedian Daniel Downie and his two-hour walking tour through the cobbled streets, courtyards, and nooks and crannies of old Edinburgh. With an incredible ability to meet, get to know, and remember the names and origins of all his guests (on this day, near thirty), Daniel continues to kibbutz and kid with the guests throughout the tour, but always in ways not to offend. His knowledge of the history, culture, and background stories of Edinburgh is immense. All is related with full gusto and peppered with hilarious quips and notable quotes, important facts and obscure factoids, well-rehearsed spewing of knowledge and spontaneous spilling of opinions and biases. And to top it all, Daniel is clearly a lover of Scotland’s near-saint, Robert Burns, and holds everyone in rapt attention when he decides to quote one of his poems. An added bonus on the tour is Daniel’s four-legged partner, Brahan, aka The Bonny Prince, who loves having guests scratch behind his floppy, fuzzy ears. Whether a first-time visitor to Edinburgh or returning as am I after multiple visits, the “Mountebank Comedy Tour of Edinburgh” is a definite Must-Do!
Rating: 5 E
29. The Disappeared
G-strings, high-heeled boots, a bare ass, and lots of strut and swizzle accompany queer, Latinx, burlesque performer, Novah Duh, as they relate stories of discrimination, attacks, and disappearances of LQBTQ+ people throughout their home country of Mexico as well as in other Latin locations like Brazil, Argentina, and Chile. The dancing, prancing, and stripping are passionately performed; but there is an unevenness of the flow at times, especially when seeking some audience participation. The potential power and message of the important queer stories is somewhat diminished in the attempt at the same time to try and create a club atmosphere.
Rating: 3 E
30. REVENGE: After the Levoyah
Nothing is funny about the mounting and alarming anti-Semitism occurring on both sides of the Atlantic; but Nick Cassenbaum has found a way to reap constant chuckles and outright guffaws as members of the Jewish community of Essex decide enough’s enough. That is certainly true for twins Lauren (Gemma Barnett) and Dan (Dylan Corbett-Bader) when their recently widowed grandmother is afraid to leave her apartment because of recent neighborhood incidents and when a plumber spews in Lauren’s face insults against Jews as he repairs the hot water heater.
How much threat really exists and how much is actually a community’s madcap hysteria becomes the heart of the fast-paced, satirical comedy so aptly directed by Emma Jude Harris. The two actors are themselves a riot as they constantly switch in split-second sequences seemingly dozens of roles. A turn of the head, a subtle raising of a shoulder or bending of the torso, or voices that alter dialect, tone, volume, and pitch simultaneously are just a few of a wide range of techniques each uses to become a rabbi, an ex-gangster, a ninety-something survivor, granny herself, and a host of others of all ages, backgrounds, and nationalities. And when the decision that the best way to call attention to the rampant anti/Semitism is to kidnap a suspected perpetrator, Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn, the real fun begins.
Rating: 5 E
31. Puddles and Amazons
Cleverly employing audio mixing for background sound effects while also frequently using water as a means of creating scenes ranging from the beach to the shower, Guy Woods serves as a master storyteller as he relates the adolescent years leading up to a queer boy’s coming out. A boy whose skin is cold and rough and his taste buds shot due to a boyhood accident lives a life quite secluded even when around others like his bird-watching dad or staring, avoiding kids at school. Shadow play, mild audience aids in the story’s effects, and an arena that becomes ever wetter are all part of the sensitively imparted narrative that sometimes has gaps a bit difficult to fill in for total clarity. The first same-sex kiss is accompanied by a bodily explosion that becomes quite surreal and so over-the-top crazy as to lessen somewhat the story’s overall purpose and impact.
Rating: 4 E
32. Through the Mud
What does it take for an individual to make a decision to stand up to racial injustice baked deep into an entire society? Apphia Campbell explores the motivation, the decision to act, and the consequences of being a modern-day revolutionary in her powerful play with live blues and gospel music, “Through the Mud.” Two stories from two eras seamlessly intertwine in both contrast and mutual amplification: That of the convicted-of-murder Black Panther, Assata Shaker, (now in Cuban exile) and that of a first-year college woman caught up in the protests after Michael Brown’s murder by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. The playwright and Tinashe Warikandwa are each arrestingly stunning in a duet of heart-wrenching, infuriating narratives, made ever more impactful by their soul-probing, emotion-raising voices as the sing the songs of the once enslaved and of the still oppressed.
Rating: 5 E
Day 8: Our 2024 Fringe
Today was a day of full-blown musicals, ending with maybe our favorite show yet. We also had to move from our B&B to a hotel with great views of the Edinburgh Castle where we saw some glimpses of the world-famous Tattoo ( which we attended in the past) and got to listen to the bagpipes and military bands.
33. The Traitor’s Wife
From 1939 until his defection in 1951, British diplomat Donald Maclean passed on to the Soviet Union many damaging documents during and after WWII, including details of the atomic, Manhattan Project. Early on, his American, socialite wife, Melinda, discovered his double life and was even complicit in some undercover activity. While Donald is still considered one of the West’s greatest traitors who got away, Melinda somehow was never suspected.
Shrewsbury School returns to the Fringe for the thirtieth year with yet another world premiere musical, this year’s being the intriguing, noir-and-spy-embedded “The Traitor’s Wife” by Helen Brown and John Moore. With a richly voiced, choreography-talented cast of twenty-five and a rousing band of eight, the musical is nothing short of truly professional. That is especially true with the catch-your-breath clarity of lead actress Hattie Atwood as Helen; with incredibly paced and astutely blocked direction by Helen Brown; and by a cast costumed in the ‘40s styles of London”s upper crust, Moscow”s comrades, and Washington’s government elites. The music and the dances smack of the era and are delivered with flair. In the end, we as audience are thoroughly entertained as well as educated about a true tale of espionage we probably did not know.
Rating: 5 E
34. Pippin
The coming-of-age musical with Stephen Schwartz memorable tunes and lyrics and eye-popping, big-hands choreography originally directed by Bob Fosse, “Pippin” bursts onto the 2024 Fringe stage with much zeal and acrobatic vigor by the Edinburgh University Footlights. A cast of seventeen — all women save three — and a band of twelve bring much exuberance to the two-and-half-hour show (with intermission), with voices as a full ensemble ringing in full harmony but still clearly missing a full SATB balance one might expect (given only three males). Where this production particularly shines is in its choreography (Rose Roberts, choreographer), with numbers both large and small full of jumps, flips, taps, hands, and much more. Individual soloists often reign supreme; but in some cases — particularly in the role of an otherwise delightful Pippin — voice ranges and/or sureness have limits that are challenged.
Rating: 4 E
35. I Wish My Life Were Like a Musical
It’s not nice to name a child Amon several your favorite, and it may be presumptuous among so many wonderful Fringe offerings we have seen (35 with still five more to go) to declare a favorite). However, there is one whose title alone makes it dear to my heart because “I Wish My Life Were Like a Musical” says it all for me personally.
Alexander S. Bermance’s award-winning, globally spanning musical about musicals returns to the Fringe with a cast of four that sing and dance as well as any foursome I personally have seen in a long time. They also bring personalities that literally shine; comedic antics that know no limits; and abilities to switch styles, demeanors, and voice projections over wide ranges in order to sell each number’s unique requirements. Every number addresses a different aspect of a musical (e.g., the high expectations on an opening number), a performer’s challenges (like yet another failed audition), or some aspect of the audience itself (e.g.,annoying behaviors, over-the-top fans of a particular musical). The ups and downs of being a stand-in, the challenges of co-starring with someone you definitely do not want to kiss but must, and life on- and back-stage with a diva are just a few of the hilarious but telling aspects of life in the world of musicals the numbers describe, with lyrics that draw laughter in almost a non-stop manner. This is a production that my first thought upon exiting was, “I must see this again!”
Rating: 5 E, MUST-SEE
Day 9 (And Final Day): Our 2024 Fringe
36. The Chairs Revisited
Vagabond Productions updates Eugène Ionesco’s 1952 “The Chairs,” retaining most of the original theatre-of-the-absurd, surreal, and funny script but adding some minor 2024 references here and there (selfies, Trump, etc.). We still meet an ancient couple, married 75 years, who live isolated in a tower surrounded by a body of water. They talk of their past and agree on few, common details (A son or not? She is his wife or mother?). They welcome an increasing number of invisible guests for which they bring out more and more chairs of every shape and size. Their guests, including an invisible emperor, are there to hear the wisdom the husband has to offer the world, to be delivered in his stead by the last guest to arrive, The Orator … in this production the climatic element of the play’s farcical and modern-updated nature.
Bart Vanlaere and Louise Seyffert are masterful as tragic-like clowns who employ techniques of slapstick, mime, and just plain silliness to create two aged individuals trapped in their own deteriorating minds and lapsing timelines of life. As in Ionesco’s original script, there is much to enjoy but no room for hope or optimism about the state of the current world. In the end, we as audience are just left with ourselves and a cluttered room of empty chairs. Is that all life is?
Rating: 5 E
37. Queen
From her age of five in 1824 until her dying moments in 1901 after 63 years of reign, Victoria speaks to us in words all taken from her diary, letters, and published writings. “Queen” as edited by Julian Manchin is an updated and retitled version of Katrina Hendrey’s one-woman show An Evening With Queen Victoria which starred Prunella Scales and was performed for many years. A beautiful and moving recording of Ms. Scales as Queen Victoria in 1900 opens the show.
Grace Darling plays the young Victoria with all the excitement, eyes of wonder, and whimsies of a young girl on her way eventually to being crowned Queen at age of 18. As the Queen ages, Sara Crowe takes over the role, bringing much dignity, a sense of adventure, and a deep love for her husband (with a little left over for her nine children). Both actresses are superb, even stunning in their roles, each also ably stepping in from time to time to play other characters such as Prime Ministers Melbourne or Disraeli. “Queen” is enlightening, intriguing, and guaranteed to bring smiles and maybe a tear or two.
Rating: 5 E
38. Plotters
It’s the nineteenth century, and throughout the UK, there is money to be made robbing graves for private clients, many of whom might be famous doctors or professors, a loved one who cannot let go of the deceased, or maybe even the rumored rich guy who awaits with wedding cake an amorous evening with a young woman’s recently deceased body. What better circumstances for award-winning in playwright , Brian Parks, to create a dark comedy about four societal misfits (once lawyer, journalist, and the like) who now reap their riches hauling off corpses and dodging the law and a sure hanging. In one hour, sixty-something scenes flash by with interactions peppered about in seemingly spontaneous manners. The pressure is on as they plan their final escapade. While the acting and direction are fabulous, the subject manner and plot are only mildly interesting in the end.
Rating: 3 E
39. Orán
The myth of Orpheus and Eurydice has inspired a number of modern plays; and Scottish theatre Wonderfools adds one more by Owen Sutcliffe. In this version, Orán heads down the elevator to hell to rescue his best friend, with Robbie Gordon erupting with explosive energy in both the roles of the title character and of Satin himself. Operating sound, lighting, and tech during the show as well as employing audience members as bit players here and there greatly distract from the primary narrative. But worse, the amplified voice for both Orán and especially the Devil make much of the script incomprehensible. In the end, much of the story is lost even as the solo actor is clearly doing all he can to play all roles (acting and technical) with all his might and spirit.
Rating: 3- E
40. Polishing Shakespeare
For 400 years, theatre directors have done a myriad of supposed innovative approaches to add new light into the works of Shakespeare. But in Brian Dykstra and Margarett Perry’s “Polishing Shakespeare,” the latest idea by a billionaire patron is to update the Elizabethan landscape into modern, call it “dumbed-down” wordage in order to reach the masses. (In fact, the venerable Oregon Shakespeare Festival has announced the launch of a 39-play, three-year long commissioning project, Play on! 36 playwrights to translate Shakespeare into modern parlance.)
As they speak in an often hilarious iambic pentameter full of elongated alliterations, forced rhymes, and obligatory soliloquies, theatre artistic director Ms. Branch (Kate Levy) and dot-com billionaire Grant (Brian Dykstra), approach playwright Janet (Kate Siahaan-Rigg) with an offer to fund all her outstanding student loans if she will rewrite one Shakespeare classic into the common person’s jargon. What ensues is a very real dilemma facing many nonprofit theatres today: How much to alter their art and values in order to obtain the funds they so desperately need in order to survive. Kate Levy, Brian Dykstra and Kate Siahaan-Rigg are incredibly amazing as they banter, bargain, and bully each other for their own needs and wishes; with both comedy and reality of today’s harsh theatre atmosphere taking center stage. This is a play every theater executive, funder, and board member as well as the playwrights themselves should see.
Rating: 5 E
41. Sunshine on Leith
Unfortunately, just as we were to enter as part of a large, sold-out audience for our final musical and show, we were told to exit the building as quickly as possible. From all exits and staircases of the large Assembly Rooms venue, hordes exited. While we never found out exactly why, I just read a highly suspicious package was discovered; the facility, evacuated; the final result two hours later, harmless, Grrr. I really wanted to see this award-winning musical!i
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