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Review: Sap, Summerhall, Edinburgh Fringe ✭✭✭✭
A motif running through Rafaella Marcus’s gripping new play, Sap, is a fable from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, where Daphne is transformed into a laurel tree to avoid the unwanted attentions of the god, Apollo. But while images of nature, trees and plants intertwine through the writing, Sap wears its myth lightly.
In a powerful piece of storytelling, a young bisexual woman reveals the pleasures and pitfalls of her life navigating sex and relationships in a modern-day city. After a liaison with a handsome and charming man turns out to be just a one-night stand, she falls for a lesbian she meets in a gay bar. Labels become a problem when the new lover reveals she doesn’t date women who “can’t make up their mind” about their sexual identity, driving our modern-day Daphne to hide her bisexuality – a lie that soon escalates due to a quirk of fate.
Sap brilliantly explores sexual identity and female sexuality with frankness and honesty while also telling a compelling tale that combines humour with darker, more menacing elements. Directed by Jessica Lazar, it rarely flags, driven along by an excellent, likeable performance by Jessica Clark, telling the story alongside Rebecca Banatvala as all the other characters. Movement direction by Jennifer Fletcher heightens the sense of a life in constant, nervous motion and also captures moments of both intimacy and underlying threat. Marcus’s writing has touches of lyrical beauty, especially when the mythic tale does seep into the story, conjuring up vivid images of a young woman and an urban landscape threatened by vegetative transformation.
Sap runs at Paines Plough’s Roundabout at Summerhall at Edinburgh Fringe to 28 August 2022. Tickets at edfringe.com.
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Review: Happy Meal, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe ✭✭✭✭
Tabby Lamb’s new comedy drama, Happy Meal, is full of joy – even before it begins. As the audience arrive, they are greeted by a jolly giant penguin in a yellow scarf who waves and smiles enthusiastically, and is only briefly plunged into sadness when ignored. This penguin turns out to be the avatar of Bette, a teenager who meets a new friend, Al, in the virtual multiplayer world of Club Penguin. Through various online spaces, the two grow closer without actually meeting, allowing them both to explore their true identities without the pressure of real life.
Funny and at times deeply moving, this is a rollercoaster of a rom-com which presents a fresh take on the trans experience, directed by Jamie Fletcher. In time, with Bette’s support, Al comes out as male, unaware that Bette is still struggling to be the girl she knows herself to be. Bette’s journey is particularly heart-wrenching in a strong, endearing performance by Allie Daniel alongside Sam Crerar as Al. Their chat-room interactions are cleverly represented on stage by two separate booths, designed by Ben Stones and brilliantly animated by Daniel Denton’s videos.
The show is full of nostalgia that will especially resonate with kids who grew up in the noughties, from virtual communities like Club Penguin, Neopets and MySpace to Buffy, Eurotrash and S-Club 7. But this story is just as relevant today where online spaces continue to be refuges where many people make their first tentative steps in expressing their identities – places that are safe and a potential springboard for happiness but still fraught with pain and heartache.
Happy Meal runs at Traverse Theatre as part of Edinburgh Fringe to 28 August 2022 and then at Theatre Royal Plymouth from 7 to 10 September 2022. Tickets at traverse.co.uk and theatreroyal.com.
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More star names join Felicity Kendal in Noises Off tour
More star names have been announced to join Felicity Kendal in the new 40th-anniversary tour of Michael Frayn’s classic comedy, Noises Off.
They include Tracy-Ann Oberman as Belinda Blair, Matthew Kelly as Selsdon Mowbray, Joseph Millson as Garry Lejeune, Alexander Hanson as Lloyd Dallas, Jonathan Coy as Fredrick Fellows and Hubert Burton as Tim.
Sasha Frost has been cast as Brooke Ashton, and Pepter Lunkhuse will play Poppy Norton Taylor alongside Kendal as Dotty Otley.
Directed by Lindsay Posner, Noises Off will open at Theatre Royal Bath from 22 September to 1 October 2022 before heading to London’s Richmond Theatre from 4 to 15 October, Theatre Royal Brighton from 18 to 22 October, and Cambridge Arts Theatre from 25 to 29 October.
Hurtling along at breakneck speed, Noises Off follows the on- and off-stage antics of a touring theatre company as they stumble their way through the fictional farce, Nothing On.
From the shambolic final rehearsals before opening night in Weston-super-Mare, to a disastrous matinee in Ashton-Under-Lyne seen entirely from backstage before the final catastrophic performance in Stockton-on-Tees.
The creative team also includes designer Simon Higlett, lighting designer Paul Pyant, sound designer Greg Clarke, composer Will Stuart, movement and fight director Ruth Cooper-Brown, associate director George Jibson and casting director Ginny Schiller.
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Review: Eulogy, Summerhall, Edinburgh Fringe ✭✭✭✭
In the space of 35 minutes, theatre company Darkfield takes you on a nightmare journey to the depths of your imagination without you leaving your seat. After thrilling and unsettling audiences with their previous shows Séance, Coma and Flight, Darkfield has again transformed a shipping container into an impressive piece of immersive headphone theatre.
Using nothing but voice and sound effects in pitch darkness, they take each audience member on a bewildering, disturbing trip round a mysterious hotel and conference centre. We each have a chaperone who takes us down corridors, onto lifts and into different rooms, leading us deeper and deeper into the strange, sinister dream-like world. The binaural sound technology creates the sense of people moving around you, sometimes whispering in your ear so that you expect to feel their breath against your cheek.
With an eight-strong (pre-recorded) cast including Nigel Barrett, it is directed with ingenuity and skill by its writer Glen Neath and sound and technology specialist David Rosenberg. With voice recognition thrown into the high-tech mix, it promises a bespoke experience for every participant in a way that proves chilling and bleakly amusing. I stumbled out of the shipping container with relief that the nightmare wasn’t real but even in the bright sunlight it continued to haunt me.
Eulogy runs at Summerhall as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe until 28 August 2022. Tickets at festival.summerhall.co.uk and edfringe.com.
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Review: Exodus, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe ✭✭
Uma Nada-Rajah’s dark new comedy, Exodus, is scarily topical. A Tory home secretary with more ambition than brains tries to save her career after a xenophobic photo opportunity goes horribly wrong, helped by her ruthless special adviser. It is frenetic, farcical and occasionally funny but, despite some strong performances, it is disappointingly scattergun in its targets and often misfires.
The play makes strong points about immigration policy, xenophobia, Tory politicians’ lies, citizen journalism and the role of ministers’ special advisers but the satire is blunt and meandering. Aryana Ramkhalawon is suitably villainous as the Machiavellian home secretary, Asiya Rao, who seems loosely inspired by current home secretary Priti Patel. However, it is Sophie Steer who impressively holds the show together as the amoral and manipulative special adviser, Phoebe. Anna Russell-Martin also stands out as keen young journalist Tobi although, later on, her character’s motivations appear odd and inconsistent.
Director Debbie Hannan keeps the momentum going, with an effective spinning set designed by Alisa Kalyanova. But none of the positives are enough to save the show. From the start, the premise of a dead refugee baby washed up on shore and stuffed into a designer bag strikes an unsettling note that is not matched by the production’s mostly lighter farce. The intricate plot continues to twist and turn in a way that becomes increasingly implausible, and the farcical style never quite gels with the play’s deeply serious message about Britain’s ill treatment of refugees.
Exodus runs at the Traverse Theatre as part of Edinburgh Fringe until 28 August 2022. Tickets at traverse.co.uk.
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Review: The Man Who Thought He Knew Too Much, Pleasance Dome, Edinburgh Fringe ✭✭✭✭
Classic movies from Hitchcock thrillers to spaghetti westerns inspire a glorious new show from physical theatre company Voloz Collective. Set in 1963, it follows Roger Clément, a French advertising executive living in New York, whose orderly life runs like clockwork until a chance encounter with a cat makes him late for work – and spared by an explosion that kills all his colleagues.
Already the show has brought in tropes and plot lines from thrillers such as Three Days of the Condor and The Man Who Knew Too Much but this is just the start. As Roger travels to Paris, London, Norway, Russia and beyond in search of answers, the story weaves together all kinds of cinematic genres, from James Bond to westerns – and more if you look for it. But it takes all these allusions to create a new story, inventive and often surreal, that keeps you guessing until its wonderfully weird finale.
Through their mastery of physical theatre and occasional acrobatics, the four-strong cast of Paul Lofferon, Olivia Zerphy, Emily Wheatman and Sam Rayner (who created the show together) fill the stage with a constant sense of movement and energy. They impressively conjure up thrilling street chases, busy subway trains and tense gun fights, accompanied by Frederick Waxman on the keyboard. It is frenetic, whimsical and a lot of fun, marking Voloz Collective as a company to watch.
The Man Who Thought He Knew Too Much runs at Pleasance Dome as part of Edinburgh Fringe until 29 August 2022. Tickets at edfringe.com.
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Review: Psychodrama, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe ✭✭✭
A woman battles with the precarity and powerlessness of her life in Matt Wilkinson’s solo play, Psychodrama. Played with calm, brittle poise by Emily Bruni, she tells her everyday story of sexism, ageism, manipulation and abuse of authority where reality eventually starts to fracture and blur.
In her 40s, the narrator is an actor still trying to carve out a career while getting by in a minimum-wage job in a fashion store. She feels success is at hand when she finds herself up for the role of Marion Crane – the ill-fated motel guest played by Janet Leigh in classic horror film Psycho – and begins work with a famous Dutch director, Peter Coevorden, who wants to adapt it for the stage. Charming and inspiring, he exploits her hunger for the job, pushing her to the extremes of her mental endurance.
Clearly drawing on Alfred Hitchcock’s problematic treatment of actresses like Janet Leigh, Psychodrama touches on the MeToo movement and the ever-growing list of film, TV and theatre directors who have exploited actresses as well as actors. It reveals behind-the-scenes details about the creative process but also provides a broader depiction of the abuses of uneven power relationships and the effect on those at risk of being damaged by them.
Directed by Wilkinson, Psychodrama is driven by Bruni’s mesmerising performance, with her character’s increasingly cloudy mental state reflected in Elliot Griggs’ shifting lighting design. The brutal ending is in the beginning but the show takes us on a psychological rollercoaster of dashed hopes, disappointment and despair to its inevitable, if potentially ambiguous, conclusion.
Psychodrama runs at the Traverse Theatre for Edinburgh Fringe until 28 August 2022. Tickets at traverse.co.uk.
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Review: Wilf, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe ✭✭✭✭
Auto eroticism takes on a whole new meaning in James Ley’s gloriously strange play, Wilf. Returning to the Traverse Theatre for Edinburgh Fringe, it boasts a high-octane star performance in Michael Dylan as Calvin, a lonely young Irishman whose low self-esteem and loneliness drive him to form a deep attachment to his new Volkswagen, Wilf.
It might sound a bleakly troubling concept but the result is an hilariously funny and twisted comedy built around an unforgettable character. After his 104th driving lesson, Calvin passes his test on his 12th attempt, casting him adrift from his driving instructor-cum-therapist, Thelma, played with gusto by Irene Allan. Breaking up with his abusive boyfriend, he heads off on the open road with only his car for company.
With Neil John Gibson popping up in a range of roles, we get insights into Calvin’s troubled past and fractured psyche and, while it takes us to dark places, the comedy never loses its upbeat energy under director Gareth Nicholls. Ultimately, it calls for compassion and understanding of relationships in their myriad forms as Calvin goes on a journey of self-acceptance and self-care. But, while touching on mental health and therapy, this is at heart a joyous rom-com with a difference.
Running at Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre until 28 August 2022. Tickets at www.traverse.co.uk.
Irene Allan and Michael Dylan in Wilf -
Review: Caste-ing, Summerhall, Edinburgh Fringe ✭✭✭
The challenges and traumas of being a Black actress are powerfully depicted in Nicole Acquah’s Caste-ing, the latest show from acclaimed theatre company Nouveau Riche. Through a series of vignettes, it follows three young women as they navigate the casting process – one just starting out, one with a few roles behind her, and one in her 30s still waiting for her big break.
Using a mix of poetry, beat box, song and spoken word, it exposes the systemic prejudices in the TV, film and theatre industry, from auditions and headshot photoshoots through to make-up and the types of roles available. It also highlights the added pressure for Black artists and performers to become activists out of necessity rather than choice. More broadly, it portrays the emotional rollercoaster of being an actor, including the excruciatingly nail-biting wait for the post-audition phone call that may never come.
Although the show is fragmentary without a character-led narrative, a thread emerges of how friendships and support networks become important to help these women hold onto their self-belief and sanity. Directed by Shakira Newton, it features three strong performance from Rima Nsubuga, Yemi Yohannes and Stephanie Da Silva although the latter stands out with a beautiful singing voice and a heart-wrenching portrayal of a woman broken by the stress of rejection. Two of the cast reveal at the end that they are not yet represented by an agent but hopefully this production will change that.
Caste-ing runs at Paines Plough’s Roundabout at Summerhall as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe until 28 August 2022 ahead of a UK tour. Tickets at edfringe.com.
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Review: Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder!, Summerhall, Edinburgh Fringe ✭✭✭✭
Writer Jon Brittain and composer Matthew Floyd Jones drew on the experience of depression for the uplifting touring hit, Super Happy Story (About Feeling Sad). They have come together again to create another show, Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder! which, despite its gruesome premise, proves to be a joyful celebration of friendship and not fitting in.
Co-dependent misfits Kathy and Stella are best friends from childhood who have set up Hull’s best (and presumably only) true-crime podcast. Now adults, their lives are drifting but their podcast, based on exhaustive research on Wikipedia, keeps them going. Suddenly, they become “part of the story” after their hero and leading true-crime podcaster Felicia Taylor is murdered while visiting Hull, propelling them into investigating her death as well as the connected cold case of the Hull Decapitator.
The music and lyrics by Matthew Floyd Jones – formerly part of parodic pop duo Frisky and Mannish – are sharp, smart and upbeat, benefiting from Tingying Dong’s impressive sound design that helps make every witty rhyme and joke hit home. The songs may not be traditional showstoppers but memorable highlights include “If I Didn’t Have You (I Would Die)”, “We Don’t Know What We’re Doing (F**k)” and the title song, “Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder”.
The five-strong cast – with West End credentials – are excellent, led by Bronté Barbé as the sweet but determined Kathy and Rebekah Hinds as the more forthright Stella. Jodie Jacobs, TJ Lloyd and Imelda Warren-Green play other roles, with Jacobs brilliantly adding to the show’s pleasures in a multiplicity of parts including Felicia Taylor. Directed by Brittain, the show is slick with a pace that never flags, making it as much a thrilling whodunnit as a delightful piece of musical theatre.
Running at Paines Plough’s Roundabout at Summerhall in Edinburgh to 28 August 2022 as part of Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Tickets on sale at https://www.edfringe.com/
TJ Lloyd, Jodie Jacobs and Imelda Warren-Green in Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder! Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic
StageWire UK 