» Review: The Edinburgh Festival Fringe
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is a massive, sprawling monster, showcasing the great, the good, the bad and the downright evil to the cultural masses, be they television executives or ordinary punters. So naturally the creative types of Brighton and East Sussex have been up there in force.
Local boy Seann Walsh’s first solo show is selling out over at the Pleasance Courtyard, with his observational humour very successfully hitting a chord and garnering him more and more attention. The way that he throws himself physically into the show, acting out some of his gags, provokes an equal level of engagement from his audience with their laughter.
White Room Theatre’s Bite-Size group are catching the morning crowd with their theatrical snippets, and with a 10.30am start are usually the first show of the day for many of the theatre goers. The variety of writing and performance has been well received, if the time’s made it a trickier to grab the hard revellers.
Laura Mugridge, resident host of Upstairs At The Three And Ten’s Rabbit In The Headlights, is performing three shows a day in intimate slots of up to five audience members. It’s a quirky, comedic storytelling show told from her camper van (hence the tight numbers) in the Pleasance Courtyard, and mixes homespun tales of eccentricities with her Edinburgh surroundings to deliver a cosy retreat from the melée.
Late night improvisation is a popular import from Brighton groups, with The Maydays showcasing their Guest Who? show at the Udderbelly, and Off The Cuff at C Soco with Bingo! It’s Off The Cuff. Both shows have benefited from their unique formats and experienced players.
A great tradition of the Edinburgh Fringe is the free festival, allowing our comics to go up for a week or so on a shoestring. Just a smattering of our free shows up there this year have included 3D Comedy (featuring Jim Holland, Rich Heap and Rich Perry with a mix of dry and jolly evening comedy, Heap especially strong this year); The Complexity Of Nonsense (Jaq Bayles, Sam Savage and Aiden Goatley delivering late night whimsy); and Jam For Tea (Julie Jepson, Alison Leitch and Marie Vagen with a collection of good material in need of a more confident delivery).
And not forgetting the acclaimed Dildont from local sketch group Casual Violence. We’ve done ourselves proud.
Various Edinburgh venues, 1–31 August
4/5
Victoria Nangle
