Love is in the air! The four bittersweet theatre romances we recommend at the Edinburgh Fringe, writes PATRICK MARMION By Patrick Marnham For The Daily Mail Published: 04:01 BST, 9 August 2024 | Updated: 04:05 BST, 9 August 2024 e-mail View comments With more than 3,000 shows jostling for attention at this year's Edinburgh International Festival and Fringe, it's a foolish man who would attempt to find a particular theme. And yet, dear reader..
. that man is me. Without seeking any particular type of entertainment, I accidentally struck a rich seam of tragi-comic love stories which may well have a second life beyond Edinburgh.
Star-crossed lovers: Jessica Whitehurst as Roxanne and Virginia Gay as Cyrano Gay's Cyrano (the writer takes the lead role) taps into universal feelings of inadequacy that strike us all in the presence of the object of our desire. She cuts a strapping figure: aloof, astonished, scheming, charming and, of course, messing up royally Cyrano (Traverse Theatre) Rating: Few are more famous than Edmond Rostand's tale of Cyrano de Bergerac, the 17th-century French wit, writer and swordsman inhibited in love by the length of his nose. His tale has been taken on film by Gerard Depardieu and Steve Martin ; and more recently on stage by James McAvoy.
Now it's the turn of Aussie actor-writer Virginia Gay, with a cunning new spin of her own in Cyrano. Gay's ruse is to turn Cyrano into a lovelorn lesbian, who is pining for the beautiful, clever Roxanne — who has in turn fallen for handsome himbo Christian (or Yan, as he is called in this version). Cyrano needs Yan's body — and Yan needs Cyrano's language — if either is to prosper in the game of love.
The script, which first toured Gay's native Oz, sparkles with wit and intelligence, but also brims with sensuality as Cyrano insists that words must be mixed like 'yuzu, ginger and duck' to seduce. The script, which first toured Gay's native Oz, sparkles with wit and intelligence, but also brims with sensuality as Cyrano insists that words must be mixed like 'yuzu, ginger and duck' to seduce Gay's Cyrano (the writer takes the lead role) taps into universal feelings of inadequacy that strike us all in the presence of the object of our desire. She cuts a strapping figure: aloof, astonished, scheming, charming and, of course, messing up royally.
Brandon Grace's Yan is a loveable airhead, while Jessica Whitehurst is a suitably spirited Roxanne. Sadly, Gay shies away from Rostand's tragic ending, in favour of easy cook schmaltz. But before that this is still a thoroughly saucy morsel.
The Sound Inside (Traverse Theatre) Rating: Another tragic love story, running at the same venue, is The Sound Inside. It's about a solitary professor of creative writing at Yale University who discovers she has a 'constellation' of tumours in her intestines. So far, so grim, but bear with me.
Becoming fascinated by an enigmatic, also solitary, freshman in the class she teaches, she invites him to help her terminate her life — rather than face the fate that met her mother, who died at 54 from a similar illness. Another tragic love story, running at the same venue, is The Sound Inside. It's about a solitary professor of creative writing at Yale University who discovers she has a 'constellation' of tumours in her intestines That may be more plot than you need to know, but the main attraction of Adam Rapp's drama is its purple prose.
This is a world in which bearded baristas have earphones 'like door knobs'. Matt Wilkinson's production is potently dark, too, thanks to intense performances from Madeleine Potter and Eric Sirakian on a spartan set graced with just two lonely chairs. The final series of bleakly crafted twists left me feeling that the play had eaten a small part of my soul — but I'm confident it'll grow back again.
Queen (Assembly Rooms) Rating: In Queen, Sara Crowe taps effortlessly in to the softer side of Britain's second-longest reigning monarch. Crowe and Grace Darling, as the young Victoria, paint a picture of the 19th-century sovereign in snippets from her lifeling journals as someone you wish you'd met. Darling's youthful Queen Victoria is a playful, flirtatious creature, given to dressing up her pet spaniel, Dash.
But then she is crowned at just 18 years old, and falls for the 'broad shoulders, fine waist and charming smile' of her beloved Albert. Crowe is to the manner born as the older Queen who is stricken by the sudden death of her Prince Consort at just 42 — 'a hand that can be clasped no more'. In Queen, Sara Crowe (pictured) taps effortlessly in to the softer side of Britain's second-longest reigning monarch Crowe and Grace Darling, (both pictured) as the young Victoria, paint a picture of the 19th-century sovereign in snippets from her lifeling journals as someone you wish you'd met His loss leaves her 'agitated and nervous' at the prospect of being put on display for the opening of Parliament.
And her fury at being summoned from Balmoral, during her mourning, is palpable. The Scottish actress also offers cheeky sketches of Prime Ministers, family members — and the poet Alfred Lord Tennyson. With a touching prologue and epilogue pre-recorded by Prunella Scales, this is a charming show lit up by performances that are as fine and affectionate as they are informative.
Grief...
A Comedy (Assembly George Square) Rating: Who would've thought that losing the love of your life could be...
fun? That's the theatrical miracle pulled off by writer, actor, comedian and audio-book narrator Alison Larkin in Grief...
A Comedy. Brought up in the Home Counties, Larkin has already written about discovering that she was actually the daughter of an American hick (her word). Here, having despaired of ever finding her romantic soul mate (despite a marriage resulting in two children), she relates a chance encounter, in America, with Bhima — a charming, brilliant Indian scientist with a triple bypass.
Who would've thought that losing the love of your life could be...
fun? That's the theatrical miracle pulled off by writer, actor, comedian and audio-book narrator Alison Larkin (pictured) in Grief...
A Comedy Sadly, you know that medical detail will come home to roost. But before — and after — that, Larkin, sporting a long pink robe, baseball boots and a wry, wonky smile, weaves a charming tale. She also sings snatches of torch songs, written by Emmy award-winning composer Gary Schreiner (who accompanies her on piano) — and leaves you believing that joy really can be found after grief.
A fabulous al fresco Fiddler that sets the stage alight by Georgina Brown Perched on a roof thatched with rippling wheat, ripe for harvesting, a lone fiddler scrapes the evocative, elegiac, spine-tingling opening notes (exquisitely amplified) of Jerry Bock's glorious musical. From the start, this virtuosic violinist (Raphael Papo), moving as slinkily as he plays, is the presiding spirit of the piece and the place, a community of refugees in a shtetl that is now part of Ukraine, held together by the strength of their culture and traditions, particularly their music. No spoilers, but at the end of Jordan Fein's marvellous production, another takes over from the fiddler, stealing his tune.
Her clarinet — for she is a young woman — is the sound of the future, of a new generation determined to be heard. Joseph Stein's book is essentially Pride And Prejudice, transposed to the village of Anatevka in Tsarist Russia in 1905, where a dairyman, Tevye, oversees the matchmaking of his five spirited daughters. From the start, this virtuosic violinist Raphael Papo (pictured), moving as slinkily as he plays, is the presiding spirit of the piece and the place, a community of refugees in a shtetl that is now part of Ukraine, held together by the strength of their culture and traditions, particularly their music Theatre production Fiddler on the Roof at Regents Park Open Air Theatre The outdoor setting could not be more perfect.
Was I imagining it, or was the daylight really just dying for Sunrise, Sunset, the wedding song? In the darkness, the smouldering wheat field, set ablaze by Russian brutes, looks all the more threatening. Adam Dannheisser's Tevye is a burly, robust, big-hearted man, consistently torn between tradition and his desire to indulge his beloved daughters' desires to marry for love, his inner conflict superbly suggested by the fiddler who shadows him as he sings If I Were A Rich Man. He keeps up a hilarious, deliciously relaxed running grumble with God: 'Money is the world's curse.
May the Lord smite me with it!' And on the pros and cons of their suitors: 'On the one hand, he has nothing. On the other, things can't get worse.' Not all the performers have his ease, but no matter.
The exuberant dancing sets the stage alight: Cossack kicking, wedding waltzing and a show-stopping quintet, each with a wine bottle on his hat. Dazzling. The show runs until September 21.
TRAINSPOTTING FANS BE WARNED – THIS 'LIVE AND IMMERSIVE' VERSION IS A MUCKY MESS Trainspotting – Live (Pleasance at EICC, Edinburgh) Verdict: Needs potty training Rating: by Patrick Marmion Thanks to Danny Boyle's film starring Ewan McGregor, Irvine Welsh's book about Edinburgh junkies in the 1990s may have grown more iconic than the Scott Monument on Princes Street. But this 'live and immersive' spin-off merely replaces the film's toxic charm with toilet humour and willy waving. Those unschooled in Scottish vernacular should bear in mind that the c-word can be a term of endearment in some quarters north of the border.
But generally, it's wall-to-wall exhibitionism, with the cast stripping off and smearing themselves in chocolate, in lieu of other 'matter'. Although some will no doubt find Trainspotting hilarious, its hour has surely passed. You'd be better off donating your ticket money to the domestic abuse and drug-addiction charities they plug at the end The effect is that of a riot in a young offenders' kindergarten, although scenes of vile domestic abuse are included, for moral censure.
Andrew Barrett goes for broke in the MacGregor role of Renton, leaving no intimate body part unexplored; while Oliver Sublet provides more violent menace. Although some will no doubt find the show hilarious, its hour has surely passed. You'd be better off donating your ticket money to the domestic abuse and drug-addiction charities they plug at the end.
A FUNNY THING HAPPENED AT THE FRINGE...
by Veronica Lee Welcome to the Fringe, where the buzz on the comedy front is all about something called Joe Kent-Walters Is Frankie Monroe LIVE!!!! (Monkey Barrel, ****), a late-night show in a sweltering basement room. The scene is a rundown working men's club in Rotherham, where gravel-voiced MC Frankie performs old-fashioned variety – gags, songs, puppetry, magic and audience participation – exceedingly badly (a delightful turn by Kent-Walters, face inexplicably covered in Sudocrem). Spoofing old-school entertainers is not an original idea, but Kent-Walters breathes new life into it, pitching his show somewhere between lampoon and affectionate homage.
It's a blast. You might call Jordan Brookes (Pleasance Dome, ****) a cerebral comic, and the last person you would expect to create a musical comedy. Welcome to the Fringe, where the buzz on the comedy front is all about something called Joe Kent-Walters Is Frankie Monroe LIVE!!!! (Monkey Barrel, ****), a late-night show in a sweltering basement room You might call Jordan Brookes (Pleasance Dome, ****) a cerebral comic, and the last person you would expect to create a musical comedy But Fontanelle is just that.
Sort of. It's actually a very clever rumination on modern masculinity, told through the medium of a musical about the Titanic. (It is the Fringe, remember.
) Actually, there is only the occasional, delightfully daft musical interlude. What happens in between is part confessional, part awkward audience interaction and part stand-up, as Brookes examines the male sexual appetite ('anal play', anyone?) and what it is to be a man. Were those chaps who allowed women and children off the Titanic first REAL men? Or were they just as scared about meeting their fate as everyone else? Brookes undercuts the serious elements with visual gags — setting his tiny captain's hat at a jaunty angle — and for such a thought-provoking piece it consistently raises big laughs.
It's a wonder no one has ever done it before: a musical about Andrew Lloyd Webber. Now that void is filled by One Man Musical by Flo & Joan (Pleasance Dome, ***). Flo & Joan (sisters Nicola and Rosie Dempsey) play keyboards and drums to accompany George Fouracres as ALW, wearing a cravat and velvet jacket and oozing bombast.
Flo & Joan (sisters Nicola and Rosie Dempsey) play keyboards and drums to accompany George Fouracres as ALW, wearing a cravat and velvet jacket and oozing bombast The Good Lord tells us he's done cats, the Bible, steam engines and dictators, so why not write one about himself? The songs are a decent pastiche and Fouracres gives a standout performance. Edinburgh Fringe runs until August 26 (edfringe.com).
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