Points of view: theatre, comedy and news
Death and the afterlife are quite unlikely topics or sources of humour for a stand-up comedy show, just from the juxtaposition alone. Rich Spalding’s debut hour Gather Your Skeletons not only proves that this is a false premise - or at least the exception to the rule - throughout the rest of the hour, that is full to the brim of good-natured humour and amusement.
Chris Weir’s Well-Flung is a nice story of self-exploration, but it isn’t much more than that. He is so concerned with getting through the narrative, that he doesn’t really stop to consider how it affects the comedy, and we can often go for long-stretches without any humorous break in the story.
Kemah Bob’s Miss Fortunate is a romantic’s journey into reality, that plays with different established norms and tropes to create a completely unique experience for us as an audience. This is also just a very fun - if slightly concerning- high-energy show where Bob uses different forms of comedy in order to craft this wild narrative.
I Got Some Dope Ass Memories With People That I’ll Never F*ck With Again is the latest hour by Erika Ehler where, using her own experiences as a basis, she deconstructs the concept of friendship break-ups in a meandering, careful reflection of a show.
MC Hammersmith’s The MC Stands for Middle Class is just about as good as it gets in terms of improvisation, music and comedy. It’s difficult to go back to listening just rap after this show, because what MC Hammersmith does is a lot more impressive than anything out there. Even Hamilton appears less ground-breaking after seeing this show.
Xhloe and Natasha have achieved a kind of legendary status; they are remarkable performers and writers who create such curious and dynamic storylines and relationships within their theatre pieces, combining elements of clowning, physical theater in order to explore broader themes, building and improving on the strength of their previous shows. Their latest work A Letter to Lyndon B. Johnson or God (Whoever Reads This First) is no different, as with this show they break their own record of imaginative storytelling yet again.
Showstopper! The Improvised Musical is a Fringe institution. We walk in the room expecting a good time, to be thoroughly entertained by the cast’s antics onstage. What happens in that room becomes the stuff of legends and inside jokes.
Shiny is Steve Bugeja’s latest offering to the comedy world at the altar of the Edinburgh Fringe. The show adopts on a linear structure as he takes us on a journey through his school days, comedy career to achieving his dream of writing a sitcom. Through all of this, Bugeja engages in a commentary about the connections that we make between self-worth, career and achievements, critiquing the nightmarescape that we create for ourselves. It’s a relatable hour as we follow him down this path of self-reflection that speaks to a larger sociological and cultural issues and analyses. It gets to a point where we can’t help considering when we’ve had a similar experience, when - to use Bugeja’s terminology - we’ve felt shiny or matte.
William Shakespeare’s plays have been staged and re-staged time and time again, in many different forms, settings, genres, each theater company trying to bring something new to an age-old and familiar story. Shadow Road’s Macbeth Sleep No More is the latest attempt at trying to present a new interpretation of a story so old that it has its own superstition attached to it.
Dan Tiernan returns to the Fringe with his tricky second hour, Stomp, once more terrorising audiences with his dark and forthright humour and the occasional twisted punchline.
Pepper & Salt 