This is what we saw over the course of 2 days, in order of appearance -
Kenny goes to sleep
Kenny began with a scene set in an airport with incredibly annoying tannoy noises, the relief was very real when he moved past this, especially for my friend and I, who had just arrived into the country earlier on in the day. His show was eclectically energetic, with some real charm in the likes of the tapdance scene, the nostalgia of the scene with the fridge and a delightful climax on the subject of influencer Jesus at which I laughed embarrassingly loudly. He topped it all off with Olympic gold worthy improv of a deranged clown. Excellent maniacal musical fun.
My little Phobia
Emily is a queen of cinema – the opening scenes of this show made me feel like I was watching the carefully crafted beginning of an epic movie. She is a very talented actor, and her quirky delivery is quite delicious. She had some really touching reflections on family life, and also really brought the mess and fascination of childhood to life showing herself cleaning her messy bedroom. She came across as so warm, authentic and genuine, even though her subject matter was quite challenging, the phobia of being sick, she brings it out with an honesty and humour that would be tough for any audience to resist.
Jazz Emu
This guy brings an innocent Jarvis Cocker mixed with Mr Bean energy to the stage in a delightful romp that has a strong narrative from beginning to end. Supported by a wonderful band of three very funky people, there is something for everyone in this show. He has some great songs that he works into the story, there are villains, allies, surprises (including for the star himself, when his band prank him), many many musical instruments, robots. The audience roots for him all the way, and he continually delights us with one liners, and side meanders into going to the afterlife without having ticked off all the items on the 1001 things to do before you die lists, a wonder of mathematics. This is a very clever, slick and glittery show.
Neurochatter
This one was on late in the evening, kicking off at 11.15, which must be a challenging time to take to the stage, but we were in very good hands. Sara-Jane bursts on and there ensues a fascinating journey through the life of a person with multiple personalities. Each one incredibly distinctive, she morphed into their various attitudes, voices, faces, seemlessly – if I wasn't watching live I might have suspected ai. The core self is called host, by her two male alter-egos, and they squabble over how best to move forward in their life, in their relationships with her. It was an incredibly vulnerable and honest piece of work to get to see, and the relationships between the selves really caught my attention. As well as the line “You're interacting with an idea” which struck me as something you could say about most relationships, so though this was an exploration of a specific thing, the phenomenon of functional multiplicity, it also served as a great thought provoker on life in general.
Nation
First thing the Friday morning we found ourselves in a circular tent, and a storyteller came on to bring the thing to order. Confidently inviting us to imagine the world he was there to bring us into, and gently encouraging our efforts. Gradually the story built, members of the audience were pointed out as character A or B, and at some points there was a level of discomfort as their stories were told. The whole audience, in fact, was part of it, we were all members of the town. A stranger is introduced, and skilfully we are taken through the mysterious chaos that ensues and brings us towards a horrific ending. This was a show that you could get deeply involved in. Edge of your seat stuff. The writing in it is a sumptuous treat for your ears & brain. Gorgeous thing. Go to see it if EVER you get the chance.
The Hidden Garden
This was our accidental find. A show in a place and time that suited and we had the time to spare, so there we were. It turned out to be a one woman dance piece. Jill Crovisier enters the stage with a giant bouquet covering her face, she slow motions around with it before settling to some snippets of play, how many things can you do with plastic flowers. She does the classic matrix move, to let us be assured that gravity has no influence on her, and seems to turn herself back to front at times, also switches species on other occasions. She invites a reflection on the amazing machine that is the body. Her joy is infectious. I left feeling refreshed and delighted at the possibilities of life.
The Last Incel
Having been a day and a half away from home it was lovely to hear some Irish accents. These guys totally rocked it. Tough subject matter done with such a lot of humour, so much humour that the audience sometimes kept laughing at the serious bits. It was about a support group of male Incels, in their online meet up on the occasion of one of their thirtieth birthdays, accension to wizard according to their lore. It gave a visceral view of the culture, interrupted by a female voice of reason. There was incredibly creative employment of the screens as props, and the whole thing was wonderfully done. My only doubt on this was on how we were shown that even the most hate-filled people have vulnerabilities and are worthy of love, this was so skilfully done and the characters so well rounded, that the female character to me seems a little too “good”, we should have maybe had more of a glimpse of her failings – ie if everyone is worthy of love, we should also be reminded that everyone has bits that can be less than perfect. This is total nitpicking though, and they fully deserved the standing ovation earned.
Al, the Weird tribute and how Daniel Radcliffe got caught up in this nonsense.
Getting to see my friend Steve Goodies' show once again was really the icing on the cherry on the cake of all the wonderful Edinburgh madness. It was so much fun to see how it has evolved, with the addition of a Superman onesie, he has inflicted some extra logistical difficulty on himself for the sake of comedy, and having gotten to know him a bit since the first time I saw this show, I know that this is typical of the man. Why do easy when you can do fun? He was in fine voice, and brought the house down with hilarity. An extremely skilled musician, and the fastest singer this side of anything, this man is an absolute joy to see in action any time. Day or night (which I know because we saw him in the morning last time and it was 9.05pm sharp this time... both time settings contained superfluous charm and wonder).
