Come to this cool cabaret
with a male latecomer, the one-sided power plays and status games back and forth as he sits stupefied.
Accompanied by the dutiful, permanently amused Henry Koperski on keyboard, she launches into her introductory number, tracking a lack of male attention at school through to her comedy career. It doesn’t hurt that she’s a fine singer with a wholly justified presumption of star status. Yet as her thoughts gush forth, you intuit that as an audience, we’re also very much cast in the role of reassuring therapist.
A hot summer anthem becomes a desperate plea to be whisked up into a whirl of social engagements. And Cohen reiterates her need for absolutely any kind of male interaction. Naturally, her relationship with men is complicated, and a Yuletide ballad takes violent revenge
is going to shake down into something great. He asks if we will spread the word about “the good bits”. So I am.
Until 25 August. Today 5:30pm on the Santa Baby school of presumptive handsiness. In one important regard Cohen is an absolute throwback, a trouper of the old school, unable to extricate her
Aleassandro Onorato has said: “I hope to see at least one person leaving the theatre during this show.” In that case, he would have been disappointed when I attended as most of the audience sat rapt and slackjawed, not quite believing what we were seeing. It wasn’t the sexual content – although that shouldn’t be completely dismissed – it was witnessing one plot twist crash into another like a demented Mexican telenovela.
“Freely inspired” by Chuck Palahniuk’s novel, Snuff, this tells the story of Randy Fierce (Alberto Baraghini) who’s filming a sex marathon over a day with 100 women. As physiologically improbable as this is it’s nothing to the secret motives the numbered women waiting to be serviced by Randy are hiding.
Many Fringe productions struggle with plot – this has enough for double it’s length. None of the cast are native English speakers but most – particularly Sara Dho who has a good monologue about how HD has ruined the business – do well.
It’s sleazy pulp trash – but leanly written trash played refreshingly seriously when it would have been easy to opt for camp. A real one-off and probably a cult waiting to happen.
RORY FORD
Until 17 August. Today 9:50pm winning smile from the pain and bewilderment. An hour in her company is a unique and confusing delight.
Until 25 August. Tomorrow, 10:45pm.
There’s a real core of emotional intelligence at the heart of this two-hander about dealing with grief and the therapeutic powers of The Shipping Forecast. Written and performed by Alex Zawalnyski and Luke Malone it manages to portray autism in an astute and understandable manner.
James (Zawalnyski) has just lost his mum while his stepfather, Alan (Malone), is so concerned about how his son is dealing with it he’s put his own grieving to one side. James deals with it by listening to The Shipping Forecast because talking about the weather is “normal”.
James needs to know just how heavy the rain will be in Cromarty because words matter. Emotions are much more complicated and not easily quantified – for both James and Alan – as the two men try to understand each other and how they feel. It’s a slight but sensitive piece which is both neatly written and convincingly performed by its young actors with a good deal of insight. A promising debut.
Until 10 August. Today 10:30am
SUSAN MANSFIELD
When Anthony – aka drag queen Theresa Mayhem – is beaten up on the way to a gig, he is left traumatised, struggling to perform his satirical anti-brexit act (“Stop looking at my backstop!”), and to maintain normal relationships with his flatmate Lucy and his long-suffering drag act partner Flora (aka Magic Dyke). At the same time, he is being invited to exploit his trauma to secure a place on a new reality TV show.
This is the first production by young company Loose Lower Lip, formed of graduates at Drama Centre London and focusing on giving opportunities to queer and female creatives. This three-hander by Henry Egan, who also plays Anthony, feels like a well-observed study of young queer lives, and the cocktail of anger and vulnerability which follows an act of violence.
If there are plot irregularities – loose ends, ominous hints – which are never developed – that Anthony might not be telling the truth, and a moment where the play’s realism suddenly drops away and Anthony has a conversation with himself at 15 – there is also plenty which is promising from all involved.
Until 26 August. Today 11:50am
KATE COPSTICK
Go and see this show. I get the feeling that it will improve with every decent audience it gets. The shortform comic works harder than anyone and Darcie has some lovely lines and mines some fertile, new comedy ground. Onstage she is gently charming and just needs more confidence and ease of delivery.
Occasionally she tells a little bit of a story and she seems to relax, the comedy flows, her natural funny comes through. She has a unique presence, fragile and very feminine. It could be just what comedy needs.
Until 18 August. Today various times