Fringe preview week: Day 3

Third day of the Fringe. Unfortunately I had to work in the morning, which involved going to Glasgow to pitch for some work. Not my plan (I was allowing myself 'annual leave') and very short notice (found out on Wednesday) but you gotta do what you gotta do. I was back in Edinburgh by 1.30pm to meet with E and H who had lined up two shows already.

Fringe show #11: Uninvited
This was quite a strange show, a little bit unclear in what it was trying to get at or perhaps a bit too deep for us. I think it may have been about a guy experiencing psychotic hallucinations but I could be wrong. Or maybe the point was that you don't know what was real or not. And the wallpaper talked. It was a very aesthetically beautiful production with some good sound effects too. Also compelling, I really enjoyed watching it.
Rating: 3.5*

Fringe show #12: Darkroom
I found this play dull dull dull. Sorry, I zoned out of it a bit. I had quite an interesting premise that it was about some archivists going through a man's stuff and about his experience of dementia. It had some lovely use of media. But in practice I felt it was more pretentious than clever and the repetitive nature didn't work for me. I appreciated the first play much more after seeing this one!
Rating: 1.5*

Fringe show #13: The Noise Next Door: Bring the Noise
This is our third year for the Noise Next Door and they have gone up in the world a little from a portacabin to a proper inside room. These guys do improv, and they do it very well. I can't imagine a slicker improv show and it was very very funny. You can tell it is a formula though, you know which bits are standard and which are bespoke. I'm torn between appreciating the effort and wishing for a bit more spontaneity. Lots of laughing though. On the night we went they did a little 50 Shades of Grey bit, which was very good.
Rating: 4*

Fringe show #14: Nina Conti: Dolly Mixtures
Ah we love Nina Conti, we've been going to see her ventriloquist act for about ten years. She's the most lovely yummy mummy type but her characters have very filthy mouths. You need to see it to understand fully how well she pulls that off. Monkey was her original character and still my favourite, and in some ways it is a shame to give the time over to new characters but we did enjoy Killer the dog and young Nina a lot too.
Rating: 4*

Fringe show #15: Anthony Rapp: Without You
We squeezed this show in because we got free tickets and we had time. Ah that dodgy 10.30pm slot. It is hard to know what to say about this. It was billed as a musical and it was about a guy who starred in Rent on Broadway and his experience of being in Rent and also the death of two people close to him. Interspersed with songs from Rent and other songs. It was extremely personal, very over-shary and a bit uncomfortable to watch. Before the deaths occurred I already thought it was self-indulgent but it feels a bit mean to say that when it got so emotional. Ah, I dunno. Others loved it, it was the first standing O I've seen at the Fringe. Not from me though. I'm afraid I don't think he was quite a good enough singer to pull off a solo show. This was like the other side of the coin to the Phantom show I saw yesterday. Both were about life imitating art, both were about difficult emotional times, but Phantom was endearing and self deprecating, whereas this one was mawkish.
Rating: 2.5*

Fringe show #16: Late n Live
Where to start with this? My God, the crowd was baying from the start. It was awkward. Which is usually part of the fun. The compare Jarred Christmas got everyone on side and invited a heckler on stage for a dance off, which started things off quite well. The first act, Chris Martin, was a gentle guy but pretty funny (enjoyed his stuff about flamingos) and he dealt with the hecklers excellently, so props to him. Next was some tedious woman (Jessica Fostekew) who just ignored some extremely vulgar heckling and ploughed on through. Not the way to do it, made her look even more crap, but at least she finished her slot. Next act Carl-Einar Häckner could have gone either way, he was dressed in an Abba suit and did magic, but he was great and the crowd loved him. So far so good, we got to around 2.30am and the last act was Hannibal Buress who we had seen already. He started on some material about London and got a lot of anti-English boos, which he responded to by riling the crowd up and basically inciting as much xenophobic rivalry as possible. He pushed on with it, but couldn't get past the racism stuff. But he just kept banging on with it. Eventually he walked off ten minutes early. No payment for you Buress. Lose. At least the crap girl will have been paid. So Jarred Christmas came on to fill for ten minutes. I don't think it was his fault, or indeed if it was anything to do with the previous act, but two guys started a fight in the audience. Unfortunately I was very near the fight and on the aisle, and so noticed it pretty early on when scattering people fell onto me and beer was spraying everywhere. I jumped up and ran down the aisle and people were brawling in the aisle with people and beer still flying. I had to keep moving back as it was just flaily and expanding. You could hear the sound of people hitting other people and there were people with blood pouring out of them. E told me later the seat I had been in was covered in blood. After a few minutes one guy went down in the aisle and had passed out in a sickening position. People were shouting 'get first aid' and 'get security' but none came. It could have been five minutes before Jarred Christmas on the stage realised quite how serious the fight was and something got done. Honestly, it was awful, it was very very frightening to be there and I would be scared to go back because I wouldn't feel safe knowing how slow the venue were to deal with a serious situation like that. I've worked in the venue and been to Late and Live before and seen what 300 wound up drunk people can be like, I know you can't stop a fight starting but you can have security on hand to break it up, you can radio for first aid, you can put the lights up, you can clear the venue out the fire doors, you can reassure the rest of the audience that things will be ok. Not good enough Gilded Balloon. An awful end to the evening, one of the most frightening things that has happened to me.
Rating: -10*

Mrs Cyclops recommends:

- Uninvited
- The Noise Next Door: Bring the Noise
- Nina Conti: Dolly Mixtures

Fringe stats:

- Total shows: 16
- Total cost: £31
- Average cost per show: £1.94