Review: Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Day 2

On Friday I was at the Festival alone, going wherever my fancy took me. Yesterday, however, saw me come to the Festival with my friend, Susan (or Suse, to give her the name by which she's commonly known by amongst our group of friends), which added an extra dimension to the day as it meant that decisions on which shows to go and see would have to be negotiated between us to take account of our differing tastes in comedy.

Show 1: Mansfield Presents Lovers' Vows

This was our first show, and it was an easy one to settle on. Both of us are Austen fans (the fact that I went for Austentatious yesterday should have made that one clear anyway) and both of us having a liking for Mansfield Park (1814) - which, in itself is slightly unusual, Fanny Price being one of her least well-liked heroines - meant that when we found out about this show it suited both of us. An original production, the play centres around the decision of the Bertram children to perform Elizabeth Inchbald's Lovers Vows (1798) and, using excerpts from Austen's novel, imagines the Mansfield theatricals more comprehensively played out. Somewhat predictably the characters of Mrs Norris and Mr Rushworth provide the comic aspects of the play, whilst the other characters provide more dramatic ones. The play-within-a-play conceit is used here to interesting effect, as Lovers Vows is performed by the Bertrams and Crawfords using eighteenth century theatrical techniques (to a lesser or greater effect, depending on each character's own ability to disguise their emotions) whilst their off-stage dramas are played out using the naturalistic style developed in the late nineteenth century. The production is one that mainly uses student actors, and this is evident in some of the performances. Nevertheless this is an enjoyable hour well spent for fans of Mansfield Park that fleshes out a crucial part of the novel that the author only hints at. 

http://www.charlotteproductions.org/,  Paradise in Augustine's 12.05am, 1hr, August 5-10th, 13th-17th.

Show 2: Impromptu Shakespeare

Like Austentatious yesterday, Impromptu Shakespeare is improvised comedy. Like the aforementioned show, the subject that is performed is determined by the audience, but this time the performers have a bit more control over the proceedings, giving the audience balls to be plucked out of a hat with themes for the play written on them. Admittedly the performers ask the audience members who select the themes to flesh them out a little with their own experiences of that will also be incorporated into the play, but this does seem somewhat less spontaneous. I know that the Impromptu Shakespeare performers have to have a working knowledge of thirty seven different plays rather than just six novels, but their method of selection seems a little less improvised than it could be. The play itself was quite funny, and, as with Friday, the actors proved their skill with their craft by managing to keep the conceit going throughout (one anachronism aside). Indeed, given the imperative to make the material conform to both Shakespearean plot and language, the actors did really well and they made it an enjoyable hour.

http://www.impromptushakespeare.com/ Underbelly Cowgate 2.10pm, 1 hr, until August 25th.

Show 3: Christian Schulte-Loh: Attack of the 50 Foot German Comedian

The decision to attend this show was made purely on the basis that we both have a couple of German friends from our postgraduate days, and dearly though we love them, sense of humour is not top of the list when describing their characters, So, for sheer novelty value, we decided that a German comedian simply couldn't be missed. As it turned out, we nearly did because although the show was listed as taking place in Base Nightclub in the Fringe app, the venue in which the show was taking place was called Beat Nightclub above the door. After we had managed to sort out that confusion, it turned out that a lot of people wanted to see a German comedian. So many had turned out, in fact, that ten minutes of the gig was lost to Schulte-Loh searching for the keys to the venue's mezzanine floor so that people had a reasonable amount of room to enjoy his show in rather than lurk at the back squashed in. Once the show eventually got under way, Schulte-Loh proved that you can be German and funny. His comedy was observational in origin and, as a lot of it came from his interaction with the audience, proved him to be extremely quick witted as well as having quite a dry sense of humour. The amount of audience interaction that he engaged in - at least 30% of the time he was either talking to or about someone in the audience - meant that you came away feeling like this gig was a one-off rather than something off the Festival production line, to be repeated ad infinitum until the end of the month, although he's definitely not an improvised comic.

http://www.germancomedian.com/, Base/Beat Nightclub 5.00pm, 60 mins, until August 24th.

Show 4: Rob Carter: Murder (and other hobbies)

This show was another spontaneous selection, having been decided on after we received a flyer as we left Impromptu Shakespeare (so all the flyering that goes on is apparently not a waste of time). The promised genre was Musical Comedy, something which I had yet to see during my Festival sojourn which was one of the primary reasons why it appealed to Suse and I. Via the medium of song, and innumerable musical genres, Carter gives the audience a slightly surreal view of a middle-class upbringing in West Sussex and beyond. There's a few bits of audience interaction in this show, most notably when one guy who had broken the cardinal rule of comedy shows by sitting in the front row managed to lose his shoes and shorts and had to spend the remainder of the show with only his boxer shorts preserving his modesty, but it is mostly fairly tightly scripted, and doesn't really go off the script too much. The show's conclusion in particular had everyone in fits of laughter and was a definite high point. Overall it was an enjoyable show, with the laughs coming quite regularly, and definitely worth an hour of your time if you're looking for a break from more traditional forms of comedy.

http://www.robcartercomedy.com/, Underbelly Cowgate 6.30pm, 1hr, until August 25th

Show 5: Josh Widdicombe: Incidentally....

The one thing that has so far been missing from my Edinburgh experience is seeing a 'big' name comedian. Whilst Widdicombe is not the biggest name in comedy at the moment (although if you asked me to name who that was, I couldn't), his omnipresence on comedic panel shows such as 8 Out of 10 Cats, The Last Leg and Mock the Week mean that he has permeated the public's consciousness in a way that most of the Fringe performers haven't (so far anyway!). As our last show had finished at 7.30pm, Suse and I thought that we might try and take in a 'big' name to round off our Saturday evening. But as I was, by now, completely out of battery power on my phone (damn you Apple! Why do you have to make such good mobiles with such bad battery power?!), it was decided to adjourn to a hostelry to imbibe some liquid refreshment and take advantage of said hostelry's access to electricity to recharge my phone for a little while, to therefore enable ourselves to actually find their way to the venue. Ah! Those best made plans! Firstly it took us an age to actually find a place for us to have a drink in, purely and simply on the grounds of space. Then, when we not only managed to find somewhere that would accommodate us but also had a plug going spare that I could use to add a small charge to my phone, we decided to make our way to the venue not by using our GPS-enabled phones (my battery was still the problem and Suse's GPS just wouldn't load) but courtesy of the directions given to us by some fairly pished gentleman at a nearby table, which resulted in us walking around the houses for so long that we didn't actually arrive at the venue until about 5 minutes before the gig. Predictably there were no tickets left by this time (although maybe there wouldn't have been even if we hadn't have listened to the drunks given it was Saturday night), so I still haven't seen a 'big' name comedian at Edinburgh. In the words of the song that used to break my heart when I was younger, maybe tomorrow....

http://www.joshwiddicombe.com/, Assembly George Square 9.00pm, 1 hr, August 1-6, 8-13, 15.

Day 2: The Verdict

Once again all the shows that I saw were enjoyable, and it was good having someone else with me to point me in the direction of shows I might not necessarily have considered otherwise. My pick of Day 2 though goes to Christian Schulte-Loh, who was really engaging and is someone that I'd definitely pay money to go and see again in the future!