Day Four
Today nearly killed me. Up early and back late, a full day of stuff in-between. Starting with an early trip across Edinburgh to go to the Improsium – an annual gathering of all the improvisers in Edinburgh. It feature three guest speakers, Al Sammuels from Baby Wants Candy the improvised musical, Troy Conrad, the creator of Setlist, the improvised standup show and Cariad Lloyd, from Austentacious. The whole event was put on by the Maydays, and two of them Heather Urquhart and Jules Munns, ran the discussion, where we talked about the student improv, game of the scene and a third thing I’ve forgotten.
After this I went to see Rosemary, the first offering from the Seckford Theatre company. Their play Rosemary, written by director John Williams, examines the events surrounding the life of Rosemary West. I will admit that when I went to see the play I went with a certain level of apprehension, I am the first to admit I do not ‘get’ physical theatre and am generally uninterested in tragic stories. However Rosemary was captivating, rising questions whithout being preachy, eerily haunting in the performing with its young cast given ghoulish appearance by makeup. The Polaroid Cameras used to represent the press in the play were occasionally irritating in the blinding flashes into the audience, however this is such a trivial comment that it deserves to be only touched on in passing. An excellent play that bellies the young age of the cast.
After this I met up with Tim and we went to see Truthmouth, a one man show by Joseph Morpurgo. Truthmouth is a piece of theatre delivering ‘real words’ from people, although. The vast range of this brilliant performer was brought out as he delivered monologues from a plethora of characters, not to give too much away, a highlight is the Snake from a n Old Nokia phone. A free show in the Lounge at the Counting house at 3:45. Be sure to get there early as the room is small and the show is deservedly popular. This is a show that completely embodies the spirit of the fringe at its best.
We then headed to George Square, where we sat down for an hour and a half. It was nice, I had nachos. We also met up with another friend of mine Angelina who ran Improv at the London School of Economics. We then headed off to see our next show at the Pleasance Dome
The Beta Males are a fantastic sketch group originally from Jersey, bringing a blend of Silliness and wit to the fringe once again in their superhero themed Superopolis. The premise gave way to a whole host of brilliant and bizarre characters from lollipop-man a literal lollipop with superpowers through to the Human Defense league an anti superhero team of superheros. My favourite has to be Strongth a parody of the hulk who talks about his troubles in love. All in all a witty delight packed with energy and humor. Highly recommend seeing.
We had to hightail or way to the Assembly rooms after this to see Baby Wants Candy. An improvised musical company from America. Today’s show was Harold the Canadian Turns His Life Around. A story of substance abuse, hockey and Alternative parenting techniques. It is incredible to see an improvised musical done at all and when it is done as well as Baby Wants Candy does it, you are really in for a treat, synchronized dance numbers and belting songs completely off the cuff. What caps all of the brilliance of this off is that you can see the performers having so much fun as they do the show. Another one that everyone ought to see.
Finally we went to our final show of the night Cariad and Paul. At 11 pm in the pleasance dome, the show has a sort of magic akin to a fairy tale about it. Taking only one word from the audience as a suggestion, the two wove a series of simple yet satisfying narratives and truly human characters into a hypnotic hour long show. All of this was built upon by a cellist playing in the background giving the whole show a whistful air that was incredibly pleasant to see at the end of a very full day of shows. The run is heavily limited –only four more shows, but well worth getting to see if you can.
