V CABARET RANT AND RAVE
The student-style revue format always seems curiously old-fashioned now that the comedy establishment is overwhelmingly dominated by the ‘alternativc' school. an anachronistic air exacerbated by the ‘widespread tendency to exclude any material which is topical. political. or otherwise relevant to real life. That said. this conventionally-blended mix ofsketches. songs and spoofTV programmes isa better example ofthe breed than most. featuring as it does scriptwriters from Radio 4’s Week Ending. without a student in sight. So ifyou like your comedy competently performed. moderately diverting and utterly unthreatening. this is the show for you. (Sue Wilson)
I Rant and Rave (Fringe) The R.A.N.T. Comedy Group. Festival Club (Venue 36) 650 2395, until 29 Aug (not 23). 10.30pm. £4 (£3.50).
THIS IS RADIO KLAMM
To describe this show as 80 per cent trash is praise verging on the hysterical. but finding some humour in an Oxford undergraduate comedy has overwhelmed my critical balance. The twenty per cent belongs to Shaun Pye in his role as station anchorman Smokin‘ Bob Twobarrels, a DJ who manages to out-bland even Simon Bates.
The rest of show isn‘t compellingly bad. it‘s just bad, and ultimately it’s a pity that another. at least slightly talented group weren‘t doing the show, as the basic concept of using an FM station as a comic structure is a good one. Indeed, no matter how bad this production is. it was a damn sight more interesting than listening to the real thing. (Stephen Chester)
I This Is Radio Klamm (Fringe) The Never Mind Theatre Company. Celtic Lodge (Venue 6) 225 7097, until 5 Sept (not Weds or Thurs 27). midnight. £4.50 (£3.50).
(V CABARET THERE MUST BE 50 WAYS TO TELL YOUR MOTHER!
Are you a lesbian? Have
V COMEDY f
you finally decided to move away from home at the age of 27? Off Limits . Theatre Company is offering loads of DIY tips for those of us struggling to break the news effectively to our nearest and dearest. (
lt’s uncanny really how these women manage to peep through the window of our collective neurosis (lam assuming I am not alone); to the person sitting next to us on the train it is possible to divulge our darkest secrets, but we can‘t manage to tell the woman who gave us life that we have a date. Sonya Braunton and Lynn Sutcliffe have tapped the raw nerve which makes us laugh at our inadequacies. Not only are they spot on. but they’re highly talented character actors as well. Although the premise of T the show probably stretches itselfjust to the ? point of exhaustion by the 1 end, this is a neatly rounded production. See it and wear pink. (Roberta Mock) I There Must Be 50 Ways To Tell Your Mother (Fringe) Off-Limits Theatre Company. Hill Street Theatre (Venue 41) 225 7294, until 5 Sept. 3 12. 10am, £4 (£3).
Z v THEATRE ,THE YELLOW ; WALLPAPER T
i
l
42" '5 ‘From the novel by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.‘ the programme proudly announces. It doesn‘t say what medication Ms Gilman was on at the time of writing but it must have been powerful stuff. Camilla Waldmen‘s one-woman interpretation of the piece begins calmly enough — just the odd twitch here and there as she explains that she has been placed in a nursery (with bars on the windows) in order that she may overcome a ‘slight nervous’ problem.
The woman's delirium grows more intense and the room‘s wallpaper starts to hold a strange and
ultimately maddening (in
The head of B-movie production company, Esselen International, is perusing the script of Invasion Werewolf in his office when, suddenly, he finds himself acting out all the scenes: a meteorite lands, a boffin experiments and something is killing I the inhabitants of a small American town. They are found with their ribcages snapped open and the innards
picked clean.
Johnny Myers has incorporated all the classic elements and characters of
FESTIVAL
the sci-fi/werewolf B-movie genre into this very funny and always knowing
play. However, his major achievement
l is in bringing them all to glorious
I monochrome life. A must for anyone, of any age, who likes spending theirwet Saturday afternoons in front of the
s telly. Excellent. (Thom Dibdin)
, Invasion Werewolf (Fringe) Johnny
1 Myers, The Festival Club (Venue 36)
i 650 2395, until 5 Sept, 10.30pm, ; £5/£5.50(£4/£4.50).
every sense of the word) fascination for her. Waldman’s performance is excellent. restrained and rational. giving the play a convincing and
eerily authentic , atmosphere. (Philip Parr) IThe YallowWallpaper
(Fringe) Festival Club (Venue 36) 650 2395, until SSept, 10.15pm.
V THEATRE
SEX AFTER SUPPER
The appeal ofthis show lies in its antiquity. All over Edinburgh there are stand-ups doing routines about oral sex and condoms but it is fascinating to be taken back in time and discover that people then were interested in exactly the same things. Stephen Oxley has dredged the backwaters of 16th and 17th century poetry to come up with such gems as ‘The Slimey Kiss' and ‘One Writing Against llis Prick‘. lie and Sandra Duncan breathe new life into the poems as a loving couple bantering and bickering their way through the verse. The result is humorous, touching and. though rather short on value for money. long on charm. (Frances Cornford)
I Sex after Supper (Fringe) Erotica Poetica. l lill Street Theatre (Venue 41) 225 7294. until 2 Sept. 10.05pm. £5 (£4).
V THEATRE V 5"
STRUCK OFF AND DIE
Curious to relate. I emerged from 55 minutes of medic humour chortling gently to myselfnot overwhelmed it must be said. but tickled nevertheless. That I was at all amused by two smug doctors is a sad reflection on the dross which I have endured this Fringe. but their keen observation and pace certainly helped. even ifthe material is rather more tepid than the hype has led us to believe. This is the third successive year for Tony and Philip. but whether they will make it to a fourth surely necessitates finding new material. Taking malicious swipes at the medical profession is fine for a few years. but stops being funny the moment it becomes predictable. And medicine was never that funny in the first place. (Aaron llicklin) I Struck Off And Die (Fringe). The Pleasance (Venue 33). until 5 Sept. 10.45pm. £6 (£4).
V THEATRE. SCHOOL OF THE NIGHT
i In this stylish and
f inventive production. the ghost ofChristopher
Marlowe appears to guide
! his audience of
‘plague-victims' through
his life and times in
; Elizabethan England. The
! spectral playwright. masterfully played by Ralf
} lliggins.presents scenes
_ of espionage. political
; intrigue and gay abandon
which the company weave
7 togetherinto a convincing
portrait of the Golden
Age.
The play skilfully
combines masque and
music with the darkness
f and brooding cynicism of
; Revenge tragedy to create
an absorbing spectacle full
of stunning set-pieces such
as the fake black massand
the traditional revel.
Alarmist Theatre may
make a virtue of the late
hour of the show but the
verve and wit ofthe
10""/LATE
performance deserves to t see the light ofday. (Frances Cornford)
I School ofthe Night
(Fringe) Alarmist
Theatre. Pleasance
(Venue 33) 556 6550. until 58ept(not 27 Aug] Sept).midnight.£5.50
‘ (£4.50).
v comeov é SCREAMING BLUE MURDER
This starts well with compere Sean's competent crowd-warming exercises in humour. The midnight hour is kind to comics. what with juiced-up punters and all. so despite Nick Wilty's Dartford ponytail and over-loud earring. he soon had them laughing along nicely to his self-effacing stories. But the fun stops here. Next up is Kevin Boyle who says he is ‘from London. a nice place if you like dog shit.‘ ldon't. and Kevin should return to the pavement. Just as you thought things couldn‘t get worse. on comes Roger Mann. lf Boyle is fly-fodder. Mann is an open sewer during a dysentry epedemic. (Thom Dibdin). I Screaming Blue Murder Cabaret (Fringe) The Gilded Balloon Theatre (Venue 38) 226 2151 . until 5 Sept. midnight. £6 (£5).
V COMEDY THE LOVE CHILD OF ALAN LADD
Alan Davies on stage seems too laidback to be true. He comes on. looks around amiably. and you wonder whether he‘s going to start his act at all. After a bit of‘limbering up‘, he‘s off on a
rambling.surrealtrainof
thought that seems to
control him as much as he
controls it. There‘s run-of-the-mill stuffabout his childhood and current affairs but then he will suddenly go off on a
' tangent with a delightfully
bizarre story about how the horses at the Grand National throw their riders so that they can go and play on the pedalos in Southport, or how old ladies fraudulently acquire seats on the underground. The show starts off slowly but Davies becomes more engaging as it goeson. What he lacks in pace. he makes up for in charm. (Frances Cornford)
I The Love Child ofAlan Ladd (Fringe) Alan Davies. Assembly Rooms (Venue 3) 226 2428. until 5 Sept. 11.45pm. prices
I vary.
The List 28 August - 10 September 1992 45